Migration Trend and Labor Market in Kosovo

Abstract

Migration is a global phenomenon, and as such continues in Kosovo, the main target for us in Western Europe. It even seems as if this phenomenon has become a pandemic. Kosovo continues to be the country with the youngest population in Europe even for 2020. 1.8 million people live in Kosovo, according to World Bank data from 2021. Based on data from the statistical office of the European Union Eurostat, the average age was 30.5 years in 2020, thus ranking Kosovo in the first place in Europe in terms of the population with the lowest average age. In addition to the labor market in Kosovo, this valuable asset does not find itself in Kosovo, and the young people of Kosovo are more motivated and ready to migrate to a European country. Due to the lack of prospects in their country, experts in this field, as well as various international reports, show that the increase in migration (regular or irregular) has influenced in global development. Interviews conducted with citizens of Kosovo say that the main factor is: the political-social and economic situation that is pushing them toward migration. So the low wages in the private sector, the high rate of unemployment, and inadequate public services, including the weak education and health system of the country the possibility to migrate. Only in 2022, Germany issued more than 60,000 visas under this act to workers from these countries. Meanwhile, in 2020, Kosovars were among the 10 main nationalities that benefited from this scheme. The object of the study is the impact of migration, the flight of the qualified workforce, and the less qualified workforce in various fields in the labor market in Kosovo. For the realization of the purpose of the paper, data from the Statistics Agency of Kosovo, interviews of experts in the media of the field, consultations with online literature and publications—various scientific reports on the topic, as well as interviews with citizens of Kosovo were used.