Download the report - Femise

empirical investigation focuses on ECE countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The total emigration rate of physicians related to all destinations ranges from 0.5% to
15% during the analysed period of time: 1991-2004. Apart from Slovakia and Czech
Republic we observe during the analysed period (1991-2004) an increasing trend in
emigration rate with 1% in average. The same evolution could be observed for emigration
rate in Europe. Almost 50% of physicians emigrates prefer European countries because
of the geographical proximity, of cultural connections and in some cases language
similarities.
Since its separation from the Czech Republic in January 1993, Slovakia has been
undergoing a double economic change: from a socialist to a free market system and from
a subordinate to an independent economy. Despite his good economic performance (one
of the highest growth rates in ECE - 6.5%, small inflation – 6%), in 1997, Slovakia was
the only country removed from the list of candidates for accession to the European Union
and NATO because of shortcomings in democracy. These special circumstances had
unusual effects on emigration rates of physicians:
- Slow increase during the period 1991-1996 from 4.5% to 5.7%;
- Sharp increase to 15.4% in 1997 followed by a sharp decrease to 5.1% in 1998;
- Slow decrease since 1998 from 5.1% to 3.9%.
As for other ECE countries, Slovakians prefer to emigrate in European area. Germany is
the preferred destination country (emigration rate in Germany being 11% in 1997).
! *+$!