Transcript for Bosnian Brain Drain Short

Narration: [00:02  - 00:17] The work week is getting underway here at the offices of tech startup ZenDev. Coders are busy at their desks, managers are discussing new accounts in the conference room, and workers are sneaking breaks in the video game lounge.

[00:18  - 00:34] These are all scenes that would not be out of place in Silicon Valley or London’s Tech City. But ZenDev is located in the city of Mostar, in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country still struggling to move past its bloody ethnic war in the 1990s.

[00:36  - 00:52] Senad Šantić started ZenDev six years ago when he returned to Bosnia. He grew up as a war refugee in Sweden, studied IT in undergrad and then spent a year at a tech firm in San Francisco, where, he says, he got the startup bug.

Senad Šantić: [00:52  - 01:04] So in 2016, I contacted my friend to start the company that we're running today, ZenDev, which is an IT consultancy company focused on delivering software as service solutions.

Narration: [01:04  - 01:21] Six years later, ZenDev now has a two-sided business model:  an external consulting division and in-house product development. The company employs 70 people, with offices in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, and here in Šantić’s home town of Mostar. 

[01:22  - 02:03] Mostar is known as a bustling tourist destination and UNESCO world heritage site. But the city was badly damaged in Bosnia’s civil war. Conflict erupted in 1992 between Bosnia’s three main ethnic groups—Muslim Bosniaks, Catholic Croats, and Orthodox Serbs—culminating in a genocide. 100,000 people died, 80% of whom were Muslim Bosniaks. Mostar’s famous centuries’ old bridge was destroyed and had to be rebuilt. Many buildings in the city center, which can be seen from the balcony of ZenDev’s trendy workspace, still show the scars of conflict.

[02:04  - 02:23] Šantić says the country is stuck in the past mentally, as well: ethnic divisions continue to complicate life in Bosnia – driving people to leave. Thirty-four percent of Bosnians now live outside the country, making it the nation with the second largest percentage of its population living in the diaspora.

Senad Šantić: [02:23  - 02:33] The general problem that is the most acute problem right now, and it's been an ongoing discussion since I moved back here, is the mass emigration that's happening in the country right now.

Narration: [02:34  - 02:56] Bosnia suffers from one of the worst so-called “brain drain” problems in the world – most of Bosnia’s young people are fleeing in search of jobs abroad that just don’t exist at home. And so, when Šantić co-founded ZenDev, his mission was twofold: to boost the tech industry in his country and to create jobs that would keep young people from leaving Bosnia.

[02:56  - 03:06] According to the United Nations Population Fund, if emigration continues at the current rate, the country’s population will halve in just 50 years.

Željko Vukša-Fejzić: [03:06  - 03:22] You give a lot of time, you know, invest your time in getting a master's degree or a doctoral degree, or even a bachelor's degree. And after that, you cannot find any work in your area of expertise. Of course you're frustrated and you want to leave.

Narration: [03:22  - 03:34] Željko Vukša-Fejzić and Irhana Čajdin are members of Grupa 9, an organization of new-generation politicians who are advocating for more youth-focused governmental policies.

[03:34  - 03:46] Growing up in Bosnia, they’ve lived with the issues causing brain drain, and have become experts on the topic. They explain that the problem is not just a lack of jobs but a question of corruption and nepotism.

[03:46  - 04:07] When the war ended in 1995, the Dayton peace accords divided the country into two ethnically-defined entities. Even 30 years later, nearly every political party in Bosnia remains aligned with a specific ethnic group, and jobs, particularly in the public sector, are allocated according to ethnicity.

Irhana Čajdin: [04:09  - 04:21] This is discouraging for young people in Bosnia, who do not want to be a part of that story and cannot identify with it all. All they want is an equal status so they can apply for the job and get it. But this is not the case.

Željko Vukša-Fejzić: [04:21  - 04:26]  Even in privately owned companies, you have certain soft quotas or unspoken rules.

Narration: [04:26  - 04:40] Many people hope they will have better luck finding work abroad. Most days you can find a small crowd gathering outside the German embassy in the capital. They are hoping to get work visas, but their motivations for leaving vary. 

[04:40  - 04:46] 25-year-old Benjamin has struggled to find a job in Bosnia, despite being a qualified physiotherapist.

