Млади и масовно исељавање из Србије: шта нам је чинити
Youth and Mass Emigration from Serbia: What are We to Do

Author(s): Mirjana Bobić
Subject(s): Demography and human biology, Economic development, Migration Studies
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: youth; Serbia; emigration; circulation; development
Summary/Abstract: According to the OECD immigration data, 236,743 Serbian citizens migrated in the period 2008–2015, with as many as around 60,000 in 2015 alone. As a rule, emigrants are younger, more vital and better educated people and, as such, more adaptable than the domicile population. Their departures contribute to the further devastation of the country in terms of its demography, economy, society, technology, culture and environment. It is hard to expect that this outmigration might cease in the years to come given the strong push factors, work force globalization and "talent hunting", instigated by the most developed or core capitalist countries, and especially due to the great mobility of economic migrants and highly educated professionals. The related consequences for the state could be enormous and they should be dealt with as soon as possible by implementing public measures targeted at both those who are staying and those who are eager to leave. The paper considers mobility as one of the dimensions of contemporary globalization, the latter perceived as a big accelerator of social, technological, economic and cultural changes, spreading beyond the national boundaries. Accordingly, our basic assumption has been that the mobility of youth (18–34) per se is an optimal strategy for enhancing human resources and social capital, networking and getting involved in innovations and the global development. However, the problem that we have identified is that our state fails to recognise the potential benefits of this mobility, for highly educated people in particular, and therefore does not undertake actions aimed at creating systemic and continuous programmes of linking with "overachievers", so that mobility might become a developmental resource, especially at the local level. In this vein, this paper attempts to examine the current discourse on youth emigration and to establish outmigration as a potentially winning option for social advancement and economic progress. On this track, it seems, first and foremost, that it is necessary to accept the fact that emigration will continue owing to the strong pull factors existing in the destination countries, such as the availability of high-quality universities, specialization opportunities, skill upgrading, human capital enhancement, attractive employment opportunities and an abundance of personal life related chances and choices. Seen through such lenses, migration appears as an individual copying strategy as much as a household one, aimed at risk reduction and the diversification of income sources. Migration is massively facilitated by the current migration patterns and the prevailing global migration systems, migration networks, recruitment programmes, fast and easy communication, affordable transportation etc.

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