Mirjana Bobic

In recent years there has been a permanent increase in immigration flows to Serbia (without Kosovo and Metohija) from various sources. One part stems from massive returns of Serbian citizens from EU in line with the Readmission Agreement. On the other side, volume of asylum seekers has been multiplied, although they are in vast majority striving to reach European, i.e. Western countries. Regrettably Serbia has been spotted as a European hotspot when it comes of undocumented migration, including victims of human trafficking, females and minors.

Although demographic projections and experience of former socialistic countries indicate that in a long run, i.e. in decades to come, Serbia might face a transition from emigration to immigration, particularly with the accession to EU, it seems that it is necessary to require more visualization and sensitization of the phenomena in order to meet these social changes, with awareness that by the attraction of immigrants under the assumption of economic growth and stabilization of the political situation, not only to compensate for short-term the unfavorable demographic trends, but also to alleviate big economic dependence of the large population groups. The main idea of this paper is advocating for acceptance and support of immigration as one of the main strategies for social and demographic development, the goal which realization requests not only political will, appropriate institutional apparatus, but also changing attitudes and behavior of local population, their enhanced tolerance and readiness for common everyday living.

The study can be downloaded  HERE