From: malenovi@plains.NoDak.edu (Nikola V. Malenovic )
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Emigrants (VREME NDA 6.Apr 1992)
Date: 6 Apr 92 15:02:23 GMT
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                       No. 28, April 6 1992.
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    Emigrants
    ---------


                             JOURNEY OF NO RETURN


           Tens of thousands of people in their most creative years
           will remain outside the country, while tens of thousands
           of those who refused to take  part in a war which Serbia
                  never "declared", will waste away in jails

    The brain drain was a problem  that tormented even the former Yugoslavia
    because the people that left were mainly from the fields of science that
    could have been  used for some kind of further  development. The war has
    simply  brought  about  the  modification  of  the  long valid formula -
    "instead of exporting  know-how, we export people with  know-how" to "we
    force them  out of the  country". Because among  the thousands of  young
    people  who  have  left  the  country   due  to  the  war  there  is  an
    exceptionally  high number  of those   who had  no intention  of leaving
    before because they  wanted to offer their talents  and knowledge to the
    environment that schooled them at enormous cost.

    "We force  them out of  the country"  was  just what some  of the recent
    efforts on the part of the  Serbian Parliament looked like regarding the
    judgement  of "deserters"  who'd gone  abroad ("they  have no place with
    us"), as  well as the  declaration of the  Serbian Minister of  Defence,
    General Lieutenant Colonel Marko Negovanovic, that "there can be no talk
    of amnesty" for  such as these. After these  words of condemnation there
    is little room  for illusion. Tens of thousands of  people in their most
    creative years will remain outside  the country, while tens of thousands
    of  those  who  refused  to  take  part  in  a  war  which  Serbia never
    "declared", will waste away in jails.

    The scale  of this most  recent brain-drain which  was initiated by  the
    war, can only be guessed as there are no official figures. Most of those
    that have left are still on "unfinished business trips" or unpaid leave.
    However, a lot can be learned from the stories of people from Belgrade's
    leading  project  offices  or  engineering  firms.  One such firm, whose
    production  of  industrial  computers  satisfies  the strictest European
    criteria, in a short space of time lost about 20 employees. At a glance,
    that would not appear to be too much for a company employing 200 people.
    But, if  we take into account  that we are talking  about people between
    the ages of 25 and 35 who  are anywhere in the world responsible for the
    production of such computers, and if we remember the American statistics
    of a few years ago that the schooling of this kind of expert (from birth
    to degree)  costs his family  and the state  around 300,000 dollars,  so
    that later  on, in his  most creative years,  he can make  a few million
    dollars, the waste is such that few, not even richer countries than this
    could bear  it. As another example,  worked out on a  somewhat different
    principle, the schooling of one  medical doctor (and they leave whenever
    they can) costs 38,000 dollars  for his university education, which will
    bring to the  host country around 600,000 dollars,  considered to be the
    product of a doctor in the course of his working life.

    Most of those  who left in haste, fleeing from  the absurdity of war, to
    begin with  stopped off in  one of the  west European cities  from where
    they are today preparing for  their departure overseas. In the meantime,
    many have started to work illegally in order to survive. In spite of the
    very strict  legal regulations on  emigration politics, there  is little
    likelihood that these governments will  send them back to our ministries
    of defence and justice. "No-one in  his right mind," commented a western
    diplomat recently, "would send away such experts who are willing to work
    under, for us, extremely favorable conditions".

    That the present  wave of departure of highly educated  people is out of
    all  official  control  is  confirmed  by  the  Deputy  Director  of the
    Institute for International Politics and Commerce, Dr. Vlada Grecic, who
    has been involved in this problem for  years. "It is hard," he says, "to
    say anything  more exact, but some  estimates show that in  a very short
    time around 200,000  people will have left Yugoslavia.  It is known, for
    instance, that from May last year  around 75,000 people sought refuge in
    Germany  and  that  besides  this  number  many  remain unregistered. In
    Belgrade  one can  hear of  the thousands  who have  left for  the South
    african  Republic. These  figures naturally  must not  be interpreted as
    definite proof of  the "brain drain", because not all  of those who have
    left are highly qualified and educated people. But the fact remains that
    the latest wave will carry off  many whose knowledge is indispensable to
    this country and whose loss is irreplaceable".

    From  the  data  that  Dr.   Grecic  has  collected  from  the  official
    immigration offices  of certain countries,  it can be  seen that in  the
    period from  1984 to 1989,  11,506 Yugoslavs went  to the USA,  1,329 of
    them with  university degrees. The actual  number is quite a  bit higher
    because many with temporary residence (mostly  on the basis of some kind
    of education), have later "adapted"  their status and stayed over there.
    In  the period  from 1974  to  1986  15,223 people  left Yugoslavia  for
    Canada, of  which 857 were scientists,  engineers and mathematicians and
    215  doctors. According  to some  estimates, more  than 300 graduates of
    Belgrade University  are living in Toronto  alone. "Analyses show," says
    Dr.  Grecic  for  VREME,  "that  the  number  of  immigrants to overseas
    countries  has decreased,  but that  the number  of highly  educated has
    constantly increased. The number of  experts from Serbia has always been
    the highest".

    Those who  leave nowadays (particularly  those who leave  with the label
    "traitor"), and are  around 30 years old, most  probably will never come
    back. In a  few years' time their children will  begin school, and then,
    as  a rule,  it is  late to   return. In  the foreseeable  future it  is
    unlikely that the  economic and political situation in  these parts will
    change, and  eradication of the  present national mental  disease, which
    makes an  absurdity of any  project of the  future, cannot be  expected.
    Those who leave,  further reducing the present front  of criticism, also
    won't come back because they know that a few professional magazines sent
    from  abroad by  some friend  or relative  will in  future be their only
    contact  with the  outside world.  That which  in the  rest of the world
    doesn't cost more that a  newspaper subscription - participation in some
    computer  data bank  - will  still be  out of  reach and  too expensive.
    Following  the  great  lifesaving  projects  -  "the  Silicon  Valley of
    Zvezdara" and the multipurpose helicopter  - they would work on projects
    of  the future  - express  railway  lines  or "the  first Serbian  river
    submarine", maybe even on the first Serbian orange. And they would still
    be excited by the news of donations of books, such as the Law Faculty in
    Belgrade received  a few days  ago so that  professors and students  can
    make contact with  some of world trends. Their children  would not see a
    computer in school for years yet,  but instead would learn all about the
    old and new  war victories of their heavenly  nation and collect posters
    of  our   new  leaders  and  national   heroes  with  "kalashnikov"  and
    Heckler-rifle. One cannot  blame those who leave, quietly  and mostly at
    personal  risk, without  much regret,  no matter  how unpatriotic it may
    sound.
                                                        Nenad Lj. Stefanovic


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                       No. 28, April 6 1992.
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