According to the publication Parametar, Croatia has become the most popular European Union country for Serbian citizens to relocate to, according to Eurostat data. In 2024, approximately 46,000 residence permits were issued to Serbian citizens in EU countries for the first time, of which about 14,500 were in Germany and about 10,000 in Croatia.
Croatia was followed by Austria and Slovenia, where Serbian citizens received approximately 4,000 initial permits each, as well as Slovakia, with about 2,500.
More broadly, from 2013 to 2024, 494,048 Serbian citizens moved to EU countries. The rate of emigration accelerated during this period: while approximately 0.33% of Serbia’s population moved to the EU in 2013, the figure rose to about 0.70% by 2024.
According to Eurostat, in 2024, EU countries issued a total of 3.5 million first-time residence permits to non-EU citizens, which is 8.3% less than the previous year. Against this backdrop, the Serbian migration flow remains particularly prominent in the labor migration segment, which explains the high figures for Croatia and Germany as markets with sustained demand for labor.
The Croatian destination stands out particularly not only because of its geographical proximity and the country’s EU membership, but also due to the relatively low language barrier. The Serbian and Croatian languages are almost completely mutually intelligible, and this is likely also one of the factors facilitating the relocation, job search, and daily adaptation of Serbian citizens in Croatia.
