Out of a population of almost 5.5 million, “the general consensus is that between 300,000 and 350,000 Slovak citizens currently live abroad, irrespective of the purpose, length or legal form of their stay,” according to migration expert Boris Divinsky. About half of them live either in Austria, Germany, or the UK.

The young and educated, hailing from the country’s main cities or from the poorer east, are the driving force behind a dynamic that has left a low-immigration, fast-ageing society crippled of a vast youth potential. Young students and workers have been leaving the country since the 1990s, but the trend gathered pace following the 2004 EU accession, which opened Europe’s borders to a whole new generation of young Slovak emigrants.

About 241,000 students were enrolled in Slovakia’s higher education system in 2008. Last year, that figure stood at 133,000. “At least one-fourth of university students head or intend to go abroad at the end of their studies,” Divinsky explains.

For years, the number of Slovaks leaving annually for studies has remained somewhat constant. But with simply fewer Slovaks of university age than two decades ago, their share has kept on increasing.

Is the Czech grass greener?

Popular destinations for young Slovak emigres range from the likes of Austria, Germany, France or the UK, to faraway destinations like the US. But one doesn’t need to look further than next door to find the main magnet attracting Slovakia’s mobile youth.

Geographical and cultural proximity, the lack of language barriers and the possibility to study for free in higher-ranked universities make the Czech Republic the obvious choice. About 70 per cent of Slovaks pursuing their studies abroad do so just across the country’s western border, mostly in Prague and Brno.

“It’s halfway between home and the world,” aptly summarises Erika Hajzokova, a 20-year-old student from Slovakia who moved to Prague a few months ago.

Like her, more than 20,000 students from Slovakia are annually enrolled in Czech universities, and over 230,000 Slovaks are currently employed in the Czech Republic, twice as many as ten years ago. The huge presence of Slovaks in the workforce indicates that the move, for many of them, is not a short-term ploy to enjoy better study opportunities a few hours’ drive away, but a thoughtful decision to build a career or start a family away from home.

In search of higher living standards

Economic factors have long been the driving force to move west and explain why many highly skilled Slovaks choose Austria or Germany to pursue a more lucrative career.

Slovakia’s long-standing socio-economies woes and regional inequalities, especially compared to the nagging performance of its sister nation, provide an acute illustration of why the choice of the Czech Republic comes so naturally.

With a youth unemployment rate of 13 per cent – up to 20 per cent in poorer eastern Slovakia, which provides the bulk of young Slovak emigres – eyes naturally turn to neighbouring Czech Republic, which has boasted the EU’s lowest jobless rate for years and where local businesses have long relied on foreign, including Slovak, workers to fill vacancies.

Even for those able to land a job at home, the spoils enjoyed abroad are liable to be much more attractive and the living standards higher. With the third-lowest GDP per capita in the EU over 30 per cent lower than the bloc’s average, Slovakia, rather than converging with Western European standards, has been losing ground in recent years, Eurostat data shows.

A Eurozone member since 2009, Slovakia may not be a rich country, but it’s a comparatively expensive one: prices are just 10 per cent lower than the EU average (second only to Cyprus among the EU’s 2004 enlargement wave). A few hours away, the Czech Republic offers greater bargaining power for employees, and stronger purchasing power for consumers.

Not just about the money

But it’s not all about getting a heftier paycheck at the end of the month. Reasons to leave Slovakia run deeper, pointing to more systemic problems which, left unaddressed, will continue to push young Slovaks to search for greener pastures.

In a survey by the Bratislava-based Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) that found that more than 60 per cent of university graduates in Slovakia are considering leaving the country, authors point to four overarching factors to explain their disenchantment with home.

On top of the socio-economic problems, including living standards and job opportunities, respondents cite “dysfunctional state and public institutions” (corruption, and shortcomings in the social and healthcare systems), the failings of the education system, as well as “socio-cultural backwardness” (conservatism, nepotism, xenophobia) as key factors to explain the human capital flight.

These are no small matters, and point to structural political, economic and cultural deficiencies which, added up, paint an unappealing picture of Slovakia that many young citizens are unable to identify with.

But personal experiences vary. “Coming back to Slovakia was quite natural for me,” Pavel Soral told BIRN. “I never really wanted to leave despite Slovakia’s troubling issues, such as soaring corruption, crumbling healthcare and ever-present nepotism.”

Likening his relationship with his native country to “Stockholm Syndrome”, he added: “Like it or not, it looks like I was predestined to be Slovakia-bound for life.”

Brain-drain or brain-gain?

The clock, however, is ticking. From the demographic and economic standpoints, Slovakia’s youth emigration will only exacerbate existing problems, worsen regional inequalities, and aggravate the shortage of skilled labour, especially in key sectors like healthcare.

“Brain-drain in Slovakia has a long-term and serious character, with a multitude of societal consequences,” Divinsy, who was involved in drafting the government’s return migration policy, told BIRN.

