Escaping to the future

“My main motivation for going to study abroad was the desire for change, in the sense that I wanted to experience living somewhere abroad in my twenties,” says one of the Montenegrin students currently studying in Slovenia.

The emigration of young people is not just a problem for a society in Montenegro, but also elsewhere in the region. There are many students from other Balkan countries with a similar story.

Kristijan is from North Macedonia and he is studying mechanical engineering in Ljubljana. His decision to study abroad was based on the fact that the mechanical engineering university in Ljubljana is among the best in the field in Eastern Europe, but also the most cost-efficient one.

He lives with a few roommates because he cannot get a place in student dormitories. “A typical day for me starts with going to classes,” Kristijan explains. “In between, we usually have two breaks. Afterward, we have auditory exercises or laboratory exercises. The auditory ones are really similar to the classes we attend, but they focus on tasks and math and physics problems. The laboratory exercises are different depending on the subject, but we are always divided into smaller groups of people, usually four to eight. This is when we work on projects, receive grades, and gain practical knowledge of the theoretical concepts we’ve studied. At the end of the day, I revise in the library and participate in sports programs offered by the university.”

Most of the young Balkan citizens decide toleave their countries due to poor social, living, and economic standards and conditions. In Montenegro, one fifth of the youth expressed desire to leave, shows the 2024 Youth Study from Southeast Europe by the “Friedrich Ebert” Foundation.

“Young people are continuously leaving Montenegro. The causes of such phenomena should be sought in the unstable economic and political environment, which provides fertile ground for the continuation of non-European practices, such as party-based and nepotistic employment, corruption, lawlessness, captured media, and insufficient support for youth, or merely declarative support that does not reflect the genuine attitude of decision-makers,” says David Vukićević, president of the Network for Youth Activism of Montenegro (MOACG).

For young people from the Western Balkans, the United States (US) are one of the most desirable destinations to move to. But many of their visa applications are being rejected. In 2024, more than third of the American visa applications in Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania were unsuccessful. In Macedonia, the rejection rate was 28 percent.

Some decide to stay in Europe

Josif is a 21-year old Macedonian studying Computer Science at the University of Bristol. His typical day consists of attending classes and consultations with professors about grades and innovative projects. The classes are taught through presentations and practical work, and his study materials are in electronic form or can be found in the library.

“Even though I enjoy being here, I feel a deeper connection to my home country and the people there. Even here, I hang out with Macedonians,” says Josif. He got the opportunity to study abroad due to a scholarship offered by the Ministry of Education.

The scholarship requires the student to be accepted at one of the top 100 ranked universities on the Shanghai List, the Academic Ranking of World Universities evaluated by the number of scientific papers published in international journals and the number of Nobel Prize winners. Although none of the North Macedonia’s universities have been included in the Shanghai List in the past few years, the country’s Ministry provides scholarships for those on the Shanghai List that covers most of the students’ expenses. After graduating, a student must return and work in their home country for a few years.

Josif says the only reason he would return to North Macedonia is because of his family and friends; career-wise, he says that the opportunities abroad are much more appealing. Since he will return to North Macedonia after learning everything he can at the University of Bristol, he hopes that the knowledge and experience he gains in the UK will be awarded with a sufficient salary at home.

In the past decade, an increasing number of Macedonian students have sought educational opportunities beyond the country’s borders. Faced with challenges in meeting their academic aspirations, many are drawn to institutions abroad, where they anticipate more advanced curricula, cutting-edge facilities, and greater professional prospects. This trend, however, reflects deeper, systemic issues within North Macedonia’s higher education system, and as the number of students leaving continues to rise, it raises profound questions about the capacity of the country’s academic institutions to retain young talent and foster an environment conducive to innovation and progress.

According to a Westminster Foundation for Democracy study, North Macedonia invests between 116 and 433 million euros annually in educating and training young people who then leave the country. In the past 30 years, there has been a 10% reduction in the nation’s population because of the significant emigration of highly skilled students. And it seems unlikely that this number will stop growing.

No jobs for young people

Although there is no official statistic on how many Montenegrins live abroad, data from the Society of Statisticians and Demographers show that on the census date in 2023, around a third of Montenegrin citizens, or 213,478 people, were living abroad.

“Although data was collected for 44,017 people in the census, this accounts for only 20 percent of the estimated diaspora, while 80 percent, or 169,461 people, were not included because at the time of the census, they did not have a household member present in Montenegro who could

provide information on their behalf,” says Gordana Radojević from the DSDCG.

The population census currently represents the only source of data on young people studying abroad. According to the latest census, 8,230 citizens of Montenegro reside abroad for educational purposes, of which 43 percent, or 3,607 people, are studying in Serbia.

David Vukićević from MOACG thinks that the data clearly indicates that Montenegro lacks an adequate pro-natalist policy, but also that “young people continue to seek their happiness beyond the borders of their homeland. “

The conditions and quality of upbringing and life, success during the educational process and the prerequisites for achieving it, opportunities for improvement, employment, advancement, and economic independence are key determinants that shape the attitudes of young people, explains Vukićević.

