With all the more young Croats trying their hand at life in other European countries such as Ireland and Germany, what exactly is their incentive to make the return trip?
A great many young people from all parts of Croatia, but particularly from the continental and Eastern part of the country, have bitten the bullet and taken a one-way trip to another European country, such as to Ireland and Germany, to try their luck at making a better life for themselves in countries which are believed to be able to offer them more opportunities and a better living wage.
As this concerning trend continues, making Croatia’s demographic picture look all the more dire as time goes on, much time has been put into thinking of policies to halt emigration, especially from the very quickly emptying Slavonia. While nothing seems to be concrete in the sense of putting a stop to Croatia’s talented youth jumping on buses and planes, one small Dalmatian town has come up with a simple idea which might just lure them to return if life in the fast paced Northern Europe fails to work out.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 15th of March, 2018, the decision of one town is to offer monetary benefits to would-be returnees from Ireland and Germany, and encourage them to come back to Croatia to rethink their potential futures.
As one very concrete part of the policy aimed at improving the bad demographic picture of the Municipality of Gradac, Matko Burić has decided on some steps aimed primarily at young people who are questioning their futures in the country.
The next session of the council will include discussions on the hopefully fruitful decision to provide incentives to young people in the Municipality of Gradac, the aim of which is to encourage young people who went abroad in search of a better life and a higher wage to return home to their place(s) of birth.
Burić, who spoke with Slobodna Dalmacija, says figures for Gradac aren’t even remotely optimistic. Most young people from the area went off to Ireland and Germany, and the decision to encourage them to come back to their homes comes in the form of 7500 kuna one-off payment from the Municipality.
Every returnee who is pulled back to Gradac by pangs of homesickness and nostalgia and then decides to seek their happiness not in Ireland but in the Municipality of Gradac will receive half of the aforementioned one-off payment amount after the contract is concluded with the Municipality, and the other half only after spending a year in the Gradac area.
To make it clear and to avoid confusion, ”abroad” does not refer to Croats working in neighbouring Bosnia or Herzegovina, or in Slovenia.
