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Why does much of the Balkans have such a strong emigration culture?

Posted by Organic_Contract_172@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 42 comments

Why does much of the Balkans have such a strong emigration culture?
According to this map, over 5% of Bosnia’s, Serbia’s, and Albania’s economy is sustained by money sent home from emigrants. In Kosovo, it even rises to 13%. I find those numbers striking. Why do so many people in the Balkans still choose to emigrate? What makes life back home so challenging?

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42 Comments

Kreol1q1q@reddit

We’re poor innit
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Simon020420@reddit

Croatia ain't poor brother
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Professional_Elk_489@reddit

You regularly have people living on less than $1000 per month in Balkans. Very little money
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Clean_Positive_5580@reddit

you need to update your numbers 1000$ is an average salary in Bosnia Herzegovina
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Professional_Elk_489@reddit

So what would a very slightly under the average salary look like there
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Clean_Positive_5580@reddit

its sufficient to read any news article from the mentioned countries to get it
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Romeo_y_Cohiba@reddit

Extreme pollution, rule of law challenged both from inside(local despots prone to bribes) and outside(certain EU members recognize "Kosovo"), certain EU policies like lithium mining, dumping ground for migrants etc... Average Serbian is like, screw this and emigrates. Oh and, higher inflation and lower salaries than EU average. 
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Infinite-Cycle2626@reddit

Have you been to the Balkans? 😄
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RuleMany2900@reddit

Because they are poor ... Looking for better income/ future.. however they still like to go back home for holidays and bragging with a Mercedes or Audi
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PuzzleheadedSet9196@reddit

Maybe it's because we're poor, lol 
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Relevant_Mobile6989@reddit

Corruption and poverty keeps people away. Actually, nowadays only corruption keeps people away.
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super_pasrelle@reddit

Ah Portugal, always loyal to your real brothers.
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greekscientist@reddit

Honorary Balkan
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Albekvol@reddit

Cause you cross the border and suddenly get a 2-3x salary increase for a lot of jobs… my old job in Bulgaria pays less than half of what it could in Poland and France in the same industry, even within the same company. With a cheap 60 Eur Ryan air flight it doesn’t matter to me if I’m in Varna or Warsaw, takes the same time to get to my family in Sofia. It’s partially why Bulgaria went from 8.9 million to the current estimated 6.5 million. Cause joining the EU meant that poorer people got a shot at high paying jobs and westerners got skilled labour for less money in many cases. When you can just up and move a few hours away by car and change your entire living situation it suddenly makes it very appealing to emigrate.
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Valahul77@reddit

It's not that terrible for those countries either. Without the ones who are moving to another country, the unemployment would be significantly higher.
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Albekvol@reddit

Not if they had a job before they moved. My old company kept looking for someone to fill my role for a year and a half after I left
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Valahul77@reddit

I don't know how things are for Bulgaria but in Romania we even had a president who did say thank you to them publicly because they left(and I'm not kidding here!)
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Albekvol@reddit

Sounds… kinda sad, no?
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Valahul77@reddit

To be honest we was right but you cannot say something like that outloud. Without them immigrating, Romania would have been sitting on a social time bomb in early 2000's and I have doubts the EU integration would have been possible at all.
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Archaeopteryx111@reddit

WB countries already have freedom of movement within the EU/visa free travel. Joining the EU can only be good due to structural funds released by successfully completing the criteria.
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SpecialistLeast3582@reddit

Because the 90’s wars ruined those economies. Nobody would’ve left if they were getting a salary.
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Citaku357@reddit

13% that's not good.
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vasjpan002@reddit

Because folks back home are so obnoxious they make Trump look polite
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hubbabubbameqershi@reddit

We have strong emigration culture because we are very close of countries that pay more than our own do. And there are plenty of job opportunities compared to ours. When those countries in which our people immigrate aren't enough they start all over again and move to another country. Happened for Albanians, most of us moved to Greece in rhe 90s ans those who moved to Greece and mostly their children move to Sweden, Germany, UK, Australia. It never stops, has been going since the late middle ages.
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Hidrogen_Cosic@reddit

Filthy arnauts were never able to rule territory given to them, yet they want half of Balkans. Why? So half of Balkans emigrates to Germany?
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AskBalkans-ModTeam@reddit

Your post/comment was removed for violating Rule 1 of r/AskBalkans "Keep it civil". Depending on the severity of this violation, you may be banned. If not, try to refrain from using this type of language. Lively discussion is alright, but personal attacks, insults, hate, chauvinism and/or bigotry towards other users or their input will not be tolerated. Cheers.
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hemabe@reddit

It is a significant historical cycle: people flee from those who are detrimental to the development of the community. They flee to regions/countries that are functional. However, those from whom they fled eventually follow, and the cycle begins again.
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Intelligent-Rule-397@reddit

It's too good here so we go out to see how poor undeducated people in western Europe live
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Archaeopteryx111@reddit

You can easily tell which Balkan countries have joined the EU and which have not.
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decixl@reddit

It's a heaven on earth. If you exclude masked fascism, immaturity, stupidity, corruption and crime.
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Valahul77@reddit

What makes you to believe that it is just the Balkans who immigrate? People in general try to move out when the unemployment is high and the wages are too low to pay the bills. There is also that category who wants to see how is it to live in another country.Otherwise even in France people do immigrate a lot.
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GimmeGimmeMoarrr@reddit

