Far-left Croatian MP Katarina Peović called for the reintroduction of quotas for third-country workers on Thursday as the number of immigrants working in low-paid jobs has risen sharply in recent years.
The huge increase in the number of third-country workers, who often work on fixed-term job contracts, doing menial jobs like food delivery, construction, retail and hospitality, is increasingly becoming a talking point in Croatian politics in a year voters are set to vote in the EU elections, the parliamentary elections and the presidential elections.
Until 2021, Croatia had legally mandated quotas for third-country nationals in select industries. Faced with increasing labour shortages, the HDZ government led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic abolished most quotas, with the number of foreign workers exploding since.
“While the right-wing is spreading xenophobia against migrants and foreign workers, the liberals are deliberately and deceitfully portraying the import of a huge number of foreign workers as something completely normal,” Peovic told reporters at a press event in Zagreb, adding that “the government is in a balancing act between these two views, and as a result, creates slavery-like working conditions” for foreigners.
Peovic’s party, the Workers’ Front (RF), is affiliated with the Party of the European Left, and she is its only MP in the 151-seat parliament, representing the furthest left-wing variant of the political mainstream.
According to Peovic, citing official statistics, the number of work permits for foreign workers rose from 50,000 in 2021 to 100,000 in 2022 to more than 160,000 in 2023 – accounting for more than a threefold increase in three years.
While business associations say the influx of workers is due to labour shortages in a country struggling with rapid depopulation and an ageing population, some groups reject that notion – including Peovic’s RF, which believes employers deliberately keep wages low.
“This is not about what the government keeps saying – that this is due to a labour shortage. This is because the cost of labour is kept low on purpose, which benefits employers,” Peovic added.
However, according to the state statistics bureau DZS, the average net salary in Croatia in November 2023 was €1,208, up from €926 in January 2021 – a 30% increase over the same period.
Other MPs also discussed immigration earlier on Tuesday in the assembly, although most opposition parties did not offer a policy solution but instead used the platform to denounce the mass emigration of the past decade – it is estimated that some 400,000 Croatians have moved abroad since the country joined the EU in 2013.
Some also criticised the lack of an integration policy.
“While in many other EU countries immigration policy and the issue of foreign workers – both legal and illegal – is a top political topic – that is still not the case in Croatia,” MP of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) Arsen Bauk, said in a statement carried by state news agency Hina.
“However, this is fast becoming an increasingly important political topic, and it would be good if the government and responsible ministries paid more attention. We have people in Croatia now who are working here perfectly legally, and the system should be adapted to take this into account,” Bauk added.
(David Spaic-Kovacic | Euractiv.hr)
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