No unequivocal answer exists to the question of whether or not it’s a good thing for the Serbian workforce that it’s increasingly gaining foreign employers who aren’t registered in Serbia. And the answer to the issue of competitiveness certainly doesn’t lie in converting masses of workers into freelancers
One hypothesis regarding the ever-decreasing attractiveness of the Western Balkans to foreign employers is that they are already taking advantage of Serbia’s talent, knowledge and cheap labour, while they are also importing labour from this region at an accelerated rate, particularly when it comes to employers in the EU.
If we look at rising telemigration in this context, i.e., at the increasing number of workers from Serbia who are working online for foreign employers not registered in Serbia, a question arises as to whether these workers have also been lost to the local economy despite being physically located in the country. We discussed this with our interlocutors.