Im sorry but have you seen the state of our countries? lol We are by all means, poor African countries who happen to be located in Europe
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veezy53@reddit

We go to germany an other europe countrys just to tell them how nice our homecountry is.
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Refugee_InThisWorld@reddit

We are tourist agents, not migrants 😂
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manguardGr@reddit

It looks like greeks" throwing a black rock behind" looool
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Baset-tissoult28@reddit

Very close family ties.  Many immigrants have family at home. 
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Ok-Mycologist7555@reddit

Hey, I did a bit of digging on this for an essay and it’s honestly kinda bleak but also pretty logical. A lot of Balkan emigration is just… structural at this point. There’s already a huge diaspora, so people grow up with the idea that “real opportunities” are elsewhere, and they usually know someone who can help them get started abroad. The World Bank even sums it up pretty bluntly: “The Western Balkans is heavily impacted by migration: nearly 25% of its citizens live abroad.” [1] When that’s the baseline, leaving stops being a dramatic life decision and becomes more like the default plan B (or even plan A). The everyday push factors are the usual mix: low wages, limited jobs (especially decent ones), and the feeling that merit doesn’t matter as much as connections. And then there’s the political/social side: people get tired of corruption, nepotism, and the sense that nothing really changes. One policy report from the Aspen Institute Germany literally calls it out: emigration is “not only due to the economic opportunities abroad, but also to corruption, nepotism, inequalities, and lack of jobs at home.” [2] That line hits because it’s not just “money” — it’s the whole vibe of not seeing a future you can build on. Remittances also kind of lock the pattern in. If families are already depending on money from abroad, that makes staying even harder, and leaving look even more “responsible” (which is a bit tragic tbh). So yeah, between weak prospects at home + strong networks abroad + a long habit of migration, it’s not surprising the cycle keeps going, even when people don’t want to leave. [1] http://www.worldbank.org/en/region/eca/publication/unlocking-the-development-potential-of-migration-in-the-western-balkans [2] http://www.aspeninstitute.de/wp-content/uploads/2020-Emigration-from-the-Western-Balkans.pdf
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BogdanPradatu@reddit

Corruption will have consequences over everything: education, healthcare, justice etc. The balkans are poorer and more corrupt than the western countries and everything feels stacked against you when you actually have an issue. You need to bribe the kindergarden to accept your child, you need to bribe the doctors and nurses to take good care of you, you need to bribe the judge to make sure you even get fair treatment, you need to bribe the clerks in the public institutions if you need some papers and so on. Or you see other people using bribes to get what they want and this makes you resent it. Either way, in the 90's I guess it was just plain financial reasons, now it's mostly curruption that drive people away.
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stewiegriffin17@reddit

Serbia is one of the shittiest countries to live in rn,only Russia,Ukraine,Moldova and Turkey are worse.Here are the reasons:Corruption is so widespread and normalised that you can,or even must bribe literally everyone,doctors,police,people working in municipality just to do their work and corruption in the goverment is WILD,they even publicly admitted that there is massive corruption but people are so used to it so they choose to ignore it.By corruption perception index,Serbia has same score as Ukraine which is basically in a full scale war.Groceries cost same as in Germany,salaries are among the lowest in Europe, official data provided by Serbian bureau of statistisc says that median salary in Serbia is 730€,basically meaning that half of country is making less than 730€ net per month.Housing prices to income ratio are according to site Numbeo are the worst in whole Europe, its literally impossible to buy property for people who work for average wage,even if they make a lot above the average ,they still need a massive and probably life- lasting loan from bank and loans have one of the highest interest rates in Europe.Our prominent mafia members and criminals are guared by police,there is a tent settlement in front of national assembly full of criminals and its functionating as a state within a state,guarded by police and no one can enter there without their permission.Some journalist who tried got their cameras broken by criminals or they even got beated up by criminalsinside,but police has an order not to react inside of that "settlement",which is illegal of course,but its Serbia so who cares about what law says.Anyways,to put is short,unempleyment is on the rise,many companies closed their factories in Serbia in last few month,democracy is long gone and we are living in open autocracy,criminals who have close ties with rulling party can literally kill you if they wanted to with very low to none legal consequeinces and im not exaggerating,we are also a Russian puppet state who is facing severe consequences because of that,first one being our national oil company being sanctioned by USA and fuel shortages are pretty much possible in a country in the middle of Europe-in 2025.You are highy unlikely to get a normal job outside of two largest cities because of huge centralisation,and for people outside of them there are only two possibilities-either to move to Belgrade or Novi Sad,or to became a member of the rulling party in order to get some shitty job in their town.Air pollition is worst in Europe,majority of county is from november to april constsanly exposed to extreme air pollution and no one gives a shit about that.And yeah,the most important reason,a train station canopy in Novi Sad failed last year and killed 16 people below it because of corruption linked to goverment officials and even our authorian president itself,and court in Novi Sad ruled out indictment against government officials who publicly said that the station is 100% safe and ready to operate,and by that court wants to say that no one is guilty and that it didnt kill enough people to be considered as a serious crime against public safety (yes,the judge seriously wrote that in official explanation).Serbia right now is hell on earth,and majority of people under 40 wants to emigrate.
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requiem_mn@reddit

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragraph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragraph)
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Ok_Ostrich3684@reddit

Hahaahahah
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_BaldyLocks_@reddit

Too much money. They need to emigrate to poorer countries to stand out properly.
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