TIRANA, April 14 – One out of 16 Albanians residing in Italy has started their own business, mainly as self-employed in the construction industry, Albanian media based in Italy report citing Italy’s Unioncamere chamber of commerce.
Data shows some 30,700 companies, mainly small businesses, in Italy were owned by Albanians at the end of 2014 when some 502,000 Albanians were reported holding a residence permit in the neighboring Adriatic country, making it the key host of Albanian migrants since the early 1990s, soon after the first exodus following the collapse of the communist regime.
Albanians, who mainly run businesses in construction, ranked third in the number of businesses operated by non-EU citizens at the end of 2014.
Data published by Italian Institute of Statistics, ISTAT, show Albanians are the second largest non-EU group in Italy after the Moroccans with around half a million migrants. Statistics show that despite the crisis in the neighboring country off the Adriatic the number of Albanians in Italy continues increasing, but at sharply slower pace, climbing to 524,546 in January 2014, up from 497,761 a year earlier.
Recent data published by the Greek and Italian Institute of Statistics show there are around 1 million Albanian migrants holding Albanian citizenship both in Italy and Greece with Italy having a slight advantage.
Latest data from Greece’s population and housing census in 2011 show Albanian migrants are the largest group of foreigners in Greece with a 53 percent share or around 481,000.
Albanians are one of the ten largest groups of foreign residents of EU member states, accounting for 3.2 percent of the EU total foreign population, according to a Eurostat report. The EU’s statistical office ranked Albania as the sixth biggest foreign community resident in the EU 27 with around 1 million people.
The crisis both Italy and Greece, Albania’s top trading partners, have been facing since 2009, has considerably made their lives more difficult, cutting remittances, with many decided to permanently return home.
