Tirana Times
TIRANA, August 3 – Albanian immigrants sent only one-sixth of their savings in 2009, a recent study carried out by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) has shown. Data from this survey showed Albania immigrants saved 3.5 billion dollars in 2009.
“These savings could mainly be used for investments but the problem is how these migrants’ savings could be attracted home,” said the CESS’s director Ilir Gedeshi.
The survey said some 20,000 businesses are successfully managed by Albanians only in Italy. However, Albanian migrants there do not possess properties which is a sign that their ties to Albania remain strong.
However, specialists fear the liberalization of visas could urge a new wave of immigrants joining their relatives and families abroad. Nicolaas de Zwager of the International Agency for Source Country, said that a quarter of Albanian immigrants think of investing home, stressing the importance of coordination with government. Specialists say Albanian immigrants will continue increasing their savings but the remittances they sent home will on decline because the majority of migrants have already joined their families abroad.
Albania has more than 1 million immigrants, almost one third of the current population, living mainly in Greece and Italy.
Albania immigrants working abroad, mainly those in Greece and Italy, continue bringing less money at home because of the ongoing crisis in their host countries which has cut a considerable number of jobs. This is confirmed by the central bank’s current account statistics which showed that immigrant remittances in the first quarter of this year registered 170 million euros, 13 million euros less than the same period last year.
The January-March period of this year marked the second lowest level of remittances since 2005 after the second quarter of 2009 which was the worst ever with only 131 million euros.
Last year, immigrant remittances fell by 6.7 percent reaching 782 million euros, 52 million less than in 2008, according to central bank data.
Experts say the main cause of the drop in remittances, which are the main source of revenue for thousands of families in Albania, was the increase in unemployment rate mainly in crisis-hit Greece and Italy where more than one million Albanian immigrants live and work. Hundreds of them are already returning home after being unable to find a job for months.
