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A generation on the move: how the brain drain is reshaping the Western Balkans [1]
['Innovative Media']
Date: 2025-07-17
This article by Antonija Janevska and Kristina Radović was first published by Reporting Diversity Network (RDN) on April 29, 2025. An edited version is being republished on Global Voices under a content partnership agreement with Innovative Media.
“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 a Montenegrin student currently studying in Slovenia. Far from the emigration of young people being solely a Montenegro problem, there are many students from other Balkan countries with a similar story.
Kristijan from North Macedonia is studying mechanical engineering in Ljubljana. The university he attends there is among the best in Eastern Europe for his course of study; it is also the most cost-efficient. He also saves money by living with a few roommates, having been unable secure a place in the 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 […] 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 Balkan youth decide to leave their countries due to poor social, living, and economic conditions. The Friedrich Ebert Foundation's 2024 Youth Study from Southeast Europe shows that in Montenegro, one-fifth of young people expressed a desire to leave.
“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,” David Vukićević, president of the Network for Youth Activism of Montenegro (MOACG), tells Innovative Media (IM).
The United States remains one of the most desirable destinations for young people from the Western Balkans; yet, in 2024, more than a third of the American visa applications in Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania were unsuccessful. In North Macedonia, the rejection rate was 28 percent.
Some decide to stay in Europe
Josif, a 21-year old Macedonian studying Computer Science at the University of Bristol, spends much of his time either in class, or consulting with his professors about projects and grades. Classes consist of presentations and practical work, while study materials – when not in electronic form – can be found in the library.
Alhough he is enjoying his time in the United Kingdom and remains thankful for the Ministry of Education scholarship that afforded him the opportunity, Josif admits he feels “a deeper connection” to his home country: “Even here, I hang out with Macedonians.”
The scholarship Josif was awarded requires the student to be accepted at one of the top 100 universities on the Shanghai List, which ranks global tertiary institutions based on – among other things – the number of scientific papers published in international journals, and the number of Nobel Prize winners they produced. Although none of the North Macedonia’s universities have been included in the Shanghai List in the past few years, the country provides scholarships that cover the majority of student expenses with the understanding that after graduating, beneficiaries must return home to work 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 finds the opportunities abroad much more appealing. Still, he hopes that the knowledge and experience he gains in the UK will attract 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. It is a trend that reflects deeper, systemic issues within North Macedonia’s higher education system. As the number of students leaving the country continues to rise, it raises profound questions about the capacity of its 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 ten percent reduction in the nation’s population because of the significant emigration of highly skilled students.
No jobs for young people
Although there are no official statistics on how many Montenegrins live abroad, data from the Society of Statisticians and Demographers (DSDCG) shows that on the census date in 2023, around a third of Montenegrin citizens, or 213,478 people, were living outside of the country.
Gordana Radojević of the DSDCG explains, “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.”
The population census is currently the only source of data on young people studying abroad. According to the latest poll, 8,230 citizens of Montenegro reside abroad for educational reasons, of which 43 percent – or 3,607 people – are studying in Serbia. MOACG's Vukićević suggests that the data indicates Montenegro lacks an adequate pro-natalist policy, so “young people continue to seek their happiness beyond the borders of their homeland.”
Noting that factors like quality of life, academic success, opportunities for improvement, employment and advancement, and economic independence are key determinants that shape the attitudes of young people, Vukićević tells IM:
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.
While Vukićević acknowledges the continuous efforts of the country's Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation and Ministry of Sports and Youth in improving the position of young people, he also notes that without adequate support from the Ministry of Finance, it would be difficult to achieve tangible results.
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 a regional trend.
IT and engineering
One of the key challenges of migration is the departure of highly educated young people – experts in STEM-related fields like information technology, engineering, and medicine. Unlike the second half of the last century, when the exodus was mainly unskilled labor, many of those leaving now are highly educated.
STEM programs are often viewed as more profitable and more important than the arts – so while North Macedonia has a deep cultural history, the country's arts programs struggle to offer appealing opportunities, causing students of the creative disciplines to seek educational options abroad.
Ivana, a film and photography student at Ithaca College in New York, says that while the US offers more opportunities in the form of networking, film festivals, productions, and publications, she would like 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.”
Digitalized universities
The students interviewed for this article who are studying abroad shared different experiences from those getting their degrees in North Macedonia, where necessities such as digital texts are still a foreign concept.
In 2023, a study by the Forum for Educational Change and European Endowment for Democracy found that digitalization in North Macedonia's public universities is severely underdeveloped. Despite the increasing use of technology in education worldwide, many of the country's tertiary institutions still rely on traditional teaching and learning methods – including the use of physical textbooks and in-person registration, lectures and consultations. Despite the fact that there is an online grading system, the use of paper indexes – as opposed to online resources – is also common.
This research shows a significant digitalization gap in state universities, which need to improve their infrastructure, resources, and training in order to support digitalization – especially since the budget allocated to this remains relatively low.
While the Macedonian Statistics Office does not keep numbers on how many citizens study abroad, it did confirm that there are currently 400 scholarship recipients studying at some of the top 100 international universities.
“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 [which] makes it difficult to assess the overall scope of migration,” explains demographer Miroslav Doderović. “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.”
This continuous emigration, mostly of younger residents, is confirmed by official data from the State Statistics Bureau (Monstat), according to which Montenegro had 615,035 inhabitants in the 1991 census. In 2023, just 32 years later, there were only a few thousand more – 623,633, including over 90,000 foreign nationals. One of the top immigration destinations is Germany, where there are 10,413 Montenegro nationals.
Why leave?
Increasing the efficiency of active labor market programs – with an emphasis on integrating long-term unemployed individuals and young people – can influence the push and pull factors of migration.
“Long-term unemployment is one of the key challenges in Montenegro,” says Doderović. Despite positive trends in the labor market, long-term unemployment was at 72 percent in 2023, compared to total unemployment. In 2019, the country's long-term unemployment rate was about 12 percent. Doderović adds that the largest group among the long-term unemployed are those seeking employment for the first time – “mostly recent graduates.”
Some who leave Montenegro cite the economy as their reason for emigration; others surveyed by Monstat say they moved abroad for family reasons or educational purposes.
According to Monstat, the largest number of registered individuals working or studying abroad comes from Podgorica, with 6,384 people.
However, Doderović believes that to get a more comprehensive understanding of the migration issue – “particularly the structure of the population leaving Montenegro” – detailed research is needed so that policymakers can “more clearly target key problems and propose programs to retain and attract the population.”
The emigration of young people from the Balkans, especially from Montenegro and North Macedonia, is a trend that holds long-term consequences for the development of the region. Despite numerous initiatives aimed at halting the situation – improving the education system, introducing better working conditions, and creating opportunities for youth – joint efforts at the regional, national and international levels are needed to encourage young people to stay and contribute to their countries’ future.
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