The demographic crisis in Croatia isn’t shifting, and nor are its extremely concerning effects. As we reported recently, half a million workers have now left Croatia’s borders and are making their money, and indeed spending their money – elsewhere. Is total quota abolition the only measure left?
The Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), which many criticise heavily for being part of this enormous demographic problem, has claimed that without foreign workers, Croatia will struggle enormously in the forthcoming period. While EEA nationals (with the current exception of Austrian citizens) and all foreign citizens who hold permanent residence status in Croatia are free to work on the same basis as Croatian nationals and do not require any sort of work permit, the barriers are high and the red tape usually endless for third country nationals.
Back in 2019, the Croatian Government issued a decision on quota abolition for foreign (third country) nationals, marking a truly monumental step forward in addressing the huge issues facing Croatia’s economy and the ability of Croatian employers to actually find qualified staff. While many deem quota abolition to have been a bad move, in the sense that more effort should have been put into retaining a domestic labour force by raising wages, lowering taxes and removing senseless, draconian rules for would-be entrepreneurs, it now seems apparent that the Croatian Government at the very least realises the velocity of the issue at hand.
Consideration is now being given to complete and utter quota abolition, which is good news for third country nationals seeking work in Croatia, or is it? With MUP being typically painfully slow and often totally incompetent when it comes to dealing with residence and work procedures for all foreign nationals, including those from the EEA who have every right to live and work in Croatia, many Croatian employers are finding foreign labour too late, with MUP only approving all of their papers after the tourist season has passed and the majority are no longer even required.
Croatia’s demographic issues therefore go far beyond the rather simple idea of raising wages and lowering taxes, they are deeply embedded in the Croatian psyche because the state’s outdated systems simply don’t work and are actually on nobody’s side. In such a toxic, stagnant situation, it’s hardly surprising that rainy Ireland and the UK look so appealing.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes on the 16th of January, 2020, an increasing shortage of workers in Croatia is now becoming visible on a daily basis, and an official analysis of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) has been published recently, revealing that over the past ten years, Croatia has lost half a million workers – it is now time to abolish all quotas and drop the barriers according to some.
In an urgent parliamentary procedure, the government has proposed amendments to the Student Affairs Act, which changes the definition of “student”, ie, it makes it possible for student jobs in Croatia to be performed by students who are foreign nationals and who are not nationals of European Union member states, as well as students who are under international protection, and even exchange students undertaking their studies at colleges in Croatia.
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