Youth Leaving Macedonia Continues

Since state institutions have no information on the number of young people who have left the country, even the profiles of those who have left for work in any of the European Union countries, based on World Bank data, the unemployment rate among young people in Macedonia is over 50 percent.

Ylber Gashi, chairman of the Albanian-language Middle Schools Union, tells Radio Free Europe that there are two main reasons for causing young people to leave the country, a serious economic situation, and a decline in the quality of education.

Besides being the economic causes, youth from Macedonia leaves even because their work -- whether physical or intellectual -- is not well paid, respectively. As for the education process, the conditions of quality are lacking, and on the other hand, even though one completes high - success studies, due to nepotism and political influence, cannot be employed. This displaces young people to see the perspective in the country“, Gashi says.

Otherwise, on the basis of a research carried out by the Coalition of Youth “Sega”, a quarter of young people in Macedonia who are not even involved in the work system do not attend higher education or training to qualify at any cost.

This group should especially be the focus of the country's leading employment authorities' policies, because that's what it is like in developed democratic countries. This is because the appearance of this human capital poses a threat or danger not only to the future of this category but to the whole society because it is about a high figure of young people, respectively, about 25 percent of them. So, you have to do everything you can to get these young people back to the job market through their ability to leave”, says Radio Free Europe, Zoran Iliovski, from the organization that focuses on youth rights “Sega”.

Meanwhile, Samet Shabani, during a research project “Youth Migration”, has come to the conclusion that over the past ten years there are young people with higher education who leave Macedonia mostly.

“Over the last decade, there is an extreme increase in the migration of young people with finished higher education, of course migration known as brain migration, that is, the category of young people who require physical work. I think this is the kind of migration that causes alarming situation for the future of the state, and at this point, the state has to take serious proportions for preventing this” phenomenon.

“in this context, I believe that the implementation of meritocracy, or employment on the basis of merit, and not party play is one of the most important steps for youth to return hope for perspective in the country“, Shabani estimates.

Organisations focusing on young people say Macedonia will pay high costs due to the departure of young people from the country and the rise of the age average.

They point out that there is a disbalancing between what college and what the job market really requires

According to them, one of Macedonia's biggest challenges as a state will be harmonising the requirements between the business sector and the function of establishing a stable perspective for young people.