Serbian Diaspora Reducing

On the recently held press conference in the Office for Cooperation With Diaspora the results of census of Serbian diaspora in Europe were presented, which are not even close to the earlier governmental propaganda which referred to “millions”. 

As part of the project “Census of Serbian Diaspora in Europe” of Youth Center for Democracy in Niš, and in cooperation with Office for Cooperation With Diaspora of the Republic of Serbia, a research was conducted based on the official data of national statistical offices in European countries.

The project was realized by Miodrag Kreculj from Munich, Germany, esteemed memer of Business Support Network (BSN).

According to the published data, the number of Serbian population in Europe is not as significant as it once was. For example, many domestic media have up to recently wrote that there are over 700,000 Serbs in Germany, while, according to German statistics, their current number is 220,908. Additionally, there are 186,807 Serbian nationals in Austria, 78,092 in Switzerland, 48,571 in France, 43,811 in Italy, 6,776 in Sweden, 4,012 in Norway, etc.
The author, Miodrag Kreculj, showed two columns of numbers: one contained official numbers from the national statistical offices of European countries, while the other estimates of Serbian embassies in those countries. The difference is drastic, to say the least. It also shows lack of interest of Serbian embassies to obtain this information themselves from their host countries, instead of trying to guess the number of Serbian nationals. For example, embassy in London claims there are approximately 80,000 Serbian citizens in UK, while the official statistics show only 8,161. The embassy in Paris claims there are 120,000 Serbian citizens in France, while there are actually 48,571, the embassy in Netherlands claims some 20,000 Serbian citizens, while the national statistics show 2,232, etc.

Kreculj also stressed that the subject of “diaspora” and “emigration” is very important for the economic development, and that the diminishing of Serbian citizens (through the assimilation process) will negatively influence the future remittances. More precisely, the new generations will assimilate in the country they live in and will cease contact to their country of origin, selling their property in Serbia and transferring money abroad. That is why Serbia should again pay attention to its citizens living abroad, as the number of population abandoning the citizenship among the most vital part of population, youth, has reached alarming rates.