Migration Flows in Southeast Europe, a Compendium of National Perspectives CIP – Каталогизација у публикацији Народна библиотека Србије, Београд 314.15(497)(082) 314.151.3-054.73(4-12)(082) 331.556.442(497)(082) MIGRATION Flows in Southeast Europe, a Compendium of National Perspectives / [editor Vladimir Petronijević]. – Belgrade : Grupa 484, 2007 (Beograd : Sinag). – 240 str. : graf. prikazi, tabele ; 24 cm Tiraž 700. – Napomene i bibliografske reference uz tekst. – Bibliografija uz svako poglavlje. ISBN 978-86-86001-15-3 а) Миграције – Балканске државе – Зборници b) Избеглиштво – Југоисточна Европа – Зборници c) Радници мигранти – Балканске државе – Зборници COBISS.SR-ID 139726348 MIGRATION FLOWS IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE, A COMPENDIUM OF NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES BELGRADE APRIL, 2007 Publisher: Group 484 For the Publisher Miodrag SHRESTHA Language editor Paula WILLIS Rebecca KASTLEMAN Lucy MOORE Nataša GRBA SINGH Editor Vladimir PETRONIJEVIĆ Graphics Design Marko ZAKOVSKI Printed by SINAG d.o.o. Beograd, Braće Jerković 72 Press Run 700 April 2007 ISBN 978-86-86001-15-31 Contents Introduction 7 Strengthening cross-border cooperation in the Western Balkan regarding migration management – Croatia, Saša Božić, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Zadar 11 Strengthening cross-border cooperation in the Western Balkan regarding migration management – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Draško Marinković, As- sistant Professor, Population Geography – Demography, University of Banja Luka 45 Strengthening cross-border cooperation in the Western Balkan regarding migration management – Serbia (including Kosovo) and Republic of Mon- tenegro, Vladimir Grečić, Phd, Institute for International Politics and Economy, Vladimir Petronijević, Legal Analyst, Group 484, Paula Willis, Policy Intern, Group 484 77 Strengthening cross-border cooperation in the Western Balkan regarding migration management – Romania, Sebastian Lazaroiu, Associate Professor, National School for Political and Administrative Studies – SNSPA Managing Director, Centre for Urban and Regional Sociology – CURS SA 109 Strengthening cross-border cooperation in the Western Balkan regarding migration management – Bulgaria, Anna Krasteva, Associate Professor, Di- rector, Dept. of Political Sciences, CERMES (Centre for Refugees, Migration and Ethnic Studies), New Bulgarian University, Sofia 163 Strengthening cross-border cooperation in the Western Balkan regarding migration management- Macedonia, Ivan Bimbilovski, PhD, Zhidas Das- kalovski, PhD, Sanja Kostovska, Marija Risteska, MPA, Centre for Research and Policy Making (CRPM), Skopje 195 Regional Conference on ‘Migration Flows in Southeast Europe’ Belgrade, February 27-28, 2007,an Overview and Conclusions 238 Introduction The increasing salience of global migration can be most obviously per- ceived through figures: in 2005 there were nearly 200 million international mi- grants who have lived outside their country for more than one year (including 9.2 million refugees). This is equivalent to the population of Brazil, the world’s 5th largest country. One person in 35 world-wide (or 3% of the world’s population) is an international migrant.1 Recent developments in the international community demonstrate the im- portance being accorded to international migration. In January 2006, a new posi- tion of UN Envoy for Migration and Development was created, indicative of the close linkages between migration and development. Migration is also closely connected to security issues, economics, trafficking and asylum. Further re- search on these issues at the global and local levels is needed. A constant increase in internal displacement over the past 25 years continues to pose a serious chal- lenge to development. Unfortunately, during the last decade of the twentieth century, the region of Southeast Europe was beset by conflicts generating thousands of IDPs in the region and refugees all over Europe. As a consequence of these conflicts, eco- nomic devastation and serious political instability during the 1990’s, the area of South East Europe became a neuralgic European point from the aspect of migration flows management. “The Balkans is often referred to in documents on regional cooperation as the area with 55 million people. This holds true, however, only until Romania and Bulgaria become members of the EU. Since that moment, and especially af- ter the accession of Croatia, it will be a 20-million people market…We are faced with a very serious question: What is the region of South Eastern Europe?”2 The 1 Migration in an interconnected world: New directions for action’, Report of the GCIM, October 2005 2 Goran Svilanović, Round Table on Regional Cooperation in SEE, Belgrade, October 3, 2005 