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The largest number of citizens who emigrated from Kosovo during the period 2010-2018 was in 2015, when more than 75 thousand citizens left Kosovo. Then in 2016 and 2017, the emigration declined, while in 2018, there was again an increase in emigration, with over 28,000 people deciding to leave the country. The Kosovo Agency of Statistics has not yet released the figures for 2019.
Official migration data includes both regular and irregular migration.
The countries where the citizens of Kosovo have emigrated most from 2010 to 2018 are Germany, France, Austria, Croatia, and other countries.
For the period 2016-2018, it is estimated that Kosovo has lost about 2 percent of the country's population.
Demographer Rifat Blaku, in a statement to media, considers a big problem the number of citizens leaving Kosovo. More worrying, he says, is that the most vital part of the population is leaving the country, so the young people who - he says - are more productive and educated.
"It is a great loss and a major disruption to the demographic, biological structure, and for this it is not only the current time for consideration and discussion, but also for the creation of an effective and practical, political and institutional action to create a migration, which would start from the treatment that migration is controlled, managed, should be temporary to valorize the positive aspects, since they have a large capital and minimize the negative effects of migration,” Blaku says.
Germany, Slovenia, and Croatia, according to a recent report on migration by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, are the countries that result in a marked increase in the acceptance of Kosovar citizens for employment purposes during 2018.
Meanwhile, on March 1, 2020, German labor law is expected to come into force, which regulates in detail the arrival of labor from countries outside the European Union.
With the entry into force of this law, Demush Shasha of the Kosovo Institute for European Policy says there could be an even greater influx of young people from Kosovo and less developed countries leaving the country.
"This law facilitates the movement of people, the movement of workers to Germany, it has the potential for a large influx, we will wait and see the impact this law will have," says Shasha.