GIZ: Diaspora Returning to Serbia in Ever Growing Numbers

The International Migrants Day was marked worldwide on December 18, and Serbia met it with an increased number of returnees from Germany and other European countries. At the same time, the number of those seeking asylum in the countries of the Western Europe is lowering, announced GIZ (German Development Cooperation).

According to the data published in the research by professor Slobodan Cvejic “The Social-Economic Position and Reintegration and Returnees According to the Agreement on Readmission in Serbia 2021”, published by the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia (KIRS) with the support of the global program of the German Development Cooperation “Migrations for Development”, carried out by GIZ, since 2016, the numbers are constantly dropping, both of asylum seekers from Serbia in EU states and of returnees to Serbia under readmission agreements. In 2020, according to the data of KIRS, there were 1,008 registered realized readmissions.

GIZ works on a direct, individual strengthening of the returnees and their better integration into the society within the German Information Center for Migration, Training and Career (DIMAK), which offers counseling and mediation services for both returnees from Germany and third countries who need support with social and economic reintegration and local populace. All the services of the center are free for our citizens.

In cooperation with the partners, the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, the National Employment Service and KIRS, in 2022, it has directly strengthened hundreds of citizens from the vulnerable categories, providing, to returnees from Germany alone, over 3,000 individual support measures.

In 2022, the “Social Center Prokuplje”, whose purpose is to support the returnees and the local vulnerable populace from a joint donation of the German and Japanese governments, and the training center for tailors and sewing machine operators in Raska, thanks to which 130 people have already been employed in the textile sector, which is otherwise experiencing a deficit of workforce, were opened.

In addition to working with the vulnerable populace categories, GIZ also works with highly qualified citizens who were either educated or worked abroad and who have decided to go back to their mother country, within the global GIZ program “Migrations and Diaspora”.

A six of them this year, and 22 over the duration of the whole project, have returned to Serbia and got jobs at public institutions, science institutes and the civil sector. Twelve Serbian experts from the diaspora have realized cooperation in the local market, and the third contest called “Business Ideas for Development”, which provides financial and logistics support to the Serbian diaspora which would contribute to the development of the local market and the creation of specific, modern jobs, through the founding of innovative companies in Serbia, is ongoing.

The campaign of the partner of the program, the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia (CCIS), for attracting entrepreneurs from the diaspora to cooperate with local companies, is also ongoing, and it has been supported by the “Migrations and Diaspora” program by preparing a promotional film, thereby bringing the engagements of the supported returnee experts closer to the audience, the announcement reminds.

Support to institutions is crucial for GIZ, so the global program “Migrations and Diaspora” works to strengthen governmental and non-governmental actors in dealing with the challenges and shaping the possibilities within migration policies. Over 200 representatives of ministries, local self-governments and the civil sector have gone through various training courses which aim to strengthen the capacities of institutions when it comes to migrations, the press release says.

It is added that the German government has set aside over EUR 600,000 for the project of the preparation and implementation of innovative employment policies in local self-governments, which, with the support of the program “Migrations for Development”, have been carried out since December by the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy.

Ministarstvo za rad, zapošljavanje, boračka i socijalna pitanja Republike Srbije

GIZ Beograd

Komesarijat za izbeglice i migracije Republike Srbije

German Development Cooperation

German Information Center for Migration Training and Career

DIMAK

Social Center Prokuplje

Slobodan Cvejic

International Migrants Day

Serbian diaspora

returnees from abroad

asylum seekers from Serbia

Migrations and Diaspora program