The emigration phenomenon is continuing unstopped. This was confirmed by the latest data from the Albanian Institute of Statistics. According to INSTAT, 423,700 Albanians have left to seek better opportunities abroad, between 2011 and 2020. As scary as this number appears, it is somehow balanced by the 242,800 immigrants who have returned to their homeland in the same period.
The Covid-19 pandemic did not stop Albanians from fleeing their country (the number of Albanian immigrants being the highest among all Western Balkans countries), with 23,854 people leaving and only 7,171 returning. The net migration of a negative 181,000 people in 10 years amounts to around 4% of the population, a considerably big number for a country of Albania’s population.
Creating a life for yourself in a foreign place is not easy, and yet Albanians, especially young ones are leaving the country at an alarming rate. The fact that the majority are part of an educated class, the issue raises concerns about the country’s sustainable development in the near future.
Several IMF and World Bank studies have shown in that a continuation of emigration in these numbers hampers considerably Albania’s economic development and prosperity. At the same time it has affected the birth rate in the country, falling considerably with last year having the least number of children born in Albania in over a century.
