TIRANA, Oct. 19 – In a 12-year period, from 2008 to 2020, as Albania’s EU integration slowed to a near-halt, the country’s citizens chose another form of integration — migration — as one in four Albanians gained the right to legally move to member countries of the European Union.
From 2008 to 2020, there were about 700,000 Albanian citizens who received residency permits in one of the countries of the European Union, according to figures released by Eurostat, the European Institute of Statistics and analysed by Albania’s Monitor business magazine.
The highest number of residence permits was issued in 2008 and 2009, with 97,300 and 83,900 permits issued in each of those years when the center right Democratic Party was in power.
Then the numbers came down as the international crisis affected host countries, dropping to about 30,000 in 2013, when another wave of migration started as the Socialist Party took power, featuring a significant increase in asylum applications from Albania.
The migration wave peaked in 2019, with about 60.400 residency permits issued to Albanian citizens.
Compared to other countries in the region, Albania holds the record for the number of its citizens who have chosen to live and work in European Union countries both in brute numbers and in percentage of population involved.
These numbers relate only to legal migrants. Thousands more are thought to have moved illegally.
Italy and Greece lead as host countries, with Germany seeing a significant increase since 2013.
After Berlin made it easier for people from the region to get work permits back in 2016, Germany has become a magnet for Albanian healthcare and technology workers — as well as tradespeople and young workers. Europe’s largest economy has issued a total of 48,000 residency permits for Albanian citizens by the end of 2020.
