Long-Term Care Workforce in Croatia: A Qualitative Study on the Potential Role of Immigration

The deficit of workers, especially skilled nurses, is a growing concern in the long-term care (LTC) sector. In developed economies, the share of migrant workers in LTC has been steadily increasing. The goal of this paper is to explore the potential role of immigration in tackling the LTC workforce shortage in Croatia, a country marked by a “care drain”, through semi-structured interviews (N=13) with stakeholders from the government, the City of Zagreb, non-governmental organizations, professional associations, nursing homes and the academic community. There is a high consensus among interviewees that immigration is one of the possible solutions to the LTC labour shortage in Croatia. However, in order to keep the native workers and attract foreign ones, working conditions should be improved and wages raised. It is also crucial to develop integration policies and provide foreign workers with good professional training and quality language education. Key words long-term care; care workers; nurses; migration; population ageing; Croatia