7 EU visa regime is also problematic with some countries of the region, as well as visa regimes among SEE countries which are growing ‘more severe.’”3 Of particular importance for migration in South Eastern Europe is the Ti- rana Declaration, of April 5, 2005, which identified the most sensitive issues concerning free movement of persons and capital in the region. Priority was given to the following issues: visa facilitation within the region and with the EU and Schengen countries. The specific steps the countries will undertake include: “exchange of information, including warning and mutual alerting on suspected illegal transit flows and consular cooperation, according to best practices of- fered by the EU.”4 These provisions are consistent with the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM) conclusions in its report “Migration in an interconnected world: New directions for action” (October 2005) that the in- ternational community has failed to capitalize on the opportunities and to meet the challenges associated with international migration: there is a serious lack of capacity required to formulate and implement effective migration policies and a lack of resources needed to monitor and evaluate the impact of policies and programmes; there is no coherent migration policies; migration policies are not taken into consideration when important decisions are taken in the area of development, trade, aid and the labor market; better communication and cooperation is needed between states but also other stakeholders that could contribute to the formulation and implementation of migration policies (private and civil sector, trade unions, local authorities etc) on sub-regional, regional and global levels. One of the GCIM recommendations is that the governance of international migration should be enhanced by improved coherence and strengthened capacity at the national level and greater consultation and cooperation between states at the regional level. This is exactly what our project Strengthening cross-border cooperation in the Western Balkan regarding migration management, sup- ported by Balkan Trust for Democracy and the publication Migration flows in South East Europe, a Compendium of national perspectives wants to con- tribute to. To work toward the full cooperation of all relevant institutions in the re- gion of South East Europe with a view of developing a systematic approach in the field of migration movements, the project undertook several key activi- ties. Coordinated by Group 484 in Belgrade, Serbia, a regional study team has been formed with representatives in each country. The task of each member is to document the implementation of migration policies in their respective countries with an eye to gauging adherence to European and international human rights standards. The scope of this research included forced migration, ethnic migra- 3 Milan Parivodić, Round Table on Regional Cooperation in SEE, Belgrade, October 3, 2005 4 Group 484, “Towards the White Schengen List”, February 2006, pg 47 8 tion (for reasons of discriminations or economics), trafficking, and temporary or incomplete migration. The emphasis on these different migration patterns has been varying from country to country, but all included a situation analysis detailing migration flows, security issues, institutional context, and the extent of cross-border and inter-sec- tor cooperation, as well as a legal analysis with an overview of each country’s international and European human rights obligations, and an analysis of the im- plementation of migration mechanisms through the human rights lens. The creation of the research team forms the foundation for regional coop- eration. The country studies developed by the research team have been presented at a three day conference which was held at the Sava Center in Belgrade on February 27-28, 2007. The Conference, which gathered 98 participants from Southeast Europe in two days, was formally opened with welcomes from Miodrag Shrestha, Group 484 Executive Director, Aleksandar Čotrić, State Secretary of the Ministry of the Diaspora in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and Goran Svilanović, Chairman of Working Table I of the Stability Pact of East Europe. Together these three speakers identified the themes which ran throughout the two conference days, namely the inseparability of migration flows, European integration and development, the identification of the best roles for state institutions, academics, civil society and advocacy efforts, and means to harness the benefits of emigra- tion, particularly of diaspora communities abroad. The first set of speakers addressed the structural considerations behind mi- gration flows in Southeast Europe. Coming from academic, political, advocacy and non profit institutions, the speakers brought