Two Million People of BiH Origin Live Worldwide, Mostly in Croatia, Serbia, and Germany

The Council of Ministers of BiH adopted and will forward to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH the Information of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees on the situation of emigration, which states that 1,677,177 people born in BiH live outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, while with descendants - the second and third generation - this number reaches two million, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

The emigration rate from BiH relative to the country's population is 44.5 percent, which ranks BiH among countries with the largest number of emigrants relative to the total population.

The largest number of emigrants live in: Croatia (409,357), Serbia (335,992), Germany (159,380), Austria (149,755), USA (132,255), Slovenia (96,921), Switzerland (57,542), and Sweden (56,477). The majority of BiH citizens are well-educated, professionally, and economically established in the countries where they live today.

According to the Information, the best results of cooperation between local communities and the diaspora have been achieved in municipalities that have open offices for cooperation with the diaspora.

Although BiH has several strategic documents that partially create conditions for connecting the diaspora with the country's development, in practice, it has been shown that this is not enough.

Therefore, the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, in cooperation with other competent institutions at all levels of government, is preparing a Policy Proposal on Cooperation with the Diaspora.

In this way, it is intended to comprehensively improve cooperation with the diaspora and connect the emigrant population with the development of their homeland.