With the economy expanding, Southeast Europe has become a destination for economic migrants, mostly from developing countries of Asia, according to bne IntelliNews.
The attraction of labour migrants is linked to acute labour shortages caused by a combination of mass emigration and the growth of labour-intensive industries, such as construction, light industry, and tourism. International recruitment campaigns to cover vacant positions from as far away as Bangladesh, India and Nepal are underway.
Regional governments are trying to balance attracting foreign workers with managing any political fallout from the arrival of large numbers of economic migrants.
Slovenia, the wealthiest country in Southeastern Europe, has been an attractive destination for migrants, especially from other countries of the former Yugoslavia. It is one of the few countries in the developing European region to experience recent population growth, which the statistical office attributes to inward migration.
The country is also planning to establish a consulate in the Philippines to address labour shortages through the Filipino labour market. The Philippines has a population of 115 million (compared to Slovenia’s 2.1 million), of which an estimated 11 million work abroad.
Secretary of State Tina Heferle noted in February that Slovenia historically recruited from its closest neighbours.
Slovenia’s previous experience in the field of integration dates back to the early 1990s, when Slovenia received the refugees from the former Yugoslav republics after the fall apart of the former country. This was followed by several employment schemes for foreign workers from the region.
Former Yugoslav EU member Croatia is also in dire need of additional workers, especially for its burgeoning tourism sector. Some parts of the country have been so affected by external migration that one small town has started offering houses and building plots for as little as HRK1 (€0.13). This came after its population had roughly halved over the past century, Legrad mayor Ivan Sabolić revealed in a 2021 interview.
The Croatian Association of Employers (HUP) forecasts a significant increase in the number of foreign workers to nearly 500,000 within seven years. However, problems, such as lack of employer accountability, language barriers and cases of abuse, have surfaced. As in Slovenia, the government plans to pass a law on foreign workers and launch language learning programmes.
Serbia also experiences high levels of outward migration. However, as the largest economy in the Western Balkans, it tends to attract workers from fellow Open Balkan members, Albania and North Macedonia.
The Open Balkan nations have agreed to create a common labour market, meaning that citizens of the three countries will be able to work elsewhere in the bloc without the need for visas or permits. The governments hope to make the region more appealing to foreign investors, who will be able to hire workers from any of the member countries.
Internal migration is taking place in the richer countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, especially in Slovenia and the Czech Republic, to counterbalance natural population decline.
There are numerous reports of workers who have been lured to the region only to do hard work for less wages than promised. According to UN experts, eight organisations, including Vietnamese staffing firms and Chinese construction companies operating in Serbia, have been linked to serious human rights abuses against Vietnamese migrant workers.
Another enquiry by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network focused on problems faced by Chinese workers employed at a Chinese-operated copper mine in Serbia. The workers allegedly encountered serious violations of their rights, including restrictions on their mobility, the requirement of 12-hour shifts and passport seizures.
Numerous reports of workers arriving in South-Eastern Europe and then travelling illegally to more attractive countries in Western Europe have also been reported.
The demand for Nepali workers remained high in several Southeast European countries, including Romania, Serbia and Bosnia, where Nepali labourers were seeking employment opportunities, international recruiter Emasco Nepal commented. However, a disturbing situation emerged when many workers decided to leave their original employers upon arrival in those countries and engage in illegal migration to Western Europe, the agency added.
Some of the factors standing behind this include a lack of awareness about the serious consequences of irregular migration. Exorbitant recruitment fees, a significant income gap between Eastern and Western European countries, as well as content on social media platforms exaggerating the ease and benefits of irregular migration there, encourage people to seek higher-paying opportunities.
Romania, for instance, is becoming an increasingly popular destination for migrant workers. The number of work permits issued to non-EU citizens tripled between 2013 and 2022, according to the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Romania report. Furthermore, most non-EU migrant workers do not settle in Romania for a long term.
The partial entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen visa-free zone at the end of March could possibly lead to an increase in the number of workers who planned to move to other parts of the Schengen. The reason for this is that wages in the two countries remain well below the EU average.
