Data published this week reveals that the depopulation of Albania due to migration continues at a disturbing rate, with between 200,000 to 250,000 people leaving the country in 2017 alone.
That’s equal to the entire city of Durres, the country’s second largest, packing their bags and leaving the country in one year. It is also about 10 percent of the country’s population. For scale, if Albania were the United States it would be like more than 30 million people — all of Texas — leaving the country in one year. In Germany, it would be about 8 million departing — all of Lower Saxony.
There is no war or disaster in Albania — and no other major event or crisis that could explain these numbers year after year with peaks in 2015 and 2017.
Albanians point at bad governance, a major part of the problem, and the only part Albanians can directly fix. The Socialist government’s policies are resulting in no increase in investment and no increase in jobs. Double standards that punish small and medium enterprises while rewarding the wealthiest and largest companies with ties to the government are draining the lifeblood out of the Albanian economy either through creating more unemployment or through scaring away any non-oligarchic investment, be it domestic or international.
Real wages haven’t increased in a decade, while many people who were self-employed have had to shut their small businesses. According to government data, 13,000 businesses shut down in 2017 alone. Government policies are also constantly increasing the cost of living, hitting the poorest Albanians hardest.
With no jobs, no opportunities and wealthier EU member states being within reach, Albanians are saying enough and leaving. But it takes a lot to uproot someone, and economic distress is only part of the equation. There is also the trust and hope issue, which is more subjective and harder to measure. Political scandals and allegations of criminal ties to politics are eroding trust in the country in general. The continued impunity of corruption and bad governance is another driver of the feeling of powerlessness among Albanians.
The problem is that even though most Albanians don’t approve of the government, most don’t like the opposition that much either, if polls are to be believed.
With lack of political alternatives, people don’t trust the current political class to make things better in their lifetimes and don’t feel they are powerful enough to do anything but leave, which ultimately only empowers the political class while weakening the country.
The writing is on the wall — the life of those left behind will get harder and harder, with taxes higher and higher and a country drained of its youth and vital human resources with little economic activity to speak of.
It is not a pretty picture, and it is not Albania’s alone. The entire region is going through it, with places like Bulgaria, already an EU member, seeing even more dire numbers. With economy recovering abroad but not at home, many more Albanians could still leave. The illegal migration and asylum seeking numbers will decline in favor of legal migration as soon as it becomes possible. An entire generation of Albanian health professionals are taking intensive German language classes, for example.
The government can’t fix that fact that Albania is poor country with a bad past, but it can make things better rather than worse. An empty country might seem easier to pillage, but ultimately a government that rules over a lifeless place will be judged by history for what it is — a slayer of opportunities.
