In your opinion what are the main challenges of international migration today?

We are living in a time of increasing mobility when some surveys suggest that around 700 million people in the world are potential migrants, mostly young, unemployed people with secondary or tertiary education. Within the European context these young people generally use transnational social networks for facilitating their migration and the EU is their primary destination. This huge mobility contributes to the complexity of the task to paint a realistic picture of the ‘typical migrant’ on the individual level, and this work requires a tailored approach from the experts in this field. The main challenge is to find a way to understand migration as a strategic behaviour for solving the actual problems of the individual, usually by increasing and diversifying their resources. Additionallly, to see how migration, especially of youth, if well managed and supported by successful integration and inclusion measures in a developmental context, can be beneficial for all of us.

Can you give us an overview of recent migration trends in Serbia and transnationally?

In recent years, there have been considerable movements of workforce inside the EU labour market conditioned by wage discrepancies among different parts of the EU. Jobs are notably obtained in areas like construction, food processing or services, lesser skilled jobs, essentially dictated by an insufficient knowledge of the local language by workers, which prevents them from taking higher added value jobs, even when they are qualified. On the other hand, immigration to Serbia from the EU generally includes highly skilled young persons, driven by employers and supported by governments through visa system liberalization. These labour forces mostly participate in technical, financial or scientific areas of the labour market, in high added-value jobs.

Global migration governance is a complex task formally regulated mainly by bilateral, regional or inter-regional agreements where multilateralism is still relatively weak. Since there is a need for developing greater standards and better integration, support by multilateral coordination mechanisms and a common UN-based framework in this area could play an important role. The Global Forum for Migration and Development is a good example of a space for information exchange and best practice implementation, mutually benefitting countries and creating better opportunities for young migrants.

Can you tell us something about the YOUMIG project? Why is it important for our country?

As you know, Serbia is a country of emigration. Youth are the generation of the future and with their departure, Serbia is losing an important part of the population, which on the one hand is responsible for the natural increase of the population, and on the other, produces experts that are indispensable for sustainable development. So, the YOUMIG project presents an opportunity for us to research and understand the main factors behind this special age group of migrants, primarily on the local level, and to gather evidence-based information about youth migration. It is also important to overview immigration trends, especially of young people coming back from abroad, carrying new and different experiences that may be important for achieving an enhanced course of development. The YOUMIG project aims at describing a dynamic process, a combination of local and personal motivation factors that are expected to create a favorable situation for the person considering migration. The greater diaspora often plays a supportive role in this process, as the young migrant tries to present their full human capital and achieve a winning combination. The level of monitoring this process in the project is regional, national and, mostly importantly, local. The aims are to develop new tools for monitoring policy performance, to map the perceptions of youth migrants on opportunities and challenges related to migration, as well as to canvass migration-related policy schemes and financial patterns. An important factor apart from the local community capital is the regional context, zooming in on personal decisions like the level of integration or the use of transnational ties that eventually will define migration ‘types’.

The future trend of youth emigration will depend on the needs of youth and the time necessary for development and socio-economic change. It is important to note how the phenomenon of a massive outflow of highly educated persons from the country is regarded by relevant policy makers. Therefore, youth migration regulation is included in Serbia’s National Strategy for Employment 2011-2020 with activities defining inclusive development and social cohesion. Regarding job creation, it is necessary to revitalize local communities to prevent the negative effects of migration in the sense of deepening disparities between the centre and periphery, and community impoverishment, which, along with weaker chances on the labour market, can lead to social and cultural exclusion.

Through the YOUMIG project activities most of the necessary components of youth emigration and its negative effects will be defined, as well as how these can be tackled in terms of institutional structures. Additionally, we aim to set up a conceptual frame along with the standardisation of core indicators, promote extensive cooperation between relevant stakeholders and enhance dialogue followed by an intraregional knowledge exchange. As an eventual outcome of the project it is anticipated that a certain amount of young migrants will return and the preconditions will emerge for circular migration, and that individual education levels may influence a change in migration patterns over time.

What are the benefits for SORS?

First of all, we are glad to be partners in this project, since it is yet another opportunity to emphasize the global scale of youth migration today and present the positive side of migration as an asset with its benign effects through socio-cultural features, significant remittance flows, investments or trade, locally and regionally. For SORS, this project is an opportunity to be part of an attempt to dispell the misconceptions that surround migration. This demands a constant upgrade of approaches and knowledge, along with permanent internal teamwork between all relevant institutions. We strongly promote creating a clear and concise evidence base for our concepts before using any statistical tools. Further, we strive to implement best practices for carrying out a pilot, defined by the YOUMIG project as a way to enhance the level of expertise and obtain new professional experiences needed for understanding youth migration in a way that will provide an up-to-date, more realistic picture of the process.

How can the project contribute to the management of migration in Serbia?

International migration statistics generally meet a diverse range of requirements relating to resource allocation, policy making and research. The changes in migration patterns, influenced by wider social, economic and even cultural environments on every level, increase the complexity of migration management and generate the need for imputed and combined data sources, and for a shared understanding of the methodological concepts, based on efforts to arrive at coherent statistical outputs.

Kanjiža municipality is the local-level partner for Serbia in YOUMIG, where the best practices for advancing infrastructure and local-level institutions needed for youth migration management will be tested and implemented. This activity takes place in a context of border proximity, which is a significant motivation factor for regional migration, and the border is no longer a barrier, but a contact zone. Supported by statistical data and mutual knowledge exchange with the SORS team and ISS, the local level partner has presented a local status quo analysis revealing the town’s socio-demographic composition and cultural profile, with country-specific emigration patterns and its main drivers. The local study also presents regional migration experiences along with human capital flows, available instruments of local governance for tackling migration, and finally, offers a relevant set of recommendations for their enhancement. The final paper serves as a basis for creating evidence-based policies, influenced by local stakeholders' attitudes that will be able to provide timely and real, innovative solutions.

If brain drain is a major concern and EU countries are apparently trying to reduce or even prevent the arrival of low-skilled migrants, is the debate on migration issues sufficiently lively in Serbia?

The ongoing 'migration and development' debate presents an informal opportunity for dialogue supported by all stakeholders for creating a mutually beneficial win-win situation. The debate is also joined by researchers whose work is related to the empirical relations among different aspects of migration and development. This debate should be considered as a key political issue demanding a broad consensus. The focus is on brain drain, emigration reduction and remittance flows, which can influence the national economy in different ways. We need a political frame allowing development benefits to be maximised by facilitating relevant normative processes, which enable the integration of the use of information sources, and aim at introducing new forms of international cooperation. Generally, policy development should be sustained by engaging an inclusive and skilled labour force with high levels of youth participation who are more likely to be resilient, adaptable and competitive. It should promote the filling of talent shortages by young migrants no matter where they come from, thereby securing a long-term perspective for them. This process is resource demanding and asks for greater business engagement in migration, too. For Serbia, the full implementation of the EU accession process together with the relevant legal harmonisation and the free transfer of human capital will present the primary mechanisms for domestic market adjustments and progress in the perspectives of various actors.