Causes and Consequences of Depopulation in the Municipality of Kuršumlija

UNIVERSITY THOUGHT doi:10.5937/univtho9-19242 Publication in Natural Sciences, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2019, pp. 49-56. Original Scientific Paper CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF DEPOPULATION IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF KURŠUMLIJA MILEN VASILJEVIĆ1, DANIJELA VUKOIČIĆ1*, ALEKSANDAR VALJAREVIĆ1 1Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Priština, Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia ABSTRACT The municipality of Kuršumlija is located in the South of Serbia, encompassing the area of 952 km². According to the census from 2011, it is inhabited by 19,213 people. During the last decades, the municipality is facing the rapid decrease in the number of inhabitants, caused by natural and social factors. The manuscript analyzes the demographic changes reflected in the migration and structure of population in the period after 1948, along with the beginning of the industrial development, to 2011, when the municipality experienced the crash of economy. The analysis established that the municipality of Kuršumlija became emigrational area, especially after the closure of large industrial facilities which were the pillars of development. The young ones and those able for work were forced to leave their hearths, in search for employment and survival. All the settlements of Kuršumlija were included in the negative demographic processes reflected in the constant decrease of population. Big problem was also the intensity of inhabitants’ ageing, and lessening of the percentage of young ones, which points out that the municipality is in the phase of the deepest demographic age. The worrying fact is that the tendency of the population rate decrease in the settlements of Kuršumlija ‘municipality is prolonged. Keywords: Demographic changes, Depopulation, Migration, Population, Households. immigration because of the high life standard and possibility of INTRODUCTION employment. Migrations represent voluntary or enforced leaving of the In the countries which people emigrated from, negative demographic trends led to the decrease of birth rate, higher place of permanent residence for a certain period of time (Bakić, mortality rate and the intense ageing of population (Heleniak, 1977). They can be of permanent or temporary character 2015). (Vojković, 2007). One of the roughest division is on legal and In the past, Serbia was always an emigrational area with illegal, i.e. voluntary and enforced (Bakić, 1977). Migrations of long history and wide territorial dispersion of emigration (Grćić, population may have positive and negative effects. The positive 2010). The second half of the 20th century was marked by ones are provision of better life conditions for migrants and their migration and transitory movements on the territory of Serbia as families, whereas the negative ones are total or partial voidance well as in the Balkans in general. In the first half of the 20th of certain areas and depopulation of the same (Blagojević, 2016). century, there were certain demographic changes being caused In the last fifty years the number of migrants has been very big by the late and intense modernization and urbanization (Rudić, and it is constantly increasing. The inhabitants of those parts of 1978). They brought about the intense migration of the work the world endangered by war are those who are migrating most force on the relation between a country and a city (Maksimović, often, especially from the area of Middle East, Israel and Syria 1996). The last decade of the 20th century is characterized by (Bobić et al., 2014). Europe has been always attracting migrants, economic issues which encompassed all the regions in Serbia, thus constantly facing the large inflow of population. According and contributed to the emigration mostly of those able for work, to the United Nations‟ records, more than 50 million people as well as highly qualified people to the countries of Western migrated to Europe in the second half of the 20th, and the beginning of the 21st century (Morokvasić, 2013). Those parts of Europe (Маrinović, 1999). According to the Statistical office of the Republic of Serbia, there are 313,411 people currently living the world to which people mostly migrate suffer enormous abroad for the purpose of temporary work (2011), mostly in demographic changes, which could be both positive and Austria and then in Germany and Switzerland. Migrations caused negative. When it comes to its structure, Europe is becoming by the political situation occurred at the end of the 20th and the more and more diverse due to the large inflow of young people. beginning of the 21st century, with the escalation of conflict One of the negative consequences of migration is that the between Serbians and Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija, which population moving in is at the lower level of culture, therefore ended with the air attack of NATO against Serbia in March, 1999 these differences may cause the crash of a state and its welfare. (Маrinović, 1999). Due to endangered safety, a large number of Member countries of EU