I’ve been analyzing Croatian immigration statistics from various countries to see totals and trends. The data available is from 2001 to 2023. In this post I will look at migration to and from Australia.
In this period 4172 people have migrated from Australia with a 23 year average of 181 persons per year.
For all Australians with or without Croatian citizenship we had a rising trend before the Global Financial Crisis that peaked at 361 people in 2008. A sharp drop happened in 2009 and bottomed in 2010 with only 98 people. We held around this bottom until 2013 when we had the low of only 96 people. From there we started a new up trend until Covid which because of lockdowns in Australia had migration hit a record low of 83 in 2020 and then 122 in 2021. Once restrictions were lifted we hit the third best year on record with 328 people in 2022. In 2023 we had a drop to 218 and I’d say there in the low to mid 200’s will be where we will settle for now.
For the same period and for all Australians we had very low numbers (30 or less) emigrating to Australia until the GFC. An upward trend in emigration starts in 2009 and spikes above 100 people in 2012. This rises sharply above 200 people a year over the next few years and plateaus in the low to mid 200’s until Covid. During Covid due to the lockdowns emigration like immigration drops down to around 50 people for 2020 and 2021. Post Covid it returns to the low 200 level which I think is where it will stay for now.
Net migration for this period was in a rising trend until 2008 where it peaked at 334 people. Post GFC we have a falling trend until 2016 where we hit a rock bottom of -145 net migration. We remained in negative terrority until 2019 which had only +1 and have remained in the positive only to finish on 0 for 2023.
The total immigrated for this period is 4172 people, emigrated 2410 people and net migration of 1762 people. I don’t believe this data shows the complete picture. I don’t believe we are at 1762 people. Around 2013 started the negative feedback loop the press made with Croatians leaving for EU countries. At that same time Australia started an aggressive campaign for skilled migrants from Croatia as it knew many wanted to leave. There was constant bombardment on facebook with paid ads and groups like Idemo U Australiju which has over 20000 members encouraging people to leave.
Many that migrated to Croatia in the years prior, like myself got hit hard in the 4 years of recession and I know many that returned to Australia. However, I think that they are less than one third of the 2410 people and the rest are ones that emigrated to Australia for the first time during the recession and years after.
So I think the reaslistic total for Australians living in Croatia is 2500 to 3000 people if you factor in 10-20% of those immigrated haved died in the last 23 years.
The statistics for Australians that have Croatian citizenship doesn’t differ much from the data for all Australians. It is in 2012 that the number of Australian’s without Croatian citizenship starts to slowy rise to 10% of the total to in these last few years become 20-30% of total people migrating from Australia. This shows most in the last few years where the net migration for Australians with Croatian citizenship actually finishes on -30 for 2023 instead of the 0 for all Australians. The total number of Australians with Croatian citizenship that have migrated to Croatia in 23 years is 3783, emigrated to Australia 2232 and net migration is 1551.
The number of Australians that have migrated to Croatia that don’t have Croatian citizenship was negligible until 2012. It has remained in an upward trend since then apart from the Covid years. The recent large spike could be Croatian’s with citizenship returning with spouses that are not Croatian citizens or it could be digital nomads etc. The total number of Australians without Croatian citizenship that have migrated to Croatia in 23 years is 389, emigrated to Australia 178 and net migration is 211.
There are approximately 250000 Croatians in Australia if you count all descendants. That means about 1.5% of Australian Croatians have attempted a moved to Croatia in the last 23 years.
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