“I choose Croatia” Research on the link between return migration and development in the lagging regions of Croatia

With “Biram Hrvatsku”, the Croatian government has laid out a policy measure aimed at incentivizing the return of Croatian internal and international migrants to “economically less developed and demographically weakened areas” in Croatia. By supporting return migration and investment in such regions, the spiral of demographic shrinking and economic decline is supposed to be reverted. This research explores the relationship between policy intentions and outcomes, the benefits and beneficiaries of the ‘Biram Hrvatsku’ program. Through case studies, we investigate the experiences of return migrants – primarily from Germany – who have established themselves in designated areas targeted by the policy. By tracing their paths, we aim to better understand the factors that enable or hinder return migration contributing to (local) development, and the transfer of (in) tangible remittances from one country to another. In addition, we seek to establish, why from its launch the program has been exposed in local media as failing to reach its aim of spurring local revitalisation and development. Ultimately, our research contributes to filling a significant research gap since academic literature on return migration and development has largely overlooked lagging/ peripheral areas in general, and in Croatia respectively. Project team members: Caroline Hornstein Tomić (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences), Ana Budimir (Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Zagreb) and Janine Pinkow-Läpple (Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Development in Transitional Economies and Humboldt University in Berlin)