As many as 64 percent of all Slovak migrants living abroad would consider returning to Slovakia even if they were offered a job with a lower salary than their current income, as long as the salary difference didn't exceed an average of 43 percent. This stems from a survey carried out by the Working Poor civic organisation on a sample of 313 respondents from 23 countries in December 2017.
Wage levels dominated the reasons why Slovaks decided to leave their native country to find work abroad. Corruption and the political situation, respectively, were the second and third most frequent reasons to leave. The level of salaries in Slovakia was also the most decisive factor regarding why Slovaks living abroad refuse to return home even though they would like to.
As many as 86 percent of the respondents said that there is a lack of jobs in Slovakia with a reasonable salary, while 73 percent of the respondents think that there is a shortage of jobs in Slovakia with adequate opportunities for career growth. In addition, 77 percent of expats polled think that Slovakia doesn't have enough jobs with a reasonable working environment.
According to Working Poor vice-chair Ján Košč, it's a common habit in western countries for employers to spend a considerable amount of money on the full training and educating of their employees because employers wish to make use of the entire potential existing in the country, including poorly educated unemployed people. "For these reasons we consider the demand to flood the Slovak labour market with labour from third [non-EU] countries to be a somewhat extreme and poorly thought-out measure, especially in view of the fact that such a solution doesn't contribute in any way towards addressing the causes of the current situation," said Košč.
