The director of the Institute for Development and Innovation, Nenad Jevtović, presented the regional study the Costs of Youth Emigration at the conference “Migration, Development and Diaspora in the Western Balkans”.
During the presentation of the results and methodology, it was said that this study is the result of three years of work, which first included the development of the methodology and its application in the case of the Republic of Serbia; and then to other countries in the region.
Nenad Jevtović pointed out that youth migrations have positive and negative effects on the region’s economy, but that negative ones prevail. He also said that those observed in the methodology were the costs of education, the loss of potential GDP, as well as remittances as a positive consequence of the increase in the diaspora.
According to prepared studies, the countries of the Western Balkans annually suffer losses of between 3 and 5 billion euros due to the emigration of young people.
Most people emigrate from Albania, both in absolute and relative terms, and based on OECD data; while the biggest losses in terms of potential GDP are suffered by Serbia, which is a consequence of the amount of potential GDP per young person who emigrates, but also the number of emigrants.
Also, Jevtović pointed out that the structure of emigrants from the Western Balkans is changing, while in the period before the crisis, migrations from the region were accelerating.
The conference was held in Tirana on 27 and 28, October 2021, under the auspices of the Western Balkans Fund and CESS.
