Unemployment remains rife in the Western Balkans. Demotix/Admir Idrizi. All rights reserved.“It seems to me that you mostly export young people. You should find a way to keep them and export other goods more,” stated the US ambassador to Serbia, Michael Kirby, while speaking at the Kopaonik Business Forum 2015 earlier this month.
Ambassador Kirby’s statement is clear-cut and sobering, all the more so because it was delivered by a foreign diplomat rather than a Serbian official. The latter and their counterparts across the region would do well to pay attention. In the context of high unemployment rates and migratory trends towards the EU, brain drain in the Western Balkans remains an urgent issue.
A cursory look at the statistics shows poor prospects for the region’s youth. ILO WESO Trends for 2015 and supporting data sets predict a youth unemployment rate of 38.8% for Montenegro and 47.5% for Serbia, while KHDR notes a 55.3% rate for Kosovo in 2012. Only in January 2015, 10,000 Kosovars applied for asylum in Hungary. Figures for Serbia also show an alarming trend, with large numbers of highly skilled professionals leaving the country every year. EU member states, as the first port of call for these individuals, are another major stakeholder, especially considering that Croatia is already a member state the other countries are either potential candidates or have a candidate status.