“But a comprehensive family policy, interconnected with demographic, migration and other policies, is still missing in the country,” he admitted.

One of Europe’s youngest countries in the 1980s, Slovakia is ageing fast. The country could lose 1 million of its current 3.65-million population of productive age by 2060, while the share of elderly has already increased by nearly 5 percentage points in only ten years, reaching 17 per cent in 2021.

Although Slovakia has been accepting a growing number of foreigners in its midst, their share remains marginal, at about 3 per cent of its total population. That means there are at least twice as many Slovaks living abroad as foreigners currently residing in the country.

As the demographic balance shifts, the strain on the notoriously understaffed and underfunded healthcare and pension systems will only worsen. The country’s fertility rate may have slightly increased in recent years after a post-1989 drop, but there are now fewer women of childbearing age, and an appreciable number of them are living abroad: experts believe that one in every tenth child is born outside of Slovakia.

As a result, the country’s population could start shrinking in the 2030-2040 decade. To these demographic trends, one should add an additional layer of uncertainty, directly prompted by Slovakia’s emigration drive, that makes forecasting and policymaking an even more complex equation.

As many as 200,000-300,000 people included in last year’s census may not actually be living in Slovakia – a statistical glitch linked to the fact that Slovaks usually do not inform pertinent offices of their expatriation, keep an official residence address in the country, or simply commute back and forth on a weekly basis, a situation typical of those working in Austria or Hungary for instance.

Not knowing exactly how many Slovaks are abroad, and how long they’re staying, makes it harder to assess the impact of the brain-drain. Or know whether Slovakia is truly and permanently being drained of its best and brightest.

In the aforementioned IVO survey, although half of young and educated Slovaks are considering leaving Slovakia, only about 14 per cent declare they wish to move out permanently.

A 2020 study by the Slovak Sociological Institute estimated that about 40 per cent of them would return to Slovakia within two years after the end of their studies. Wait a few more years, and the ratio would shift to 50-50. Several others studies have shown that most expatriates believe they will “eventually” return to Slovakia, although they remain undecided as to when.

Reasons to come home are manifold, according to Slovakia’s State Secretary Ludovit Paulis. “The biggest motivation is family, and other most common reasons for Slovaks to return include the opportunity to participate in a change that will significantly affect Slovakia, or interest in helping to improve the quality of their field,” he told BIRN through his office.

The ambiguous nature of Slovakia’s youth emigration may be a reason for its constancy. If only temporary, it could constitute a direct ‘brain-gain’ for Slovakia, and provide an excuse for inaction. Why invest in structural education reform if tens of thousands of Slovaks, educated and trained abroad, come home in their mid-to-late 20s, thus increasing the stock of human capital at no cost?

This is a reasoning based on the rightful premise that Slovakia has a lot to gain from returnees, but which could also feed, in turn, a lack of investments in key areas and provide additional arguments for some Slovaks to leave in the first place.

The urgency of the situation, however, has prompted the Slovak government to adopt measures to retain or attract back their young talents. After humbly admitting that Slovakia “was not sufficiently prepared” and lacked “programs for the integration of returning workers” in their 2011 policy document, the authorities have now highlighted the issue within their Agenda 2030 framework.

Launched by the Ministry of Education in 2015, the Návrat Domov (“Home-coming”) program acknowledged the seriousness of the issue and planned a total of 3 million euros in grants over three years for young Slovaks to come back home.

A step in the right direction, but one which fails to address more structural flaws. An insightful 2019 survey highlighted the limits of this approach: more worried about systemic problems surrounding R&D funding or the sector’s lack of transparency, most academics working abroad consider a one-off scheme an insufficient incentive to lure them back home.

“Today, the need to ‘attract brains’ is primarily addressed by Slovakia’s Recovery and Resilience Plan,” State Secretary Paulis told BIRN. “It introduces a scholarship scheme for domestic (1,400 students per year) and foreign students (200) with excellent academic performance in order to motivate them to study at Slovak universities.”

“A program for the management of diaspora relations is also being created,” according to the State Secretary, “the aim of which will be to maintain contact with Slovaks abroad and increase the likelihood that they will return home.”

In total, Slovakia’s plan earmarked 106 million euros for the “attraction and retainment of talents”. It comes in addition to the government’s Strategy for Internationalisation of Higher Education until 2030, which foresees various programs to strengthen international student mobility in both directions: increase the availability of study programs for foreign students at Slovak universities and provide more international opportunities for Slovak students.

With the right incentives, it appears that more than a few would be willing to return home.

“I am quite keen on going back to Slovakia,” confides Erika Hajzokova. “Yes, we have corruption, political scandals, an underpaid public sector, dysfunctional roads, education and healthcare. But who is going to change all that? I’m not saying I am, but I am not despairing”, she adds, echoing a yearning and readiness for change shared by many her age.

Whether they leave or stay, younger generations have Slovakia’s fate, and wellbeing, at heart. That alone bodes well for the future.