Historical and recent trends of emigration from the Western Balkan region, comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, have led to the formation of diverse diaspora groups across the world, with prominent representation in the Western European countries. Diaspora members often maintain close transnational socioeconomic ties with their countries of origin. These ties are most commonly reflected through the transfer of remittances at the individual or household level, but also increasingly through investment, entrepreneurship, or knowledge transfer etc., with the potential to create a greater impact on the socioeconomic development of the Western Balkan countries.

With support from the European Commission, ICMPD conducted the Study on the Diasporas’ Contributions to the Socio-Economic Development in the Western Balkans (ECONDIAS) with the aim to support the Western Balkan diasporas’ contribution to socioeconomic development in their countries of origin. ECONDIAS focuses on understanding how to encourage financial and human capital investment from business and entrepreneurial diaspora in their countries of origin. With the overall aim of the project to enhance the Western Balkans diasporas’ contribution to socioeconomic development in their countries of origin, the project conceptualises migration as one of the factors feeding into development.

Keywords

#Diaspora

Regions

Europe and Northern America

Countries

Albania

Austria

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Italy

Kosovo

Montenegro

North Macedonia

Serbia

Sweden

Switzerland