Original scientific paper
Dynamic indicators of demographic sustainability of the Croatian border area with Hungary (1981 – 2018)
Nikola Šimunić
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar – Regional Centre Gospić, Gospić, Croatia
Ivo Turk
orcid.org/0000-0001-6090-1327
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Dražen Živić
orcid.org/0000-0002-5293-568X
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar – Regional Centre Vukovar, Vukovar, Croatia
Abstract
The border area of Croatia with Hungary in a broader sense includes parts of four counties: Međimurje, Koprivnica-Križevci, Virovitica-Podravina and Osijek-Baranja. More specifically, in this paper, the border area refers to cities and municipalities within the aforementioned counties that cross the state border with their territory. These comprise 26 local self-government units, of which three are cities and 23 municipalities with a total of 144 settlements. In the traditional sense, European border areas are most often associated with terms such as traffic isolation and peripherality. Nowadays, however, their social and economic transformation is taking place within the European Union. This is especially true in the Schengen area, where borders no longer separate, but connect neighboring countries. Croatia is a new member of the European Union and as such has not yet been integrated into the Schengen area where travel is possible without border controls. Therefore, the transformation of the Croatian border area towards the neighboring countries that are members of the EU has not yet taken place, and this has its echo in past and current demographic trends and processes. The Croatian border with Hungary is the earliest defined Croatian land border, which was established in the Middle Ages and is connected in its longest part along the Drava River. All other land borders of the Republic of Croatia were defined later, with the provison that only after the independence of Croatia did they become state (international) borders. During the former Yugoslavia, only the Croatian land border with Hungary was international. This fact led to less cross-border cooperation and connectivity than was the case with other borders that were not international until thirty years ago. Demographic analysis determined the depopulation and emigration character of demographic dynamic changes in the reference time period from the 1981 to 2018 census. These are continuous and spatially homogeneous negative demographic trends (natural decline and negative migration balance) that significantly destabilize the concept of demographic sustainability as a condition of overall social and economic stabilization and revitalization of the border area, which, of course, has its security dimension.
Keywords
depopulation; Croatia; Hungary; border area; demographic sustainability
Hrčak ID:
248864
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2020.
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