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In Croatia this year, until the beginning of October, the Ministry of the Interior (MUP) issued more than 133 residence and work permits to foreigners coming from third countries. The largest part of permits was issued in construction, tourism and hospitality, as in all these years. More specifically, over 40 work permits for foreigners were requested in tourism.
It is interesting that the number of issued work permits for foreigners has exceeded the number of unemployed in the records of the Croatian Employment Service (HZZ), which is currently less than 110 thousand, writes Poslovni dnevnik.
Despite the great liberalization and speeding up of the process of applying for work permits for foreigners, as well as many agencies that offer their mediation, employers are still worried because the labor force is in short supply every day. Although everyone is currently struggling to just fill the necessary quota for the number of employees, the bigger problem is the lack of qualified workers, which is little talked about.
Yesterday, HRT published a new HRating survey related to the point of view of Croatian citizens regarding the employment of foreign workers. The survey was conducted from November 14 to 17 on a sample of 1100 respondents, with a margin of error of +/- 3,54% and a confidence level of 95%.
On Question do they support the employment of foreign workers in Croatia, 46,4% of respondents answered that they fully or mostly support, 37,2% mostly or not at all, while 6,4% of respondents did not know or did not want to answer that question.
As an argument why respondents support the employment of foreign workers more than half, 55,2% of them, state that we have to hire foreigners because there are no local workers. Part of the respondents, 11,2% to be exact, believe that domestic workers do not want to perform lower-paid jobs, 10,6% believe that without foreign workers some branches of the Croatian economy would cease, and 7,8% believe that foreign workers are more loyal to their employers than domestic workers.
Those who they do not support the employment of foreign workers they believe that foreigners endanger the jobs and salaries of Croatian workers (32,2%), over 17% of respondents believe that they do not know our language, culture and customs and that they do not even want to learn, 16,9% believe that domestic employers exploit foreign workers while 13,4% of them believe that they are not as professional and reliable as Croatian workers.
On the other hand, the question is which ones they are the biggest problem of foreign workers in Croatia. For the majority of respondents, 36,9%, it is ignorance of the Croatian language, culture and customs, 13,9% believe that they are poorly paid for the work they do, 9,5% of foreign workers live in inhumane conditions, while 8,3% believe that their biggest problem is the prejudice that Croatian citizens have towards them.
Foreign workers complain that Croatia is expensive to live in and ask for better conditions.
Also, another interesting thing is how foreign workers began to complain that Croatia is expensive to live in and are looking for better conditions.
Sunil Bam, vice-president of the Nepalese association, which was founded last year by the Nepalese association in Croatia, recently commented to N1 that their biggest problem is finding a job because many came as seasonal workers and lost their jobs after the season.
Last year, they founded an association of Nepalese in Croatia, and the biggest problem for them is finding a job because many came as seasonal workers and lost their jobs after the season. "Many Nepalis were told upon arrival at the airport that their visas had been canceled and were deported. It is the mistake of the company that allowed them to come and on the basis of which they got the visa. The whole process takes a couple of months and that's a long time. Croatia is more expensive than Nepal, we would like a salary of around 1.000 euros if we have to pay for accommodation and food. It is actually very expensive", concluded Bam.
We are still only putting out the fire in the short term, to fill the quota we need, and the issues and implications for our labor market, as well as the economy, are much broader. But it's as if we still haven't learned anything.
The demographic picture in Croatia is getting worse, there are more and more retirees, while at the same time young people continue to leave Croatia, and the number of foreign workers is growing. What is the long-term goal and meaning of everything? What are the implications? What is the root of the problem? ... - many questions, but no answers.
Sources: HRT, Business diary , N1, / Photo: CA Creative on Unsplash