Benjamin: [04:48  - 04:55] Because in our city, and country as well, there aren't many opportunities for employment, or development and you need to pay someone to get a job.

Narration: [04:55  - 05:02] Dajana, who is 25, is going to join her husband who already has his German work visa.

Dajana: [05:03  - 05:07] I know that my children will have a better future there than they would here.

Narration: [05:07  - 05:16] And 32-year-old Adis moved to Germany 7 years ago and is here to obtain paperwork for the child he and his wife recently adopted.

Adis: [05:18  - 05:30] My wife and I are naturally hardworking people. We have done many things, even agriculture. We tried many things in order to stay in the country and support our family but there were no options.

Narration: [05:30  - 05:36] Like the others, software developer Tarik Stupac was about ready to pack his bags.

Tarik Stupac: [05:36  - 05:43] Because of the entire situation in the country when I finished my studies, I was thinking of moving out, you know going abroad.

Narration: [05:43  - 05:49] But then he heard about Senad Šantić’s company, ZenDev… and now his story has a better ending.

Tarik Stupac: [05:49  - 05:54] I wanted to actually work here. You know, this was my number one spot to work at.

Narration: [05:54  - 06:05] He was offered a job with the company and has been working there for over a year. Stupac and his coworkers know that ZenDev has offered them a rare opportunity to live well in their own country. 

Halil Fočić: [06:05  - 06:16] We’re offering very good jobs. It's very good salaries and very good working conditions like here. So we do not have to leave for Germany, Switzerland, anywhere West.

Anđela Čović: [06:16  - 06:24] There’s no standard boss-employee communication, we just have this culture of open feedback.

Senad Šantić: [06:24  - 06:36] I say, if we want people to stay, it's not about selling these youth the idea of patriotism and why they should stay, let's build a place with better, better living conditions here in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Narration: [06:36  - 06:51] And there’s another key facet to Šantić’s plan: at ZenDev, he is trying to foster an ethnically-blind workplace. This can be seen in the location of ZenDev’s Mostar office, which sits on the unofficial border between two ethnic neighborhoods.

Senad Šantić: [06:51  - 07:07] The invisible line that we talk about in Mostar is basically what was left as far as how, when the war ended. So what part of the city, the, the Croats have under the control versus the Bosniaks and it's basically along this line.

Narration: [07:07  - 07:12] Šantić says that unlike other employers in the country, Zendev hires based on skill.

Senad Šantić: [07:12  - 07:23] Even though we never focused on hiring by nationality, it ended up that in our company, it's almost 50-50 amongst the different ethnicities in Mostar.

Narration: [07:23  - 07:36] Zendev offers team building activities, like weekly late night volleyball that bring his young employees together in a city where most activities are still segregated along ethnic lines.

[07:37  - 07:44] This approach seems to resonate—job applications keep coming in, and ZenDev’s management is rushing to keep up with recruitment.

Meeting Clip - Guy: [07:44  - 07:55] What’s the 1st, 2nd and 3rd reason people are talking about when they talk about when they want to work with us. On the scale.

Meeting Clip - Woman on Screen: [07:55  - 07:58] Culture, benefits, projects.

Senad Šantić: [07:58  - 08:09] Obviously we can create our own bubble in Zendev and the lifestyle that we live within that, but if the problems are on a national level—and they are on a national level—we need to start thinking bigger.

Narration: [08:09  - 08:24] It’s a message he is trying to spread, including on Grupa9’s online video talk show… which interviews political experts and entrepreneurs battling segregation, building businesses, and striving for stability in Bosnia.

[08:26  - 08:37] What Bosnia needs, Šantić says, is more high skilled jobs that pay people what they are worth, more companies breaking down segregation in the country, and more collaboration with the diaspora.

[08:38  - 09:00] The stakes may well be high: In October, the European Union announced it was finally considering Bosnia’s bid to join the political and economic bloc, six years after Bosnia had submitted its request to join. Membership could boost the Bosnian economy and perhaps push the government to address the lingering corruption and dysfunction in state institutions.

Irhana Čajdin: [09:01  - 09:14] It is clear that young people want to stay here. But It is up to us to create better opportunities for these young people, so they can. Through Senad's example, we have shown that this is possible and that we need to continue to work on this effort.