Albania has seen several large waves of migration since the country evolved from dictatorship to democracy in the early 1990s.
Since 2020, emigration appears to have picked up again, and between 2021 and 2022 migration increased by 10 percent to around 46,000 people, according to official statistics.
Now the migration flows are mainly driven by the country’s poor economy, low wages, rising prices and problems with corruption. The fact that the pandemic worsened the situation is believed to be an additional reason why more people are choosing to move now.
In ten years, the number of inhabitants in Albania has fallen from 200,000 people, to 2.7 million.
– It is a fundamental problem, above all for the economy that is not developed, says Teuta Nunaj, PhD in economics at Marin Barleti University.
More people want to move – “democracy is threatened”
According to the annual Balkan Barometer survey, around half of Albanians are considering leaving the country, and around a third say they have a departure date.
That worries Migen Qiraxhi from the volunteer organization Civic Resistance, which works to get people to participate more in society in Albania and to raise the quality of education.
– Those who are waiting to move do not participate in debating and protesting in complaining about things that are bad here. If people do not participate in democracy, democracy will die, he says.
Medical students must stay
Both the low-educated and the highly-educated are leaving the country, and many in Albania believe that there is a “brain drain” going on. Recently, the government decided that doctors who train in Albania must work for at least five years in the country.
– We have an expression: if the government wants to hear the bird, they have to plant a tree where it can live, but they choose to build a cage, says Migen Qiraxhi.
England beckons
In 2022, the number of Albanian nationals making their way to England increased, many of them from the northern impoverished parts. Thousands have crossed the English Channel in small dangerous rubber boats. This has caused great debate in England, which demanded that Albania stop the emigration.
According to figures from the British Home Office, roughly 1,800 Albanian citizens have returned to their homeland in 2022, half of them voluntarily and half forcibly.