engleski

The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) - Regional assessment for Croatia

In the last two decades, regional immigration, mainly from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Kosovo, has replaced the flows of refugees and displaced persons into Croatia, following the break-up of the former Yugoslav republic. Due to the economic downturn, the number of migrant workers has decreased significantly in the shipbuilding and construction industries, which traditionally employ the largest number of migrant workers. Newcomers to Croatia will face barely halfway favourable policies for their integration. With an overall MIPEX score of 42/100, it ranks alongside other ‘new’ immigration countries in the MIPEX on the Balkans, such as Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Croatia’s policies that best promote integration are in areas of European law. Nevertheless, these legal conditions can be undermined by authorities’ rather discretionary procedures, a problem across Central and Eastern Europe. Newcomers to Croatia lack many basic opportunities, such as targeted state support to find the right job, improve the education of their children, or participate in political life. Their children, even if born in the country, are not eligible to be citizens at birth and dual nationality is not accepted, which is contrary to the trend in the majority of MIPEX countries.

Integration; migrants; policy; Croatia; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Serbia; Macedonia

This project was financed and conducted in partnership with Migration Policy Group from Brussels and Grupa 484 from Belgrade.