Gertrude Enderle-Burcel, Dieter Stiefel, Alice Teichova (Hrsg.): Sonderband 9. „Zarte Bande” – Österreich und die europäischen planwirtschaftlichen Länder / „Delicate Relationships” – Austria and Europe’s Planned Economies (2006)

Damir Jelic: “Living in the neighbourhood” - Economic Relations between Capitalist Austria and Socialist Croatia in Historical Perspective

Damir Jelic

market was much more attractive for Croatia - every year, the trading rate between Croatia and Africa was almost twice as high as it was between Croatia and Austria.

Table 2: Trade relationship between Socialist Croatia and Capitalist Austria (in percent)

Import to Croatia

Export from Croatia

Austria

Europe

Africa

Austria

Europe

Africa

1971

5.52

91.00

1.40

1.67

80.10

2.80

1972

4.56

82.70

2.10

1.83

84.10

1.50

1973

4,63

73.20

2.30

2.09

75.50

6.80

1974

4.08

68.70

3.20

1.87

73.10

5.10

1975

3.52

67.40

6.40

1.39

64.70

12.70

1976

3.34

66.70

4.70

1.64

73.20

7.30

1977

2.34

67.20

4.30

1.31

68.00

10.90

1978

3.00

65.40

5.90

1.31

77.60

3.90

Import to Croatia

Export from Croatia

1979

Austria

Europe

Africa

Austria

Europe

Africa

3.34

61.90

8.10

1.93

77.20

11,00

1980

2.52

59.10

13.70

1.75

72.50

11.10

Calculations based on data from Statistical Yearbook Yugoslavia 1918-1988

Immigrant workers

One of the ways of establishing economic relationships between capitalist Austria and socialist Croatia were immigrant workers. Between 1968 and 1974, there was a massive phase of employing foreign workers in Austria, whereas prior to this, migration movements were of rather marginal importance (they included post-war migrations of prisoners of war and refugees). In total, almost 200,000 foreign workers were being employed in Austria at the beginning of the 1970s. After 1974, the massive recruitment of foreign workers in Austria stopped. Some migrants returned home, while others stayed in Austria - the latter eventually leading to new immigrants coming to Austria mostly in order to join family members (family reunions).

Non-experts in this field of study often overvalue the number of Croatian economic emigrants to Austria and their financial importance. However, when we analyse some statistical data from 1971, indicators point to a rather low number of Croatians working in Austria.

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