November 5, 2022 - Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2021, 29.6 percent of Croatian citizens and 70.4 percent of foreigners immigrated from abroad, while 64.2 percent of Croatian citizens and 35.8 percent of foreigners moved away. In the total number of immigrants and emigrated persons, a significant share of foreigners have been issued residence and work permits. 

Most people moving in come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, while most moving out go to Germany.

As Index reports, of the total number of immigrated persons, 22.4 percent immigrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Out of the total number of people who moved away, most people moved to Germany (32.3 percent). The most significant number of people who moved abroad were between the ages of 20 and 39 (45.9 percent).

In 2021, 71,864 people changed their residence within the Republic of Croatia. Out of the total resettled population in 2021, most people (40.5 percent) moved between counties, while 38.5 percent of people moved between cities/municipalities of the same county, and 21 percent of people moved between settlements of the same city/municipality.

Population migration between cities/municipalities of the same county in 2021 was the largest in Split-Dalmatia County and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.

Velika Gorica, Križevci, and Samobor had the best ratio of immigrants to emigrants.

The cities of Velika Gorica, Križevci, Samobor, Čakovec, Dugo Selo, Solin, Sveti Ivan Zelina, Zadar, Sveta Nedelja and Duga Resa had the most significant number of immigrant residents (from abroad and within the country), compared to those who left.

Last year, 450 people more immigrated to Velika Gorica than those who emigrated (from other parts of the Republic of Croatia and abroad) in Križevci the difference is 421, Samobor 375, Čakovec 370, Dugi Selo 339, Solina 221, Sveti Ivan Zelina 211, Zadar 189. , Sveto Nedelja 161 and Duga Resa 147.

In relation to the number of inhabitants, the city of Nin had the most significant migration balance, 2.80 percent, followed by Donja Stubica with 2.44 percent, Križevci with 2.21 percent, Dugo Selo with 1.90 percent, Vis with 1.61 percent, Novalja with 1.55 percent, Duga Resa and Sveti Ivan Zelina with 1.44 percent, Cres with 1.42 percent and Čakovec with 1.36 percent.

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Križevci had the most significant migration balance with foreign countries last year, where 378 more people immigrated from abroad than moved abroad. Čakovec with 268 more people follows it immigrated from abroad than those who moved across the border, then Split, where the migration balance with foreign countries was 190, Sveti Ivan Zelina with 134, Duga Resa with 103, Zadar with 101, Donja Stubica 100, Velika Gorica 97, Ivanec 79 and Jastrebarsko with 59 more people moving in than moving out across the border.

In relation to the number of inhabitants, the most significant migration balance with foreign countries, of 1.98 percent, was in Križevci, 1.88 percent in Donja Stubica, Nin 1.73 percent, Duga Resa 1.01 percent, Čakovec 0.98 percent, Sveti Ivan Zelina 0.91 percent, Stari Grad 0.75 percent, Ivanec 0.62 percent, Krk 0.61 percent and Novalja 0.57 percent.

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25 April 2022 - Four months after the government offered Croatian emigrants HRK 200,000 to come back home and start a business, not a single one has returned and only 16 applications for a move to rural areas have been filed, the Večernji List daily says in its Monday edition.

The financial support was offered under the "Labour Mobility - I Choose Croatia" scheme, an upgrade to the self-employment scheme, under which "you get a maximum of HRK 130,000 if you have a business plan and an idea, and evaluators at the HZZ (Croatian Employment Service) approve your project. You get part of the sum at the beginning and if the project is realised, you get the rest over 24 months," Prime Minister Andrej Plenković was quoted as saying when unveiling the scheme. He added that the idea was to increase the amount from HRK 130,000 to 150,000.

Under the same scheme, people who have been in work in an EU country for at least a year in the last two years would get an additional HRK 50,000 as an incentive and those wishing to move to a rural area would be allocated HRK 25,000.

The HZZ has so far received 16 applications, 11 of which related to labour mobility within Croatia and five concerned applications filed by emigrants. Of the 16 applications, nine have been processed and four of them have been rejected, while seven are being processed. The five applications that have been granted relate to labour mobility within Croatia and concern people who live in Croatia. Over the next 24 months they will receive HRK 175,000, the HZZ told Večernji List.

ZAGREB, 24 June 2021 - Migratory pressure on Europe is increasing again as the number of people illegally crossing the external borders of the European Union in the first five months of this year reached 47,100, which is an increase of nearly 50 percent compared with the same period last year, Večernji List newspaper said on Thursday. 

On the so-called Balkan route, 14,734 illegal attempts to cross the border were reported this year, or 104 percent more than at the same time last year. The Western Balkan countries reported 2,900 such attempts in May, which is twice as many as in May 2020. Most of the illegal migrants using this route come from Syria and Afghanistan.

These are the preliminary data released by the EU border and coast guard agency Frontex, which attributed the increase in numbers to the fact that the borders, which were closed last year because of the COVID-19 outbreak, are now being reopened.

