TIRANA, Feb. 8, 2023 – The number of Albanian migrants who live in Greece continues to decrease, the latest official Greek state indicates, but they are choosing to re-migrate to wealthier European countries instead of moving back to Albania, observers note.
In December 2022, there were 285,842 Albanian citizens with residence permits in Greece, which make up about 60.5 percent of foreigners that have legal residence papers, according to official data by the Greek Ministry of Immigration and Asylum.
This latest figure is significantly lower — a decrease of almost 150,000 people — compared to the same data in December 2021 when, according to the data of the Greek Ministry of Immigration and Asylum there were 435,642 Albanians with residence permits in Greece, which accounted for 62.8 percent of total legal resident foreigners.
Observers of Albanian migration to Greece attribute the sharp decline to many factors.
The procedures for issuing new residence permits continue to move slowly, while a category of second-generation Albanians in Greece have recently obtained Greek citizenship and are no longer counted in foreign resident numbers .
But, according to analysts, a major factor in the reduction of the number of Albanians in Greece is related to a dynamic movement of migrants who worked and lived in Greece for many years toward other, wealthier, European countries.
Greece is still suffering from its prolonged economic crisis, a recent increase in cost of living and stagnating wages. Albanians have joined the Greeks themselves in looking for better work opportunities in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia.
Despite now being lower in number, Albanians continue to hold the lion’s share of migrants in Greece, followed only by the Chinese, who have 22,951 residence permits, which constitute 4.9 percent of the total issued permits, and Georgians with 20,002 residence permits, which constitute 4.2 percent of the total number of residence permits.
