“The Great Return: How Reverse Migration Is Transforming Slovakia in the 21st Century”

The history of Slovakia is a history of migration. For more than a century, Slovakia’s people have fled the heart of Europe in search of a better life. Today, young people continue to leave, triggering a nationwide debate about a ‘brain drain.’ Unlike in the past, however, they also return. Discover how 21st-century Slovakia is transforming, thanks to reverse migration, knowledge-transfer, and first-hand contact with the wider world. Slovakia’s lost daughters and sons have proved that return is not just a possibility, but also an opportunity.

The Great Return tells the stories of 59 Slovaks who left to live abroad, learned, and returned. Fifty-eight of these voices come from the fields of government, business, and society, and share their views on the transformation of a nation. The 59th voice is that of the author, Zuzana Palovič, who shares a personal tale of loss, lessons, and reconnection through a rite of passage shared by millions of people across the planet.

Zuzana Palovič is the daughter of Slovak emigrants. Born behind the Iron Curtain, she and her family fled the communist regime as political refugees and became naturalized citizens of Canada. Having spent her early childhood in the East, she was raised and educated in the West, receiving a PhD in the United Kingdom. Zuzana has lived in nine countries on four continents, but found that her cosmopolitan lifestyle did nothing to erode her love for Slovakia. Instead, it strengthened her hunger to re-discover her roots and reconnect with her homeland. From science to mythology, from business to folklore, Zuzana has actively researched how the past has shaped Slovakia’s present.