Considering educational qualification and unemployment structures in Serbia, my opinion is that this measure could only increase the pressure on workers in Serbia to accept lower paying jobs
I don’t have high expectations when it comes to the establishing of free access to the labour market in the Western Balkans. It could – for now only in theory – improve the availability of required workers in the economies of these countries, increase worker mobility and lead to increasing the region’s attractiveness to potential investors (due to the larger market). It could potentially also increase economic cooperation between the countries and resistance against the emergence of possible new global crises.
Given the labour market structure of the three countries, it’s highly unlikely that this measure will help reduce the labour shortage problem. By observing the basic macroeconomic indicators of the three countries, it can be concluded that they all lack domestic investments and suffer from large foreign trade deficits, the brain-drain and high youth unemployment. With Serbia leading the way, all three countries primarily base their economic development and drive to reduce unemployment on foreign investors, who are unfortunately attracted by cheap labour. Practice shows labour shortages being increasingly resolved through the arrival of workers from third countries and a more liberal approach to their employment. Serbia issued more than 50,000 work permits to foreigners in 2023 alone, but very few of those foreigners came from the two Open Balkan neighbours or other Western Balkan countries, which only confirms my previous statement.
Serbia issued more than 50,000 work permits to foreigners in 2023 alone, but very few of those foreigners came from the two Open Balkan neighbours or other Western Balkan countries
Countries that have lower earnings and a less developed labour market should potentially benefit the most from labour market liberalisation. In the Open Balkan’s specific case, that means Albania, followed by North Macedonia. However, considering the potential overall effects of this initiative, and especially taking trade volumes into consideration, Serbia could potentially achieve the best macroeconomic results, but these results can’t be significant either, given the volume of exports to these two countries. Analysis of the economies of the region leads to the conclusion that all of the observed countries are highly dependent on imports, primarily sourced from the EU, and that their initial position for creating positive effects from labour market liberalisation isn’t great in this field either.
Considering educational qualification and unemployment structures in Serbia, my opinion is that this measure could only increase the pressure on workers in Serbia to accept lower paying jobs (in the case that they lack opportunities to find work in other, more developed countries) and that this will create even greater competition between workers coming from other underdeveloped countries, those coming from these two countries and “domestic” workers.
An electronic system will control all those receiving an “Open Balkan ID No.”, meaning that there are no work permits or any other certificates. As to whether these measures could prove effective in protecting the labour rights of these workers, the answer is a resounding no, because they only grant equal rights on paper, while we are witnessing the daily violating of numerous rights of domestic and foreign workers in Serbia, and these measures can’t resolve that in and of themselves.
