Dekra’s repatriation initiative: The goal is to bring back 500 thousand Croats from the diaspora to their homeland

Even the birds on the branch know that the domestic workforce is mostly fleeing from Croatia, and the sad truth is that the number of Croatian emigrants is currently at the level of the population of our small country. However, the need for labor is increasing at an equal, if not greater, pace day by day, so it is not so unusual to see foreign workers walking the streets of cities across Croatia who have come to live and earn in better conditions. To be precise, last year, just over 170 thousand work permits were issued, but by the end of December, there were registered just under 90 thousand foreigners working in Croatia.

Part of those 170 thousand worked during the season, and their contracts expired after it, but the fact is that this number will continue to grow in the near future. Major changes are happening in Europe. What was once Germany for Croats is today Croatia for many foreigners, and the domestic workforce continues to flee for better conditions. However, many also want to return. For this reason, Dekra Arbeit Croatia, part of the German corporation Dekra SE that deals with employment mediation and operates in over 60 countries, presented the initiative ‘Come back, Croatia is calling you!’ at the Catholic University in Zagreb on May 17, 2023.

Croatia outside of Croatia

This is a project whose mission is to bring Croats and their descendants back to their homeland, but also to become a central platform for providing information about life and work in Croatia. Therefore, at the beginning of August 2023, Dekra conducted a survey among descendants of Croats interested in working and living in Croatia to better understand the needs of potential returnees and decided to share fresh responses from 1528 respondents, Croatian emigrants, with Lider.

– When the results of the last census came in, we all looked in the mirror and saw what the situation is, and it is not good. We have reached 3.7 million inhabitants in Croatia and 3.5 million Croats outside the country, while we are turning to Nepal, the Philippines, and I don’t know where else. All this while we have a pool of 3.5 million Croats from South America to the recent ones who went to Ireland, Germany, and other countries. This project was created precisely because of that – said the CEO of Dekra Arbeit Croatia, Daniele Divjanović.

Namely, the survey was conducted among descendants of Croats who today live in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Why exactly in those countries? The answer is simple: in South America, there are as many as 550 thousand descendants of Croats! As for the respondents of the survey, they are mostly Croats living in Argentina and aged between 26 and 45, of whom as many as 38 percent have completed a master’s degree, so we are talking about capable young people who could occupy much better positions than Uber and Bolt drivers or food deliverers.

Most of them do not have Croatian citizenship, and 41 percent belong to the third generation of emigrants. In other words, these are young people whose grandparents went to Argentina in search of a better life. Here, of course, the question arises of the sincere motive behind obtaining Croatian citizenship, given that it is much easier to obtain a work visa for the USA with it.

– I think that percentage is very low, at least judging by what I saw at the diaspora meeting in Uruguay at the end of last year. Obtaining citizenship is a long and demanding process, and it is not easily obtained – believes Divjanović, convinced that Croats can really return home and live and work in better conditions, supported by the survey result which showed that 35 percent dream of returning, living, and working in the land of their ancestors.

Read the full text in the physical or digital edition of the business weekly Lider.