Albania needs to work harder to close the gap with its citizens abroad
However, in the case of Albania, where by most accounts one third of the citizens live abroad, failing to count Albanians abroad further widens the gap between the home country and citizens outside its borders, from which the country stands to benefit so much financially and morally.
By: ANDI BALLA
As Albania prepares to conduct a census of the country’s population, there has been a lot of debate on what questions to ask people, particularly whether religion and ethnicity should be included in the questionnaire.
However, another important element of the census has widely gone ignored. It is the official stance of the government to count in the census only those physically in Albania when the census takes place. Any Albanian abroad, whether studying in Australia or working in Italy, will be left out.
One could make the point that that’s how a census really works. Other countries follow the same system. American census officials, for example, count only those present in the United States when the census happens, including citizens of other countries who happen to be in America at the time of the census. However, in the case of Albania, where by most accounts one third of the citizens live abroad, failing to count Albanians abroad further widens the gap between the home country and citizens outside its borders, from which the country stands to benefit so much financially and morally.
Not doing any counting at all on non-resident Albanians is a lost opportunity. A reliable method of counting Albanians abroad needs to be established so the country can come up with a proper strategy on how to tap their human potential.
Since the census is taking place, why not ask the people in Albania how many people in their immediate family live in other countries, and where they live. A special category for non-residents can be created.
State Minister Genc Pollo told a political talk show this week that, “Just like 700,000 remain outside when elections happen, and only a small part of them come to vote when parliament is elected, out these 700,000, 99 percent or 99.5 percent will remain in Greece and could care less of coming to tell the INSTAT census workers, that ‘I’m here too.'”
To be fair, Mr. Pollo was addressing a concern among some Albanians that too many ethnically Albanian immigrants in Greece will declare themselves of Greek ethnicity to get benefits from the neighboring country.
But his words do reveal a problem. As Mr. Pollo points out, Albanians living outside the country have already been disenfranchised. They can’t vote partly because of a lack of will from Albanian officials to establish a system of remote voting, partly, I suspect, because some Albanian politicians might not be too keen on how the votes might go, since for many politicians, Albanians abroad are simply out of sigh, out of mind.
Albanians abroad do care about the country’s politics and fate. A quick look at online political forums reveals that many of those commenting in the forums live in Europe and North America. The high number of sales for Albanian television packages abroad and the traffic on Albanian news site shows that thousands watch the Albanian news every evening. Sure, they don’t pay Albanian taxes, but they have contributed between 10 and 15 percent of the country’s GDP in the past few years in remittances. And they spend billions of leks in their visits to Albania each year.
But how can you ask someone to spend thousands of dollars to get from New York to Tirana or get special permission from the boss in Crete to take a couple of days off to go home specifically to vote or become part of the census. In essence, that tax is too high.
Albania’s inaction on allowing Albanians to vote in the countries where they live is wrong. And the country should do more to remedy the situation, learning from other countries with large diasporas. Italy, for example, has parliament seats set aside for Italians in the United States and Canada. Other countries let people vote at their embassies and consulates. Albania does have these consular offices where most Albanians live abroad, and it can very well use them.
Whatever strategy the Albanian government has for its relationship with its citizens abroad needs to go beyond mere words. It needs to include basic things like voting rights and tracking the numbers of non-resident Albanians.
It’s very short-sighted for Albania to cut loose a large diaspora community that contributes so much financially, but more importantly, it could be a huge loss in terms of the country’s human potential.
