Stock of ICT professionals who fled to Germany with employment contracts reached about 2000 people in 2020, while the stock of health workers reached 4000 employees in the same year, shows the study "How will the migration of human capital in the market interact? work in the Balkans ”of the European Training Foundation. 

The prospect of employment abroad is boosting ICT and health studies in the Western Balkans. Students in these countries project emigration from the moment they choose the branches required by the European labor market. 

ICT professionals in Germany earn three times more than their counterparts in Albania or double the level of salaries in Serbia and Macedonia. Data for Germany show that the number of ICT professionals from the Balkans more than doubled, from 1,497 leaving in 2015 to 3,569 employees leaving in 2020. 

In 2020 alone, 500 ICT employees left Albania, their number was 6 times higher than in 2015. For Northern Macedonia, the number of new ICT professionals employed in Germany corresponds to 8% of ICT graduates on average per year. Data for Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018 suggest that the number of ICT graduates is over 800, as 13% of them relocated to Germany between 2019 and 2020. 

During 2015-2020 the stock of health workers from the Balkans to Germany has increased significantly based on data provided by the German Federal Employment Agency. Health workers are represented by doctors, nurses, but also other specialized health professionals such as dentists, pharmacists, or physiotherapists. 

The stock of health workers in Germany, originally from the Western Balkans, reached 30,000 in 2020, representing approximately 20% of foreigners trained for the German health sector. This stock increased 2.5 times since 2015. While the stock of Albanian health professionals in Germany quadrupled, reaching 4,000 thousand. More than 16% of health workers from the Balkans to Germany are 'health professionals', represented mainly by doctors, and the rest are associate health professionals, most of whom are nurses. 

Other countries such as Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Denmark and Italy which need health professionals from abroad have ICT staff, increasing the premises for emigration from the Balkans. 

A portion of ICT professionals will emigrate, but there will also be a significant portion of ICT professionals who will stay. They can work remotely and at the same time support local companies to adopt or connect to advanced technologies. 

According to other Eurostat data, in the last three years, the number of Albanians living in European Union countries has increased by almost 30 thousand people. What is clearly noticed is the new tendency to flee to Germany. 

Out of 30 thousand people who have managed to register in an EU country in the last three years, about 27.3 thousand of them have fled to Germany, bringing the total to almost 77 thousand people, the third after Italy and Greece for the total number of Albanian citizens living in an EU country. 

(Source: Monitor)