Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17234/SocEkol.35.2.3
Youth mobility patterns in sparsely populated areas of Croatia: the case study of the Lika region
Anita Bušljeta Tonković
orcid.org/0000-0002-5816-7378
; Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences
*
Ana Winship
orcid.org/0000-0002-7666-1329
; Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), Rural Policy Centre, Peter Wilson Building, The King's Buildings
Ivan Šulc
orcid.org/0000-0002-3810-7220
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography
Alen Mujčinović
orcid.org/0000-0001-5493-7622
; University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Rural areas of South-Eastern Europe have long been affected by depopulation, social marginalisation and lagging modernisation. This paper therefore contributes to the study of youth spatial mobility patterns in sparsely populated rural areas of Croatia, with a particular focus on the Lika region, identified as the country’s most vulnerable area according to socio-demographic indicators. Drawing on the theoretical framework of lagging modernisation and the concept of neo-endogenous development, the study examines the reasons why young people stay, leave, return to, or settle in the region, as well as their perceptions of living conditions and development prospects. The analysis is based on qualitative research conducted in 2022, comprising 32 semi-structured interviews with young people representing different migration experiences, complemented by field insights and student reports. The data were analysed through thematic coding informed by the push-pull model of migration. Lika is interpreted as a paradigmatic example of a region shaped by long-term processes of lagging modernisation. Four waves of outmigration, weak institutional consolidation and fragmented development models have resulted in the erosion of human and social capital. The qualitative findings indicate that economic factors, particularly employment security and opportunities for professional advancement, constitute the primary determinants of mobility decisions. Environmental quality, family ties and access to housing represent important retention and return factors, while political apathy and institutional closure constrain the transformative potential of existing human capital. The study concludes that youth mobility in Lika cannot be reduced to a simple brain drain but should be understood as a translocal and circulatory strategy of survival, in which education and employment frequently take place outside the region, while emotional attachment remains locally embedded. Lika is thus confirmed as an analytically relevant model for understanding similar dynamics in peripheral rural regions of South-Eastern Europe.
Keywords
circular mobility; lagging modernisation; neo-endogenous development; rural youth
Hrčak ID:
349739
URI
Publication date:
24.7.2026.
Visits: 0 *