Characteristics of migration from Serbia to Slovakia (on the example of the municipality of Kovačica)

Due to numerous transformation problems which determined the collapse of the industrial sector, unemployment and low living standards, an increasing number of working population leaves Serbia. For a very long time, Serbian emigration was directed primarily to the developed Western European countries (especially Germany and Austria). However, Slovakia has recently joined the narrow circle of countries-destinations for emigrants from Serbia. The article focuses on this wave of the working population emigration from Serbia to Slovakia and considers it in the framework of the contemporary migration theories, especially the push-and-pull factors theory. The research data was compared with the relevant data from previous studies. The research was conducted in the municipality of Kovačica (northern Serbia) with a questionnaire on the sample of 100 respondents (the ‘snowball’ method was applied), and the authors also used various other data sources: statistical data (censuses, migration statistics, etc.), media reports and scientific papers. Given the unfavorable social-economic context of the Serbian working population emigration and the chosen theoretical framework, the authors considered economic factors as crucial for this wave of migration, which seems to be similar to the previous waves of migration. In general, this assumption was confirmed: emigrants from Serbia go to Slovakia for a variety of reasons, but the key ones are the small salary in Serbia, the impossibility to find a job in one’s profession, and a poor financial and political situation in the country. On the other hand, Slovakia attracts Serbian migrants by offering possibilities to earn more money, to have higher living standards, better conditions for education and work, thus, promising a better and predictable future.