Last year over five thousand Kosovo citizens have given up substatement

Over 5 thousand citizens of the Republic of Kosovo have abandoned Kosovo's substatement only in 2019 to elect one of the states of the European Union, which does not allow duality.

Refusing Kosovo's substate has marked large numbers in recent years. According to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo, the substates that Kosovo citizens mostly obtain are German, Austrian, Slovenian, Croatian, etc. Citizens who have changed their citizenship are not satisfied with their decision, even though they have done so for a better future for their families and children.

Forced to Eliminate State

Fatime Recica, who now lives 20 years in Germany along with her husband and three children, has been forced to give up the citizenship of the Republic of Kosovo, only for her children to have equal conditions in the state they are standing in. She says it was one of the most difficult decisions in her life, but there was no other way.

The “has been a very difficult decision together with the decision, when I have decided to leave Kosovo. We have barely made our country, and now we are forced to give up the right to be a legal part of that state”, says Recica.

But she admits, that accepting German citizenship has its priorities.

And actually, everything is easier for us, but primarily for children, living here, to be equipped with German documents. But that does not mean I will forget Kosovo. Normally, in Kosovo we will continue to come as usual. It is a bit unfair that Germany does not allow for dual citizenship, for it has moved us to make a difficult choice. But, Kosovo will never leave”, she has said.

Gentiana Krasniqi, who was born in Pristina and has been living in Germany since the age of four, has made the same decision. Even that decision to give up the citizenship of the Republic of Kosovo has only been taken because the German state does not allow keeping two citizenships.

Even though I grew up and educated in Germany, I have become very late German citizens, even though the basic conditions on the part of the Republic of Germany have been met since. Germany does not allow the possession of two citizenships, so I have renounced the citizenship of the Republic of Kosovo. The main reason I went into the procedure for German citizenship so late was the reason that in the Laundry, where I live, it is required that Serb citizenship and the substatement of the Republic of Kosovo -- two citizenships, even though I never had my Serbian passport” -- Krasniqi said.

She says not only leaving Kosovo citizenship worries her, but also removing so many young people from Kosovo.

I'm worried about this fact. It's just about travel or moving to another country. But I understand every individual who does. So every decision has to be respected because no one gives a piece of identity for fun. Especially those who have children want a healthy future for their families. I'm not saying that outside Kosovo and the EU is anything better, but each should have the same rights, gather their experiences, and then make assessments”, Krasniqi says.

Sociology Alert

While analysts and sociologists assess the situation in Kosovo as alarming. Worried by the large number of citizenship resignations, Professor and analyst Nexmedin Spahiu has also indicated.

“The abandoning of Kosovo's citizenship is a consequence of non-cultivated homeland love in the past two decades, the result of a completely failed educational system”, Spahiu says.

According to him, even a turned-in cultural life and the return of corruption as a life - style have played a role.

At postwar times, the first three ministries given to locals were education, culture and health. Apparently, this was an early step, when we were still immature as societies, as a nation. Then privatisation took place also early, when Kosovo society was unprepared for this step. All of this caused the level of patriotism in Kosovo to be very low”, he says.

According to the 2019 youth study data conducted by the German foundation Friedrich Ebert Stiftung approximately 40 per cent of Kosovo Albanians want to migrate for a short period of less than five years. Economic reasons are cited as the main reason for migration by about 63 percent of those who want to leave Kosovo to move to another country.

Switzerland and Germany are the favourite countries for migration by Kosovars, they are the favourite in 49 percent of cases. In 49 percent of cases. Sociologists estimate that if this pace of giving up on the citizenship of the Republic of Kosovo by Kosovo citizens continues, the state will have major problems.

Professor and sociologist Fadil Maloku says the state's “brain is being deployed in Kosovo and the region. If this trend of “continues” or even the mandatory departure of Kosovo's youth from substate as well as still Kosovo's infantial, the consequences will certainly be alarming. All over the world is a kind of recession, in the region as well, and I think that the Government of Kosovo would have to take some preventative measures, in a way to ease the frustration of such massive exits to restart Kosovo from their country”, Maloku says.

Receive of Albanian, Serbian citizenship

Visa failure, unable to see developed states, high unemployment rates in Kosovo have enabled Kosovo citizens to find other options to travel freely. Some of them have decided that along with Kosovo citizenship, they will have Serbian citizenship at the same time in order to move freely.

Leutrim Bajrami from Pristina has had three years of dual citizenship in the Republic of Kosovo and Serbia.

I have a Serbian citizenship three years from the state of Serbia, because my wife is from Bujanovac, a town populated with Albanians in the Serbian state, and since my crown has been made in Serbia and the birth of my child as well, then I have been granted the right to join my family there. Serbia's passport is used mainly for travel, but there are many other facilities such as access to Serbian medicine and hospitals, as I have had health problems, it is very easy, quick and professional than in the Republic of Kosovo”, Bajrami says.

In addition to Kosovo citizens, who have decided to have Kosovo's passport and passport of another neighbouring state, there are Albanian politicians and artists from Kosovo who are equipped with Albania's passport. Era Istrefi, Majlinda Kelmendi, Edita Tahiri and others are just some of the names of known personalities in Kosovo who own Albanian state passport.

Sociologist Maloch sees this critical. Kosovo politicians' equipment with Albanian state passports and their recommendation for Kosovo citizens who cannot move freely so that they do not leave Kosovo, he sees it as degradation and a very bad mirror for the country's citizens.

This is a degradation and bad mirror for the citizens of the country. So they can understand who actually leads this delayed society as well as the societies of the region and those of the continent. Albanian societies around the border are in crisis: moral, social, political, especially economic and cultural. One phenomenon, which is undoubtedly conveying the bloodbath of Kosovo's statehood process, is that of the excess of politicisation or tendency of the re-definition, of everything that produced in the meantime social and political life in the lubesis of the consolidation of state institutions and the redefining of the new democratic cause”, Maloku concludes.