Regardless of whether one returns to Croatia after living abroad for many years or whether one was born to a Croatian expat abroad and wants to move to Croatia to live the process is like any life transition. It is a bumpy process that comes with a whole lot of key moments, some happy, joyous and some challenging. The transition can feel like a roller-coaster whizzing through pressing aspects of culture shock, re-integration or integration. But, oh, so worth it. On 3 September 2025 Vecernji list newspaper published an article by journalist Dijana Jurasic that addresses some of the current issues and blessings that envelop a return from the diaspora to Croatia. Expat return had been on Croatia’s government’s agenda for quite some time and, happily, positive results are trickling in even if there are still quite a few matters that need to be tightened and streamlined. 

Vesna and Adrian Desa and their children Anton and Karl moved from Australia to Zadar three years ago, from where Adrian’s parents come from. And they have no regrets. After living in Geelong, which has a population of around 250,000, they returned to Croatia for greater security and a better quality of life. Although there are still not many returnees from the EU, America, Australia… whom the state is trying to attract from this year by exempting income tax for five years, as well as by providing up to 75,000 euros in support for returnees and locals to start businesses in depopulated areas, the example of the Desa family shows that people have been returning in recent years. Last year, 13,290 Croatian citizens moved to or returned to Croatia, including around 1,000 from America and Australia. Vesna and Adrian Desa’s parents were born in Croatia, where the family had been before, but it took them some time to adapt. And for the children to learn the language. They moved to Zadar when Karl and Anton were seven and nine years old, respectively.

“After three years of living in Zadar, both we and the children feel like locals, the only thing that sometimes gives me away is the accent. The children are very well accepted at school and among their friends, their grades are great, they go to school by bike, which was not possible in Geelong. We can let them play outside and go to sports activities… Zadar is a small town to our liking; it has everything we need for life and we like the easier Dalmatian lifestyle,” says Vesna.

Her husband Adrian is a civil engineer who continued to work in his profession. In Zadar, they opened a company called AD Property, which deals with construction, renovation, property management, tourism and insurance. Most of their clients are from abroad, mostly Croatians from the diaspora who have inherited or bought property there. Vesna worked as a security manager in Australia, and now she works in the family company managing and insuring property. “Moving or returning to Croatia requires flexibility. It is not good to compare how some things are solved abroad with how they are solved here, because it is a brake on adaptation. You need to adapt to the situation and environment you find yourself in,” says Vesna.

Research associate at the Institute for Migration Research, Dr. sc. Natasha Kathleen Ruzic, originally from a Croatian Australian family, came to Croatia with her sons in 2014, and at the Institute for Migration Research she works on migration research and the integration of returnees. Her older son is studying research mathematics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics in Zagreb, and her younger son is in high school. And they are happy with their hybrid identity. She believes that the Ministry of Demography has initiated a positive strategic incentive for the return of emigrants and their descendants, and that support for the reconstruction of depopulated areas is beneficial for the country and local communities. She also considers it positive that returnees and descendants of emigrants who do not yet have Croatian citizenship can return and work while waiting for a decision on citizenship.

“However, it is necessary to strengthen our information channels and social networks, as well as the visibility of measures for returnees and the success of those who have already returned. We have a problem that people are not familiar with the measures, nor are they always given accurate and complete information before moving or upon arrival. Recently, a young man who graduated from Australian studies and moved to Croatia was told, while waiting for citizenship, that he could apply for residency when he arrived, but was not given information about what documents he needed to bring. The Ministry of Interior employee, however, gave him different information, that he had to submit the application before arriving. Fortunately, the Ministry of Demography is providing him with assistance so that he could stay. Training of employees who work with returnees and descendants is necessary,” she says. Along with the necessary inter-institutional and international communication strategy, she believes that it would be good for consulates to receive information manuals for those seeking our citizenship and to hand them out to every applicant.

“We should also focus on young people in Croatia. If we build Croatia as a place of opportunities for young people, the diaspora will come. It is time to seriously think about what kind of Croatia we want in the next 20 years and now we are strengthening this value. After arriving here, people are often left to their own devices. We need to support integration and be a community that welcomes the diaspora. It is also important that pupils and students, as well as the wider public, can easily answer the question – what does it mean to be Croatian? What is the contemporary Croatian common culture and what are the common values? If we cannot easily answer this question, how will we teach those who are moving into which system of common values ​​they should fit into? There have been cases of successful returnees who opened businesses, employed the local population, and then left Croatia because their children were having difficulties in school.

A model should be introduced according to which schools with a large number of returnee children would have systematic support in learning the Croatian language, following the example of other countries that organize English classes for students whose mother tongue is not theirs. One teacher could cover multiple schools and rotate, and children would receive intensive Croatian language lessons. For more remote areas or those with a smaller number of students, online classes should be developed, and children should be connected into virtual groups so that they can master the Croatian language at the level of their peers in the shortest possible time. Children often fall behind in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) because they are only learning basic words in Croatian. Teachers also need education to better understand these challenges and provide support to families.

The school should be a community that accepts families of returnees and diaspora,” says Ružić. The measures of the Ministry of Education are insufficient, she says, and some parents have not been informed about the possibility of attending 70 hours of additional classes (with a potential additional 70 hours). Ruzic also leads the project “IntegrateME CitiVerse: Using augmented reality (XR) technologies to support best practices in the integration of returnees, their descendants and other immigrants” at IMIN, which is funded by the EU.

What returning to Croatia means for emigrants and descendants of emigrants is best confirmed by the words of Domagoj Penava (34), who moved from Sydney to Zagreb a year and a half ago. “I live in my homeland, among my people, and I feel that I belong here more than in Australia, which I respect as the country in which I was born and raised,” says Domagoj. Although he had problems with bureaucracy upon arriving there, he is happy. He had a marketing company in Australia, and now he runs it remotely. Ina Vukic