Too Young to Stay, Too Old to Leave? Brain Drain and Declining Demography in the Western Balkans
Too Young to Stay, Too Old to Leave? Brain Drain and Declining Demography in the Western Balkans

Summary/Abstract: In the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of people from the Western Balkans fled the region due to war and violence – most of them towards the EU. Emigration from the Western Balkans into the EU has not stopped, even though the Yugoslav Wars ended in 2001. Since 1990, more than four million skilled workers have migrated. The Western Balkans is one of the regions in the world most affected by brain drain. This brain drain inevitably slows down the region’s economic adjustment to EU standards and makes it more difficult to meet the budgetary criteria for EU membership. The outflow of young, well-educated people from the Western Balkans also promotes a cycle of corruption, negatively affecting the region’s EU accession path. Reasons for migration from the Western Balkans to the EU are multifaceted, including the poor situation in the domestic labour markets and disillusion ment due to a toxic political environment as well as corruption.

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