Over 40,000 citizens of the Republic of Kosovo have renounced their citizenship since 2009, officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs say to Radio Free Europe.
According to the data of the last four years, more than 5,000 citizens gave up on an annually average from the citizenship of Kosovo. The trend of renouncing citizenship has increased since 2014.
In 2014, 5,158 people gave up the citizenship of Kosovo , whereas in 2016 this number has increased to 5,871 persons.Rroksana Qarri, director of the public communications office, says that the largest number of those who lost the citizenship of the Republic of Kosovo come from Kosovo citizens living in Germany.
"The main reasons for renouncing citizenship are acquiring the citizenship of any other European Union country, which does not allow dual citizenship for citizens who are not citizens of the European Union. So, as you can see, it is a question of citizens of the Republic of Kosovo who live in different European Union countries living for a long time in that country and fulfill the legal conditions for obtaining citizenship of that country," says Qarri .
Representatives of civil society in Kosovo consider that one of the reasons for the release of citizens from the citizenship of Kosovo and the acquisition of the citizenship of another state, among other things, is the stagnation that the country has marked in the overall development, in particular the economic one.
Isuf Zejna, from the "Demokracia Plus" organization, in a statement for Radio Free Europe says that the release of citizens of Kosovo from citizenship and acquisition of citizenship of another country is not a good thing that is happening to the state.
"This is the result of the large emigration that we have in Kosovo, due to economic disrespect, our citizens are constantly seeking employment and deployed from their country of birth and seeking prosperity in Western European countries. A number of these states, such as Germany, do not give citizenship to Kosovo citizens without they giving up the citizenship of Kosovo. As a result, citizens are forced to give up the citizenship of Kosovo," says Zejna.
Guilty of all this, Zejna adds, is the society of Kosovo, which, as he says, has failed to create a developed economy, which ensures better welfare for the citizens.
He says that the number of Kosovo citizens living in different countries of the world who will give up their country's citizenship may increase in the future because the opportunities offered by their country of residence, are far bigger than what Kosovo offers them.
"Large economies can offer better conditions to these people than Kosovo. Today you can be the best surgeon in Kosovo, if you do not have a great prospect, low wages are no benefits, on the other hand Western European countries offer tenfold of the salaries they receive (surgeons) in Kosovo and other benefits that Kosovo is unfortunately not competitive to withstand this trend of displacement of people, especially the qualified one," Zejna explains.
According to the data of the Ministry of Diaspora in the Government of Kosovo there are about 400 thousand citizens living in different countries of Europe and the world. These are the results of diaspora registration within the project "You are part of the homeland", published last year.
According to these results, the largest number of Kosovo citizens live in Germany, Switzerland, then Italy, Sweden and Canada.
The number of Kosovo citizens living in different parts of the world is considered to be even greater. The final diaspora registration data are expected to be published in 2021 after the electronic registration is completed, which continues to be active.