Migration finally reverses

Slovaks return home due to fixed travel time, family interests, sentimentality, but also to utilize experience gained from abroad.

There are several factors behind the decisions of Slovaks to come back from abroad.There are several factors behind the decisions of Slovaks to come back from abroad. (Source: TASR)

At the turn of the century, many Slovaks were leaving their country for a better life abroad. The massive wave of emigration from the early 2000’s has resulted in the current shortfall of skilled labour in the Slovak market. Slovaks who left within the “brain-drain wave” now seem eager to return.

SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

The European Union is currently experiencing a favourable economic situation with rising living standards and improving labour market conditions. While Slovakia shares in the success, labour force surveys are also beginning to record slightly fewer citizens abroad.

SkryťTurn off ads
Read also: Less money and missing links await expats upon return Read more 

The most Slovaks living abroad are in the United Kingdom, though the precarious situation before the country leaves the EU in 2019 may play a role when deciding whether to return.

Research by the Institute for Forecasting of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV), however, identifies that expats most often return after fulfilling their goals and when a fixed period of time ends. Family and social connections often lure people back as well, experts agree.

“Most emigrants consider their departure only as a temporary solution,” Vladimír Baláž from the institute told The Slovak Spectator.

More people return

In 2016, Slovakia recorded the departure of 3,674 people with Slovak citizenship, while returnees of the same group numbered 4,076. For comparison, in 2015, a total of 3,835 people left the country and only 3,223 came; in 2014, 3,575 left and 2,939 came, according to the migration surveys of the Slovak Statistics Office.

SkryťTurn off ads

So far, two significant migration waves have taken place since 2000. Though before the EU expansion in 2004 mainly educated young people left Slovakia, during the economic crisis in 2007-2009 it was people who lost their jobs and left to solve their economic situation, according to Martin Kahanec of the Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI). These were men going mainly into construction and women into nursing in Austria and Germany.Paid content beyond this line

“When the second group fulfils their ambitions, have something in their pockets and can spend that at lower prices, their return becomes a temptation,” Kahanec said.

The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.sk
Subscribe now for full access

I already have subscription - Sign in

Subscription provides you with:
  • Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk
  • Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail)
  • PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper, The Slovak Spectator, emailed directly to you
  • Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk

Top stories

Stock image.

Twice as many Ukrainians work in Slovakia now than before the Russian invasion.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


SkryťClose ad