The greatest pressure still comes from the Central Mediterranean route as nearly 4,200 migrants used this route to get to Europe in May, nearly twice as many as at the same time last year. Between January and May this year the number of illegal crossings on this route more than doubled, reaching 15,700.

Croatia lies on the Balkan route, with most migrants using it as a transit country on their way to other destinations in the EU. Even most asylum seekers, who arrive in Croatia from refugee camps in Greece and Italy under an EU relocation program, leave. Of 250 resettled persons whom Croatia accepted as part of the EU solidarity mechanism, 67 or 26.4 percent have stayed in Croatia.

That migrants do not see Croatia as their destination but only as a barrier on their way to other destinations is shown by the fact that Slovenia returned 9,871 illegal migrants to Croatia last year and 607 in the first four months of this year.

Croatia has seen an increase in the number of migrants illegally crossing its border this year. In the first quarter of 2021, 3,267 such cases were registered, which is at last year's levels, while compared with May 2019 their number increased by 17 percent. Most of the illegal migrants come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the burden of migration, Večernji List said.

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The unemployment rate for young people up to 29 years of age is the highest among Croatia's domestic population, and the lowest among young people from third countries.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 21st of April, 2019, the Republic of Croatia is among the countries of the EU with the best integrated immigrants from third countries, which can only be met with surprise by those people who do not know that these ''immigrants'' are actually mostly just Croats born in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by a few immigrants from Serbia, Germany, Slovenia, Kosovo and Macedonia.

According to the latest census, 584,947 (13.7 percent) of the population of Croatia were born abroad. The number of migrants are as follows: Serbia (9 percent), Germany (5.8 percent), Kosovo (3.5 percent), Slovenia (3.4 percent), Macedonia ( 1.7 percent). Immigrants to Croatia, predominantly from Bosnia and Herzegovina, are doing much better in terms of the employment rate of young people up to 29 years of age, meaning that they're significantly better integrated into the Croatian labour market than those born in Croatia and those from other EU countries.

This data were presented by sociologists Snježana Gregurević and Sonja Podgorelec, and social geographer Sanja Klempić Bogadi from the Institute for Migration and Ethnicity in the presentation "The Influence of Immigrant Groups on the Social Cohesion of the Receiving Society - the case of Croatia".

A large number of Croatian residents born in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the result of labour migration during the socialist period of Yugoslavia and immigration during the Bosnian war. Most immigrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina live in Zagreb (98,579), Split-Dalmatia County (36,864), Zagreb County (35,427), Brod- Posavina (29,537) and Osijek-Baranja County (28,051), these are the "entrance" Croatian counties, those closest to the border regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the exception of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, from which emigration towards Croatia was the most intensive,'' stated Klempić Bogadi.

By the year 2015, Croatia, along with Serbia, Germany and Austria, was the most common destination for immigrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, since 2016, the trend is for the Bosnian population to migrate to Germany and Austria, and the number of such persons in Croatia and Serbia is steadily decreasing.

"According to Eurostat's data, immigrants from third countries, predominantly immigrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, are better involved in the Croatian labour market than the domestic population and immigrants from other EU countries in terms of the employment rate of young people aged from 15 to 29. The employment rate of young people from third countries in Croatia is higher by 18 percent when compared to the employment of domestic youth,'' said Snježana Gregurović.

As stated, the unemployment rate for young people up to 29 years of age is highest among the domestic Croatian population, and is actually the lowest among young people from third countries.

"Because of their small share of the total population of Croatia, immigrants haven't endangered or undermined the country's social cohesion. Because of the modest share of the immigrant population in Croatia who do not have Croatian ethnic origin, and the large share of those who do have it, the integration challenges are not yet posing any sort of significant cost to the state, or a threat to the domestic population,'' says Podgorelec.

In Zagreb, the largest concentration of immigrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina live in Sesvete, where the research "Influence of immigrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina on the socio-demographic development of Croatian urban regions" was conducted on a sample of 301 people aged 18 and over born in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Most of them (93.4 percent) were ethnic Croats, ethnic Serbs made up 3.7 percent of them, Bosniaks made uo 2.3 percent, and 0.7 percent was made up of others. Otherwise, 85.2 percent of Croats born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and living in Croatia are actually Croats, 6.3 percent of them are actually Serbs, and just 6 percent are Bosniaks.

A third of respondents hold dual citizenship, (Croatian and Bosnia and Herzegovina). Almost half of them work, of which 68 percent are mostly in trade or the construction industry. 14.6 percent are unemployed, those who stay at home make up 6.6 percent, pensioners make up 29.2 percent, and students and pupils in education make up 2.7 percent. The largest number of immigrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina living in Sesvete have secondary education, and 6,3 percent have higher education.

"Most respondents feel very welcome in the local community, they have a strong sense of belonging to the Croatian society, and they vote in large numbers during elections in the Republic of Croatia, but are exceptionally poorly involved in any organisation and/or civil society. Given the fact that many of them also have Croatian citizenship and therefore they vote in the elections in the Republic of Croatia, many are significantly less interested in political developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which shows a high level of political integration,'' concluded Podgorelec, reports Večernji list.

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