South Americans with Croatian roots interested in Croatia move

South Americans with Croatian roots interested in moving to Croatia

The deteriorating economic situation in South America, especially in Argentina, could encourage people with Croatian heritage to move to Croatia. 

As Lider.hr reports, the results of Dekra’s research suggest that the will exists: 35 percent of those surveyed want to move back to the ‘old homeland.’

Croatia has been facing a labour shortage and there was a big increase last year in the number of work permits issued. To be precise, last year, just over 170 thousand work permits were issued, but by the end of December, less than 90 thousand foreigners were registered as working in Croatia.

Some of those 170 thousand worked during the summer season and then left, but the fact is that this number will continue to grow in the near future. 

Dekra SE, which specialises in employment mediation and operates in more than 60 countries, introduced the initiative ‘Come back, Croatia is calling you!’ at the Catholic University in Zagreb back in May. 

Croatia beyond Croatia

This is a project whose mission is to bring back Croats and their descendants to their homeland but also to become a central platform for providing information about life and work in Croatia. Because of this, in early August 2023, Dekra conducted a survey among descendants of Croatians interested in working and living in Croatia to better understand the needs of potential returnees. The fresh responses of 1528 respondents, Croatian emigrants, were then shared with Lider.hr.

“When the results of the last census came out, we all looked in the mirror and saw what the situation was, and it wasn’t good. We reached 3.7 million inhabitants in Croatia and 3.5 million Croats outside the country, and we turn to Nepal, the Philippines, and who knows where else. All this while we have a pool of 3.5 million Croats from South America to recent ones who went to Ireland, Germany, and other countries. This project was created precisely because of that,” said the CEO of Dekra Arbeit Croatia, Daniele Divjanović.

Namely, the survey was conducted among the descendants of Croats living in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. 

Why precisely in these countries? The answer is simple: South America is home to as many as 550 thousand descendants of Croats! As for the survey participants, they are mainly Croats living in Argentina, aged between 26 and 45, with 38 percent of them having completed a graduate degree. 

In other words, we are talking about capable young people who could take much better positions than Uber and Bolt drivers or food delivery people.

Most of them do not have Croatian citizenship, and 41 percent belong to the third generation of emigrants. In other words, these are young people whose grandparents went to Argentina in search of a better life. This naturally raises the question of the sincere motive behind acquiring Croatian citizenship, considering that it makes it much easier to obtain a work visa in the USA.

“I think that percentage is very low, at least judging by what I saw at the diaspora meeting in Uruguay at the end of last year. Obtaining citizenship is a long and demanding process and is not easily granted,” Divjanović believes. He is convinced that Croats can indeed return home and live and work in better conditions, supported by the survey results showing that 35 percent of them dream of returning, living, and working in the land of their ancestors.