Why emigration from BiH remains unanswered: Citizens frightened, leaders indolent

How many people are leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina? There are no official data, and non-governmental organisations provide approximate figures without relying on concrete facts.   

The authorities show they do not want or do not know how to provide an answer on the number of people leaving this country. The state is crumbling, institutions are asleep.   

A state that keeps its own secret data from the public eye inflicts serious harm on itself and its citizens. The increasingly frequent talk of departures produces a mass psychosis of insecurity and encourages further emigration. People fear new conflicts, uncertain livelihoods, and economic crises. Every problem to which the state fails to provide a quick and adequate response opens the door to endless manipulation. In this case, the state both manipulates and multiplies the problems.  

What are the reasons for concealing the important fact of the departure and depletion of BiH's population? Any knowledge would stir the public to force and direct this state toward solutions.

The Patria News Agency attempted to provide answers on emigration from BiH based on school enrolment, primarily of first-grade primary school students, but also on total enrolment numbers. This could have been a usable indicator, as it is constantly claimed that young couples with children are leaving, and the departure of fertile youth would reduce the birth rate. Although the data are incomplete, according to preliminary figures, compared to last year, about 1,800 fewer first-graders were enrolled in the Federation. This school year, barely about 20,000 first-graders were enrolled. In the RS, for the first time this school year, fewer than ten thousand were enrolled in first grades of primary school. These enrolments could be a possible indication of the situation regarding the departure of young people to foreign countries.

It is not only about the emigration of Bosniaks. Serbs are leaving, and even Croats from western Herzegovina. The mass departure of Croats from Bosnia is evident. The Catholic Church published data that from the 2013 census, which showed a catastrophic reduction of Croats in the country, until the end of 2016, more than 30,000 Croats had emigrated from BiH.    

When asked by a journalist what can be done to stop the departure of young people from the RS, the president of that entity, Milorad Dodik, said:

- Well, come on, bring me ten of those who are leaving!

So, evidence is demanded from journalists, not from the institutions of the system. This shows that institutions do not have this data nor show the will to investigate it.    

By far the most harm to this country is caused by those who do not do their job.

Member of the State Parliament Senad Šepić has long been highlighting this tragedy of Bosnian-Herzegovinian society. Last year, he initiated no fewer than five times that a special session of the State Parliament be held on the topic of stopping the negative trend of citizens leaving BiH and employing young people. He demanded concrete measures and precise funds to be planned for this area. He even requested that loans for employing young people in BiH be sought in negotiations with the IMF.

Parliament never placed these proposals of his on the agenda. Šepić sent dozens of questions to various institutions asking them to provide data on how many citizens had left BiH, but he never received a single answer.

- I know why I constantly talk about this problem. In the Una-Sana Canton, in Tuzla and Livno, you have entire empty streets in cities. People are also leaving Sarajevo, but not even ten percent as much as from other cities. I received data that 10,000 people left Zvornik, mostly Bosniak returnees - reveals Senad Šepić.

Mensur Malkić, director of the Sarajevo Madrasa, recently admitted that the biggest problem is that a significant number of our youth, in search of jobs and better living conditions, are leaving the homeland.

- We are worried and it is hard for us that members of our families, after a long search for a job, tired, give up and decide to leave their homeland – emphasised Malkić.        

The state either investigates and hides data from the public or does absolutely nothing systematically to solve the problem. Or, which is likely - it neither investigates anything nor solves anything.

The consequences of such an attitude are evident. When Saša Magazinović, a member of the State Parliament, posed a parliamentary question to the employment agencies in the country: "Is there a record kept of departures from the country for employment in other countries?" The answer was shocking: "No one keeps such a record."      

The state institutions show traditional bureaucratic self-absorption, and its leaders total political indolence. Namely, one of the most serious problems, which shakes the public in BiH, has not awakened political leaders to react and detect the magnitude of the problem.