TIRANA, Feb. 18 – Corruption, unemployment, poor trust in politics, poverty, and a rising trend to leave the country because of lack of confidence in a better future at home are the main concerns facing Albanians, especially young men and women, a survey has unveiled.
Measuring everyday concerns that the country’s residents face, a survey conducted by Tirana-based Albanian Center for Good Governance shows unemployment and grim prospects to find an apparently decent job at home is the top concern for young men and women aged from 20 to 45 years old.
Two separate surveys conducted in June and December with a total of more than 5,000 residents nationwide show the economic situation of residents living in coastal areas receives a slight boost in summer during the peak of the tourist season, but gradually worsens by the end of the year unveiling the seasonality in Albania’s emerging tourism industry that remains largely summer and coastal-based.
Conducted with the support of Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the survey shows the jobless rate among 20 to 45 year-olds increases by around 5 percent to 37 percent over June to December, in a phenomenon which researchers attribute to the loss of temporary jobs in the travel and tourism industry after a relatively short tourist season that peaks during July-August.
Higher jobless rates by the end of the year also contributes to a rising tendency to borrow in order to meet basic household needs. The survey shows more than half of those employed earn enough only to pay taxes and meet everyday basic needs such as food, clothing, schooling as well as water, electricity and phone bills.
Officially, Albania has an unemployment rate of 12.2 percent which among young men and women is at around 23 percent, according to INSTAT, the state-run statistical institute. However, behind official numbers, a rising number of youngsters leaving the country and almost half of the population living in rural areas and counted as self-employed in the agriculture sector contribute to lower official jobless rates.
Average wages in Albania are at between $400 to $500, but the minimum wage is at only around $200, one of the region’s lowest.
Albania has one of Europe’s lowest consumer prices, but consumption rates are still far below the EU average hampered by income at around a third of the EU average and half of the new EU member states.
The World Bank estimates that 28 percent of Albania’s population lives on US$5.5/day, in a poverty rate that is higher compared to other regional EU aspirant countries.
Migration appeal
Due to few employment opportunities at home and a perceived poor quality of basic public services, the migration appeal among young men and women remains at alarming rates, with a staggering of around two-thirds considering leaving the country in search of a better future abroad, mainly wealthy EU member countries.
Around a third of those surveyed said they had applied to leave the country, in what commonly happens through the U.S. diversity visa lottery and more and more Albanians trying a new German dream legally after a wave of ungrounded asylum seekers during 2014-2017. Others try to join friends and family members in Italy and Greece, the hosts of around 1 million Albanians since the early 1990s exodus following the collapse of the decades-long communist regime.
“This phenomenon is leading to a real wound among young men and women, especially those aged from 18 to 25 or even 25 to 45. In December [2018], 44 percent of youngsters had already applied to leave and there was another 20 percent planning to apply. That means over 60 percent of Albania’s young population wants to leave. Those aged more than 45 years old have a tendency to stay at a rate of more than 50 percent,” say researchers of the Albanian Center for Good Governance.
The surveyed citizens link the poor economic situation at home to high levels of corruption which more than half of respondents said was not being fought at senior levels of the public administration.
With few months to go before Albania holds new local elections, more than half of respondents say they would favor a new mayors for the local government units during the upcoming June 30 elections.
Migration effects
A new migration wave that has swept Albania in the past five years and rising desire among young men and women to leave the country has already had its first effects on the some of the country’s main industries relying on cheap labor costs with employers complaining that finding qualified staff has emerged as one of the top challenges and a key threat to their survival in a small emerging market such as Albania.
The garment and footwear sector is the hardest-hit, but effects are also appearing on the call centers, in two industries that rely on cheap labor costs and products and services mainly destined for Italy, Albania’s main trading partner.
Willingness to migrate among resident Albanians has almost doubled in the past decade to rank the country fourth globally for the desire to leave with around two-thirds of adults saying they would like to move to another country if they had the opportunity, according to a late 2018 Gallup poll.
A staggering 60 percent of Albania’s adult population said they were willing to leave the country, ranking Albania among war-torn and natural disaster-hit countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia and Haiti and the sole Balkan country where at least half of adults would like to move.
Albania’s population, although still one of Europe’s youngest, has been rapidly ageing in the past quarter of a century, with massive migration playing a key role.
Albania has around 1.2 million migrants abroad, almost 40 percent of its resident population, making it one of the countries with the highest per capita migration around the world, only lower compared to Bosnia and Herzegovina among regional EU aspirant countries.
Lack of employment opportunities, bad infrastructure in healthcare and education, unfair treatment by the government and courts, poverty, a low quality of life and entrenched corruption are often cited as reasons for leaving.
In its latest Transition report, London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development suggest that improving the business environment and the quality of public services and other local amenities may significantly reduce people’s desire to leave Albania.
“Indeed, improving the quality of public goods can have a large impact on intentions to emigrate, comparable to the effect of raising wages by more than US$ 500 a month in a country such as Albania,” says the EBRD.
While ungrounded asylum-seeking has curbed in the past couple of years following a surge during 2014-2016, more and more have turned to learning German and legally move to Europe’s leading economy, in a phenomenon that has not spared skilled professionals such as doctors and nurses leaving the country.
Vetting politicians
An overwhelming majority of around 95 percent of respondents supported the idea of vetting politicians over their wealth and potential links to corruption and crime.
“Only 5.48 percent responded ‘no.’ “This is an important indicator that is testimony to the citizens’ expectations over justice denied as well as an appeal for an end to impunity. This figure shows there is an absolute coalition of citizens in favor, despite their political convictions, to clean politics from people with links to crime, corruption, abuse of law and public funds,” said Arben à‡ejku, the head of the Center for Good Governance introducing the survey’s results last weekend.
However, while judges and prosecutors are already undergoing a tight vetting process on their financial assets as part of a judiciary reform that has already ousted half of examined senior judges and prosecutors for failing to justify their wealth, a main opposition Democratic Party-proposed similar vetting on politicians has not found backing among the ruling majority.
Last December, a draft opinion by the Venice Commission, a Council of Europe advisory body, showed main opposition Democratic Party-proposed constitutional amendments fail to provide sufficient guidance and safeguards and may lead to abuse of power and severe implications for the rights of those subject to it, but acknowledged the legitimate aim to remove offenders and their influence from governance and political life.
