More Immigrant Workers Showed Interest to Work in Slovenia Last Year, Data Reveal

The number of workers between municipalities in Slovenia has increased significantly in the last year – 10,800 more than in the previous year, with one in two persons being such a worker.

According to the Slovenia’s Statistical Office, the majority of workers are living in the Osrednjeslovenska municipality while there are two and half times more labour migrants coming daily from neighbouring countries to Slovenia, mainly from Croatia, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

The capital city of Ljubljana is the most affected by labour migration, as by the end of 2022, almost 505,000 people were working there, representing 55.2 per cent of workers across all municipalities.

Furthermore, there are 2,300 more commute workers in Ljublana compared to the previous year, totalling to 141,300 persons, while there are 24,200 residents of Ljublana working in other municipalities.

“The total flows of labour migrations of Ljubljana include around 165,500 persons in employment; however, migration flow to Ljubljana was much more intense. By the total flow of labour migrants, municipality Ljubljana was followed by municipalities Maribor, Celje, Kranj and Domžale,” a press release by the Statistics Office explains.

Labour migrations into the Osrednjeslovenksa region in 2022 stood at 102,280 for number of interregional working migrants that left the municipality, 25,647 of those that came in, taking the total number to 223,114.

In addition, the number of cross-border labour migrants has risen by two and half times in 2022, reaching a total of 12,800. Foreign daily migrants from neighbouring contries that come to Slovenia for work differ, with the majority coming from Croatia (10,216) followed by Italy (1,792), Hungary (655) and Austria (141). The majority of these workers are men, with women representing a third of the total.

According to OECD Library, 20,000 new migrants obtained a residence permit in 2019 for a 12-month period in Slovenia, showing a 10.7 per cent increase compared to the previous year. Those were divided between permits issued for study-purposes (2,500) and 7,400 to temporary and seasonal labour migrants. Moreover, 17,000 intra-EU postings were recorded within this period, showing an 88 per cent increase compared to 2018 levels.

The main country of origin was Bosnia and Herzegovina, which recorded an increase of 2,100 additional workers, followed by Serbia and North Macedonia while the number of arrivals from Russia decreased by 94 per cent.

Furthermore, in 2020, fewer first-time asylum applications were filed – 4.1 per cent less than in the previous year, reaching a total of 3,500. The majority of applicants came from Morocco (1 200), Afghanistan (700) and Pakistan (500).

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