Illustrative stock photo (source: TASR)
The number of people arriving in Slovakia exceeded the number of those leaving in 2016. Thanks to migration Slovakia’s population increased that year by almost 6,000 people. In 2017 it further increased to 15,000. The economic think tank, the Financial Policy Institute, running under the Finance Ministry came to this conclusion when analysing the data of health insurance companies.
“The last time we registered a positive migration balance was in the crisis year of 2009,” Tomáš Rizman and Kristína Sacherová wrote in their analysis.
The number of returning Slovaks has been increasing along with the arrival of new foreigners.
One in three arrivals to Slovakia in 2016 was a foreigner. The share of migrants from other countries coming to Slovakia over the past four years has increased by almost one-half. Most of them are citizens of the Ukraine and Serbia, and from non-European countries they mainly come from Vietnam, China and South Korea.
Without the arrival of citizens from other countries, the migration balance would still be negative. However, the trend is improving. While between 2010 and 2015, approximately 28,000 Slovaks returned home each year, this figure went up to 32,000 in 2016. The following year it again decreased slightly to 30,200.
Nevertheless, the number of people in the age group 18-28 leaving Slovakia is still slightly higher than the number of those who arrive.