are most often those chosen for Kosovo‟ residents, running from persecution and war, inhabited borderland and central parts of the Republic of Serbia. These internal dispersions have significantly changed the structure of * Corresponding author: [email protected] population in the areas they inhabited. One of the negative GEOGRAPHY, GEOSCIENCE AND ASTRONOMY 49 tendencies of migrations in Serbia was the spatial concentration Republic of Serbia. Kuršumlija is the largest municipality in the of inhabitants in large urban environments, which caused low Toplica region, to which its territory belongs. It spreads between fertility rate, thus the intense ageing of the local inhabitants and Radan mountain in the East, Majdan mountain and mountain depopulation (Bobić et al., 2014). pass Prepolac in the South and Kopaonik in the West. It borders The topic of this research is the analysis of causes and with seven municipalities: in the North the municipality of Blace, consequences of demographic changes in the settlements of the in the northeast the municipality of Prokuplje, in the South and municipality of Kuršumlija. The task of the research is to point to southeast with the municipalities of Bojnik and Medveđa, in the demographic changes, especially in the structure, which occurred South the municipality of Podujevo, in the west the municipality within the period between 1948 and 2011, and which were the of Leposavić, and in the northwest the municipality of Brus. The result of economic underdevelopment, as well as the analysis of administrative center is the city of the same name, Kuršumlija, movement and migrations of the overall population, which was which spreads on the surface of 1, 131 ha of urban territory conducted based on the statistical data collected from these (Vukoičić, 2014). The municipality of Kuršumlija encompasses periods „census and field research. The results of the research 88 settlements according to the records from 2011, with 19,213 should point to the consequences, which would be the ground for inhabitants. The distance of the municipality from Belgrade is taking the appropriate measures to remove the flaws of SWOT 307 km, through Niš, and 266 km through Kruševac. The analysis. It is necessary to use the chance given and prevent distance of the municipality from Priština is 66 km through possible threats. Merdare and 62 km through the mountain pass Prepolac. THEORETICAL PART EXPERIMENTAL Study area Materials and methods The municipality of Kuršumlija is located in southern In the summer of 2018, field researches were conducted in Serbia, in the Toplica region. It is spread between 42°52'33" and 20 rural settlements on the territory of the municipality of 43°8'27" of northern latitude and between 19°09'28" and Kuršumlija. Five out of twenty of them are at the very border 21°16'4" of eastern longitude (Figure 1). with Kosovo and Metohija (Trmka, Dabinovac, Mačja Stena, Rastelica and Mrča) (Vukoičić & Nikolić, 2013). Field researches and questionnaires for 120 inhabitants of different educational level and social status, confirmed the facts stated about the change in the overall number of inhabitants in the settlements of Kuršumlija as well as the prominence of migrations. Based on the same questionnaires, five interviews have been conducted, with people from Kosovo and Metohija. People who finished primary and high school, mostly from the countries, as well as highly educated people working in public facilities, or those currently unemployed, participated in the questioning. Bad demographic picture is conditioned by the closure of large industrial facilities, which were the pillars of this area‟s development and the only chance for survival on this territory. In the period between 1948 and 2011, settlements on the territory of the municipality of Kuršumlija are characterized by negative demographic trends, caused by the intense emigration of population from this area (Vukoičić et al., 2011). The study analyzes the circumstances which cause the massive emigration of population, through questionnaires and statistical analysis. Statistic method processes all the data from the enlisted censuses. Questionnaire data were processed in the statistical programme SPSS 21. Figure 1. Position of the Municipality of Kuršumlija in the GIS analysis has shown all the settlements in which territory of Serbia. depopulation is total (with no residents, below 49 residents; from 50 to 199 residents; from 200 to 499; 500 to 999; 1,000 to 1,999 According to its surface (952 km²), the municipality of and above 2000 residents). Kuršumlija belongs to one of the largest municipalities in the GEOGRAPHY, GEOSCIENCE AND ASTRONOMY 50 NUMERICAL RESULTS 37, 284 inhabitants out of whom 2,797 were living in the city and The results of the research 34,489 in other settlements. In the same year, the density of population was 33.9 residents/km². In the settlements of the municipality of Kuršumlija there In 1953, the number increased to 39,772 inhabitants out of are currently 19,213 inhabitants, with the average age of 35.7 whom 3,134 were living in the city and 34,487 in the other years (34.6 for men and 36.8 for women).

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