Starting over in Albania, AIIS study finds how migrant returnees are making it at home

TIRANA, July 24 – Albania’s post-communism transition has been quite unique with massive migration that has had mixed effects for the country’s developing economy, but more than a quarter of a century on, experts say ongoing migration could pose a real threat to Albania’s demographics and the economy and migrants can make priceless contribution home by bringing much needed know-how and investment.

The comments came at a round table held this week by the Albanian Institute for International Studies, one of the country’s top think tanks, as part of a German-supported study tracing the successful reintegration of Albanian migrants returning from Germany, Italy and Greece during the past few years at a time when the country has been facing a new migration wave, this time in ungrounded asylum-seeking to rich EU members, mainly Germany and France.

Albania has about 1.2 million migrants, about 40 percent of its current resident population, making it one of the countries with the highest per capita migration rates around the world. Around 1 million Albanian migrants live in Italy and Greece, the two neighboring countries where Albanians massively moved to in the early 1990s following the collapse of the country’s communist hardline regime and almost five decades of isolation.

Germany has also seen a sharp hike in Albanian migrants in the past few years with thousands seeking ungrounded asylum in a trend that has sharply slowed down in the past couple of years as Albanians have turned to legal migration, taking advantage of easier procedures for Western Balkan countries to move to Germany legally through employment contracts.

Doctors and nurses are also among those who have left the country, leaving many hospitals with a shortage of experts.

Success stories

While the focus is mostly on Albanians leaving the country, little is known about success stories of hundreds of Albanians who decide to permanently move back home each year and make it in Albania.

An AIIS study supported by the German development cooperation  agency in Albania,  GIZ, has managed to identify about 80 migrant returnees from Germany, Italy and Greece who have successfully reintegrated into the Albanian society in the past few years after moving back home.

Nowadays, Agim Prebibaj successfully runs a camping venture and is working on building an additional guesthouse in his hometown of Tropoja, northeastern Albania, in an effort to set up a year-round business after returning from Germany.

Fation D. who studied and lived in Germany for 12 years, is now a branch manager at a Durres-based Albanian-German company. Other returnees from Germany also successfully run funeral agencies and video rental shops, the study shows.

“These experiences prove that migration experience in Germany has helped Albanians not only to survive economically or to improve their lives, but even to invest in Albania their financial, human and social capital. They have set up their own businesses in the country and enjoy their passion and entrepreneurial talent. Migration to Germany was simultaneously a working, learning and skills-shaping experience,” says a preliminary version of the AIIS study.

Earlier studies have shown Albanians massively migrated to Germany in the past five years due to high unemployment, small income which in some cases was lower than the social benefits as asylum seekers in Germany, lack of trust in state institutions perceived as corrupt and inefficient, real or perceived lack of job perspectives and unrealistic expectations compared to income in Western European countries, primarily Germany, Europe’s largest economy, where only 18,000 Albanians reside legally.

Dritan Gremi, a migrant who returned from Italy to set up a successful Tirana-based medical tourism facility mainly working with Italian customers says it’s high time migrants were seen differently and that only by changing the current mentality the country can accelerate its EU integration.

“Migrants often feel strangers in their home countries because of losing their connections and also strangers in their host countries,” he told the AIIS round table, optimistic that the country offers plenty of unexplored opportunities for migrants.

Unique migration

Albert Rakipi, the head of the Albanian Institute for International Studies, AIIS, says Albania is a unique case in migration experience around the world with about 40 percent of its current resident population living abroad during the past quarter of a century of post-communism transition as part of a conflicting transition which has not come to an end yet.

According to him, massive migration flows have served as a buffer to social pressure on governments through remittances but what’s concerning is that surveys still show that one out of two Albanians would consider leaving the country if they were given the opportunity.

Kosta Barjaba, a social affairs expert who led the AIIS research, says migration has been a contradictory phenomenon with its positive and negative contributions to the Albania’s development. “Migrants have not only been a source of financing and investment but also a generator of the entrepreneurship spirit,” he said.

Citing a migrant who has returned from Greece after moving to the neighboring country in the early 1990s soon after the collapse of the communist regime, Barjaba said migrants can now reintegrate much easier as things have changed a lot in the past quarter of a century.

“When we moved to Greece we had to accelerate in order to catch up, now that we have come back home we have to slow down to adjust,” Barjaba quoted a migrant as saying.

However, the AIIS study finds that the different mentality migrants find back home with poor rule of law and often arrogant behavior in state institutions compared to experience in their previous host countries often forces them to consider re-emigration although cases materialized have been sporadic.

A rapidly ageing population due to massive migration and a significant cut in birth rates is one of the most pressing challenges for Albania whose resident population is projected to undergo new declines in the next few decades with a series of negative effects for the country’s economy and human capital.

The latest 2011 census showed Albania’s resident population dropped by 8 percent to 2.8 million people.

A NATO member and EU candidate, Albania is hoping to launch accession talks with the European Union in mid-2019 after a decision on the long-awaited accession talks was delayed in late June 2018 when EU leaders asked the country to show more progress in its judiciary reform and tackling corruption and organized crime.

