WORKED IN GERMANY FOR ALMOST A DECADE: The Cvetanović family returned to Serbia with two children, one reason was decisive!

Medical workers Aleksandar (39) and Jelena Cvetanović (31), a married couple from Leskovac, after more than a decade decided to return from the West to their homeland with their children and get a job at the Leskovac General Hospital!

They are in the group of health workers to whom the Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar presented employment contracts, and who, within the activities of the Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora of the Ministry of Health, after several years of living abroad, will get a job in our health institutions.

Jelena and Aleksandar have lived in Germany since 2016. They recently decided to resign and return to Leskovac with their children, where they will work in their profession.

Expensive life in Germany

“We finished secondary medical school in our hometown. Since 2010, I worked in the hospital, however, my wife could not find a job in healthcare. She worked in a nearby factory. At that time, it was almost an impossible mission. On a joint initiative, we decided to go to Germany. We first lived near Freiburg. I got a job at the neurological clinic in intensive care, and three years later I got a job in the orthopedic department. The working conditions there were better at that time, the diagnostics in the West are more modern, but our expertise and our educational system that educates medical doctors and workers is much better,” Cvetanović tells Kurir and points out that our health workers are very much appreciated in Western Europe.

According to him, the salary of health workers there depends on taxes.

“The gross salary that is highlighted in the ads attracts many of our people, and in fact the net salary is 30 percent lower. The salary ranges from 2,900 to 3,300 euros, but the living costs are high. Life in the West is better, but the standard is high and it is impossible to find an apartment. We gave 1,000 euros for rent, plus the costs were around 300 euros in the southwestern part of Germany.

PROČITAJTE VIŠE:

Family values were decisive

The Cvetanović family had children there. Their son is seven years old, and their daughter is five. It was precisely because of them that they decided to return. And they are happy.

“There are laws there that do not coincide with our family and Orthodox values. Since marijuana was recently legalized, I had cases at work where I saw that children as young as 14 were using marijuana. Because of those values of theirs that I, as a parent, do not agree with, we decided to return and have our children grow up in Serbia as we did. Our notice period is three months and we will move here in the summer and work in our profession. We are proud and happy because we believe that a healthy family is the foundation for a healthy society and state.”

As a reminder, the Ministry of Health opened a special Office for Cooperation with the Diaspora, i.e. health workers who currently live and work abroad, at the end of last year.