Skopje, 10 June 2021 – The 5th edition of the International Conference “MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT: LOOKING FORWARD POST COVID-19” took place at “Mother Teresa” University in Skopje. Considering the protocol to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Conference was held with physical presence as well as online. This Conference is organized by “Mother Teresa” University in partnership with University of Sassari in Italy, and University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Bitola.

The introductory speech was given by the prorector of MTU, Prof.Dr. Rizvan Sulejmani, and it was moderated by Doc. Dr. Arta Xhelili. Moreover, a welcome speech was given by the rector of MTU Prof. Dr. Aziz Pollozhani, the rector of “St. Kliment Ohridski” University Prof.Dr. Sasho Korunovski, as well as by professors of the University of Sassar, Prof. Dr. Marko Calaresu and Qurico Migheli, who participated online.

In his welcome speech, the rector of MTU, Prof. Dr. Aziz Pollozhani said: “It is a pleasure that after a very specific period imposed by the pandemic, today we are holding the International Conference on Migration with physical presence, which is the fifth in a row since the establishment of the “Mother Teresa” University in Skopje. Thanks to the partners University of Sassar in Italy and University “St. Clement of Ohrid “in Bitola. He also added that this time in this Conference we expect two great achievements: accreditation of the Master studies for Migration and Security in two respective countries, between MTU and the University of Sassar where the students from our country would be able to register and complete their Master studies in Italy; and the second achievement is about the decision of MTU Senate on the establishment of the “INSTITUTE FOR MIGRATION, MOBILITY AND WELFARE”. This Institute within the MTU will address the problems on scientific principles and current phenomena in these fields “. Prof. Dr. Rizvan Sulejmani was proposed as the head of the Institute, while Doc. Dr. Arta Xhelili was proposed as a Scientific Secretary.

The keynote presentation was made by Mrs. Vjollca Hajdari, publicist, political scientist and ethnologist from Berlin, Germany. In this 5th edition have applied over 30 scientific papers, while 26 papers have been accepted for presentation, taking into account all the criteria announced earlier in the framework of the preliminary call for application of scientific papers. The conference “Migration and Development, looking forward post-Covid 19” is divided into five sessions on different topics, as follows:

– First Session: Migration, culture and communication during the Covid-19 and post-Covid-19 crisis period.

– Second Session: Migration, Policy Making and Demographic Challenges in the Western Balkans.

– Third Session: New education horizons in the time of digitalization and Covid-19 crisis.

– Fourth Session: Legal approach to migration and human rights issues.

– Fifth Session: Economic Challenges and Opportunities in the NEW WORLD.

At the 5th International Conference “Migration and Development, looking forward post-Covid 19″ were presented data from research conducted by the Faculty of Social Sciences at MTU, where the researchers carried out an empirical measurement of young people’s willingness to migrate, and they made a pre- and post-Covid comparison. This research was presented by Mr.sc. Elisabeta Ollogu Bajrami and Doc. Dr. Arta Xhelili.

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