TIRANA, Sept. 11 – As neighboring Greece escapes its worst-ever recession that has seen its economy contract by a quarter since late 2008, the Albanian migrant community of about half a million there has been severely affected, with about 200,00 migrants leaving Greece and permanently settling in Albania and other EU member countries.
A video documentary by Deutsche Welle in the local Albanian service shows Albanians in Greece have been ‘hit, but yet landed on their feet’ during the past eight years of Greece’s debt crisis in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis.
“In Athens, Albanian is commonly heard, in the streets, at shops, coffee bars where many Albanians work. The Greek crisis has specifically hit immigrants working in the construction and agriculture industries,” DW reports.
Some 730,000 Albanians are reported to unofficially live in Greece, but only 430,000 are registered.
Ardian Rakipi of the Federation of Albanian Associations in Greece says between 180,000 to 200,000 Albanians have left Greece in the past eight years because of the crisis there.
“The two factors mostly affecting Albanians is being unable to support their children’s education and their own financial situation. Currently, there is tough pressure in the labour market as there are no jobs available,” he says.
The summer tourist season, bringing a record 30 million tourists to Greece, has somehow reduced the crisis impacts this year.
There is sun, sea and a lot of waiters working in Greek hotels.
While tourists enjoy the sunset, Ardjan Lushaj works at the Aegina Island.
He says things have changed for the better for himself but in general it has become more difficult for Albanian migrants in Greece, especially for those living with their families rather than single migrants.
“We used to travel to Albania twice a year, but now go only once a year or not at all because we can’t afford it,” says Ardian, a waiter in his 30s.
Aviol Marra, a 25-year-old waiter from Albania who has been living in Greece for the past 12 years, says things are getting slightly better.
“It’s six years now that the economic crisis has been affecting Albanians. Many people have returned to Albania, many families have remained jobless,” says Aviol.
“Albanians are people who like working and do their best. The Greeks appreciate this and we are among the first they will hire,” he adds.
Things are not as smooth for some other Albanian migrants.
Ardian Dako, a 30-year-old Albanian migrant, used to work as plumber, but only works as a waiter during summer now.
“People are sleeping outside, they can’t afford eating, paying the rent or electricity,” he says.
Finding a job is getting more difficult for Albanian young men and women and many of them target going to EU countries.
“It is difficult for young and elderly people,” says Eva Cani, a 19-year-old Albanian who wants to study medicine.
“My father went to England for a short time and he has turned back so that we all leave together. Young people now see their future mostly abroad to England, the U.S., or Europe,” she adds.
The second generation of Albanian migrants born in Greece manage to find a job based on their educational attainment.
Some 60 percent of Albanian young people are educated.
However, with Greece’s youth unemployment at about 44 percent, the EU’s highest, chances are minimal and even Greek young men and women have taken to migration.
“One thing we should bear in mind is that when there is economic pressure and we insist on ‘economic crisis’ foreigners are the first to be affected and that means Albanians who account for three-quarters of migrants here, as the Greek residents themselves are looking for a job and there is extraordinary competition,” says Ardian Rakipi of the Federation of Albanian Associations in Greece.
However, despite the competition, at least during the tourist season, Albanians, whom Deutsche Welle dubs ‘the silent heroes of the Greek economy,’ remain sought-after.
Prospects improve
Prospects for Albanian migrants in Greece have become more optimistic in the past three years as the neighbouring country gradually escaped recession and is set to register positive growth rates of 2.1 to 2.5 percent in 2017 and 2018 on improving consumer and investor sentiment and a boost in its key tourism industry.
A huge wave of migrants returning home, lower trade exchanges, investment and remittances were some of the most obvious impacts the economic crisis in neighbouring Greece, the top investor and second most important trading partner, initially had in Albania, according to a late 2012 study conducted by The Albanian Centre for Competitiveness and International Trade (ACIT).
The study, which dubbed the Greek crisis “a social bomb for Albania” found that around 180,000 Albanian migrants, or 18 to 22 percent of the total Albanian migrants in Greece, returned home from 2008 to 2012.
The sharp cut in remittances is one of the most obvious impacts for thousands of poor households.
Fuelled by a recovery in Italy and Greece, Albania’s main trading partners where an estimated 1 million Albanian migrants live and work, remittances slightly recovered for the third year in a row in 2016 when they climbed to €616 million, but remained about a third below their peak level of €952 million in 2007 just before the onset of the global financial crisis, according to the country’s central bank.
Greece’s position as Albania’s second largest trading partner has sharply deteriorated in the past eight years, making the neighboring country the sixth most important destination of Albanian exports.
Meanwhile, the situation with about another half a million Albanian migrants in neighboring Italy has been more stable due to the milder recession in the neighboring country across the Adriatic, the EU’s third largest economy.
In its latest economic outlook, the European Commission expects the Italian economy to continue expanding by about 1 percent in 2017 and 2018, driven by stronger external demand and the recovery of investment.
Albania’s top trading partner and of the main foreign investors in the country, Italy has been one of Eurozone’s hardest hit economies since 2009, registering recession in 2008-2009 and 2012-2014.
