500.000 people! This is the number that left the country. The World Bank with this information has set the alarm that steps must be taken to prevent the outflow of talents from the country. This will put at risk the entire economy, the labor market, and the sustainability of the pension and health fund. Although it has attracted much public attention, the figure is not new. It has been mentioned since 2016.
Comparing the talent outflow from Macedonia to Eastern European countries, the 24 Eastern European countries practically Macedonia along with Armenia, Moldova as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina are the countries where there is the highest outflow of highly educated staff.
Half a million in numbers looks a lot, but to make it even more picturesque, I’ll explain it by an example. According to the official census data of the State Statistical Office, which has the statistics from the last census in 2002, 500,000 people moved abroad, means approximately the following cities to be completely evicted:
Shtip-47.796
Kocani-38.092
Delcevo-17.505
Vinica-19.938
Berovo-13.941
Pehcevo-5517
Radovish-28.244
Strumica-54.676
Probishtip-16.193
Valandovo-11.890
Negotino-19.212
Gevgelia-22.988
Veles-55.108
Kavadarci-38.741
Kumanovo-105.484
Makedonska Kamenica-8.110
Eastern Macedonia has long entered the European Union with a Bulgarian passport. However, the western part it managed to reach the white world without a Bulgarian passport.
Now that we have official data from a credible institution, when there is no need to order shoes in front of Parliament and the Government to show how much it is, it is time an action to be taken.
Who and what national strategy will be made to change the statistics? Who will convince people not to leave? Who will return the ones who already left?
Seeking justice for the history of this country, in the end the country itself will make its own history.
These days one of the biggest businessmen in the country said that the labor migration is currently the biggest problem in this country. And you don’t have to be a big businessman to be convinced in this. Try renovating an apartment, try to look for a tiler, plumber, try to look for a master to repair your electric appliance … you have to wait for more than a month, labor is more expensive, and no one guarantees you quality.
The medical staff in the hospitals has almost vanished. You received a bingo if you have seen two nurses on the night shift duty on the same floor. Two kindergarten teachers takes care for 30 children. One journalist writes two reports for the same journal.
Except this, the fact becomes further disastrous that on the first day of the new academic year, half of the freshmen students in a television survey without any hesitation state that they will be educated here the first years and then go abroad. When the index is identified with the passport, the state is in serious crisis.
Migration and movement of people have always been everywhere, but serious states have a plan and an idea of how to deal with the problem and the deficiency. What is ours?