“Entering the labor market is somewhat easier for young people due to the deficit of the appropriate workforce and the rise in minimum net wages. However, due to the constant rise in prices, this effect is gradually weakening, although it is still present. At the same time, work performance is expected to match current wage levels, but the education system has not adequately prepared those who are just entering the labor market for such conditions. I acknowledge the continuous efforts of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation and the Ministry of Sports and Youth in improving the position of young people, but without adequate support from the Ministry of Finance and the Government of Montenegro, it is difficult to achieve tangible results,” he says.

Data from the World Bank shows that in the last decade alone, more than 2.5 million people have left the Western Balkans in search of better living conditions in Western Europe, indicating that this is a regional trend rather than an issue present in just one country.

IT and engineering studies amongst the most desired

One of the key issues of migration in the region is the departure of highly educated young people, experts in fields such as IT, engineering, medicine, and other crucial sectors commonly known as STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

While North Macedonia has a deep cultural history that is reflected in its art, music, and literature, the arts programs in the country are struggling to offer students appealing opportunities, and students eager to pursue a career in such a field have gone looking for their education abroad. While the STEM programs are often viewed as more profitable and more important, the arts and studying such a program are often seen as a luxury rather than a necessity.

Ivana studying at Ithaca College, says that the nature of the job she is studying for often requires international cooperation and experience, and in the USA, there are many more options for networking, film festivals, productions, publications, and opportunities. However, she wants to do the same at home.

“I have always wanted to contribute in one way or another to the development of Macedonian culture and art and its promotion around the world,” she explains. “I would still like to be active in North Macedonia and the Balkans through certain engagements in the field of film and photography.”

Digitalized universities

The students studying abroad and interviewed for this article shared different experiences compared to students getting degrees in North Macedonia, where necessities such as digital books are still a foreign concept at the universities.

In 2023 a study by the Forum for Educational Change and European Endowment for Democracy found that the digitalization in the public universities is severely underdeveloped.

„Despite the increasing use of technology in education worldwide, many public universities in North Macedonia still rely on traditional teaching and learning methods. This includes the use of physical textbooks and lectures, the use of paper indexes (despite the fact that there is an online grading system), in-person semester registration and physical consultations, rather than using online resources.“

The research findings show that there is a significant digitalization gap in state universities and that significant efforts are needed to improve the infrastructure, resources, and training needed to support digitalization in these institutions. It also points out the percentage of the budget allocated to digitalization in state universities in North Macedonia remains relatively low.

The Macedonian Statistics Office does not keep numbers on how many of the citizens study abroad. The only thing they can tell us is that there are currently 400 students under their scholarсhip studying at the top 100 universities in the world.

Not only young people are leaving their homeland. In Montenegro, unlike in the second half of the last century, when the country was mainly leaving lower-skilled labor, in recent decades, many of those leaving are highly educated.

“Unfortunately, the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not have accurate data on the number of emigrated citizens or the reasons for their departure, as those leaving Montenegro do not deregister their residence in order to retain certain rights in Montenegro, which makes it difficult to assess the overall scope of migration. Therefore, systematic monitoring of migration is the first and most important step, especially considering that, according to research on youth, we have a stable 50 percent of young people who wish to leave Montenegro,” says demographer Miroslav Doderović.

The continuous emigration from Montenegro, mostly of younger residents, is also confirmed by the official data from the State Statistics Bureau (Monstat), according to which Montenegro had 615,035 inhabitants in the 1991 census, and 32 years later, in 2023, only a few thousand more – 623,633, including over 90,000 foreign nationals.

One of the top immigration destinations is Germany where officially there are 10,413 citizens of Montenegro.

Why leave

Key measures that can influence the factors driving and pulling migration include increasing the efficiency of active labor market programs, with an emphasis on integrating long-term unemployed individuals and young people.

“Long-term unemployment is one of the key challenges in Montenegro. Despite positive trends in the labor market, long-term unemployment represents a high percentage of 72 percent in 2023, compared to total unemployment. The long-term unemployment rate was almost 12 percent in 2019. The largest group among the long-term unemployed are those seeking employment for the first time, mostly recent graduates,” explains Doderović.

As the main reason for leaving Montenegro, the majority cited the economy, while half of the surveyed Montenegrin citizens says they moved abroad for family reasons, and some for educational purposes.

“The largest number of registered Montenegrin citizens are working, studying, or residing in Germany, with a total of 10,413. The largest number of registered individuals working or studying abroad comes from Podgorica, with 6,384 people,” says Monstat.

“For a more comprehensive understanding of the migration issue, particularly the structure of the population leaving Montenegro, detailed research is needed so that policymakers and decision- makers can more clearly target key problems and propose programs to retain and attract the population,” says Doderović.

The emigration of young people from the Balkans, especially from Montenegro and North Macedonia, poses a serious challenge to the future of these countries. While young people are leaving in search of better education, job opportunities, and a higher quality of life, this trend has long-term consequences on the development of the region. Although there are numerous initiatives aimed at halting this trend, such as improving the education system, better working conditions, and creating new opportunities for young people, it is clear that only through joint efforts at the regional and international levels can we create conditions in which young people can stay and contribute to the further development of their countries.