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The Perceived Impact of the EU Membership on Croatia: A Comparative Analysis of Opinions Collected from two Various Groups of Responders

Five years after it became an EU member state and despite the current positive macroeconomic indicators, Croatia is faced with severe social challenges, mainly expressed through the demographic exodus of younger and more educated population, as well as rising social inequalities and regional differences in the level of economic development. Aware of these developments, we have decided to perform an online survey about the different aspects of the perceived impact of the EU membership for Croatia, emphasizing possible perceived benefits, negative influences, missed opportunities, and potential risks. The survey was performed on two groups of responders. Hence we have shared our questionnaire on Facebook, one group of responders is randomly composed of our Facebook friends and friends of friends who chose to answer our questions. The second group is comprised of students of the University North, located in two cities near the Hungarian (Koprivnica, 30 000 inhabitants) as well as Hungarian and Slovenian border (Varazdin, 50 000 inhabitants). Both cities have work intensive food production, pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries with mostly medium low wages. Google form was used as a survey method, combining mainly single and multiple choices, obligatory and voluntary questions, and guaranteeing the anonymity of the responders by not collecting their e-mail addresses. After both surveys were performed, the results were compared, to establish whether the focus group comprised of students originating mainly from the region of Northern Croatia, has shown significantly different results than the random group whose answers were collected through sharing the questionnaire on Facebook.

the European Union, Northern Croatia, perception, Google form, Facebook

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