SUCCESSFUL RE-INTEGRATION PATHS OF ALBANIAN RETURNEES

The following is the executive summary of an AIIS project supported by GIZ Albania, tracing the reintegration of Albanian migrant returnees from Germany, Italy and Greece

1. Albania is among the European and world’s countries with the highest migration rates per capita: nearly 39 percent of the population and with intense, economically driven, irregular, and rapidly evolving migration flows. The Albanians’ migration flows can be characterized as intense, economically driven, irregular, and rapidly evolving.
2. The Albanian Diaspora, defined as the population of Albanians residing abroad, is largely made up of five main groups: i) labor migrants; ii) family members of migrants; iii) students; iv) asylum-seekers and refugees; and unaccompanied minors. The first three groups are numerically more relevant.
3. The most popular destination countries for Albanian migrants are Italy and Greece, with respectively 449,000 and 430,000 Albanian emigrants in 2017.
4. Germany is the most attractive European country for Albanians. During 2008-2013 the annual number of Albanian migrants in Germany was at the level of 10,000 persons. In 2015, the number of Albanians residing illegally in Germany was around eight times higher and in 2016 around five times higher than in 2014. Most of them were people who entered Germany in the context of asylum-seekers flows. In 2016, Albanians had the lowest level of refugee rate, 0.06% compared to 57.6% of Syrians, and the highest level of rejection, 99.4% compared to 0.1% of Syrians.
5. In 2017 France replaced Germany as the country with the highest number of illegal stay cases. In this year there were 18,000 Albanian migrants residing legally in Germany.
6. There is also a trend of irregular migration from Albania to other EU member states. During 2014-2017, Albania was ranked the third country for the number of illegal stays in the EU member states, after Ukraine and Morocco. The number of Albanians staying illegally in the EU member states increased during 2014-2015 and decreased during 2016-2017. During 2014-2017, Albania remained on top of the countries for the number of people illegally crossing the borders, followed by Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, the number of people illegally crossing the borders decreased significantly from 2014 to 2017. During 2014-2017, Albania was also ranked third among top ten nationalities for the refusals of entry at the external borders, after Ukraine and Russia. However, in 2017, the flows of asylum-seekers from Albania decreased.
7. Recently, there is an increasing interest of the government of Albania to deal with migration issues. A cabinet member, the State Minister for Diaspora, was created in September 2017 and the objective of the Ministry is to continuously develop and implement policies related to the development of the Albania-Diaspora partnership. The Parliament of Albania established the parliamentary sub-commission on Diaspora and the National Agency for Diaspora is in the process of establishment.
8. The return migration flows to Albania have increased during the past few years. There were 99,000 Albanian returnees for the period 2012-2016. The return flows from Greece and Italy increased rapidly after the global economic crisis and its effects on Greek and Italian economy. The crisis effects produced also both successful and failed returnees. Both typologies of return have been present during the recent return migration flows from Germany, Italy and Greece. The high return migration flows of Albanians continue until recently.
9. The return migration to Albania during the last years has shown the following characteristics: i) The biggest number of returnees came back from Greece and Italy and less from Germany and other receiving countries; ii) Most returnees are males who seem more likely to move for employment reasons as they are traditionally considered the family bread-winners; iii) The Albanian migrant women usually move for family reasons as they are traditionally considered to carry out social and supportive family roles; iv) Returnees belong to the relatively young and working age population; v) Returnees have returned mainly to the three big regions: Tirana, Durres and Vlore; vi) The recent Albanian return migration can be considered a sort of circular migration, as many of returnees are thinking to re-emigrate to other countries.
10. The return from Germany increased after the 2014-2015 asylum-seekers flows to this country.
11. The main typologies of return migrants from Germany are the following: i) voluntary return; ii) non-voluntary return. Voluntary return is happening in the following sub-typologies: a) voluntary return of successful emigrants; b) voluntary return of unsuccessful emigrants; c) voluntary return of migrants because of family reasons or other reasons not linked with their performance and income in Germany; iv) voluntary return of students who graduated at German universities. Meanwhile, the non-voluntary return is happening in the following sub-typologies: i) return of people who left Albania as economic asylum-seekers and are repatriated; ii) return of people who had entered Germany and were staying in the country illegally; iii) return of unaccompanied minors.
12. The German government has shown an increasing interest in assisting the reintegration of Albanian returnees from Germany. In March 2017, it launched the returnee program “Returning to New Opportunities” , which is assisting the reintegration of people who wish to return to Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, etc.
13. Among reasons and motivations of return migration from Germany, the returnees underlined their plans to start their own business in Albania after gaining the necessary resources and entrepreneurial skills in Germany, better employment opportunities in Albania after graduation at the German universities, and the influence of family needs.
14. Among reasons and motivations of return migration from Italy, the returnees underlined the expectations to find a job in Albania after graduating in Italy, the impact of family relations, and in other cases they mentioned that the decision to return was taken simultaneously with the decision to re-emigrate.
15. The mindset of failure looks like to cause the return from Greece much more than the return from Germany or Italy. Most of the respondents admitted that the main reason for returning to Albania is the economic crisis and lack of jobs in Greece and the difficulties to integrate into the Greek society.
16. Returnees accepted that their real situation in Albania did not meet their expectations before return. They have followed different reintegration paths after their return to the homeland: opening their own businesses or self-employed, finding a job in the private sector, finding a job in the public sector. Some of the returnees also stated that they have been unable to find a job and continued to be unemployed.
17. For those who managed to open a business, the main problem is the bureaucracy of the public administration. Others mentioned the lack of small business incentives which hamper their efforts to invest in Albania. Other interviewees confirmed that the fiscal burden in Albania is higher than in their countries of migration.
18. Returnees do not find significant difficulties in reintegration in Albania. The main problem is schooling and social integration of their children. For adults, the main difficulty is the different mentality that still exists in Albania, compared to the new one they faced in the migration country. In general, returnees are faced with the same problems that other Albanians are facing: lack of job opportunities, low salaries, corruption, dealing with the recognition of academic diplomas upon their return to Albania and problems of managing their own businesses. Returnees in small towns or in the periphery of the country, find it more difficult to reintegrate compared to returnees in Tirana and other big cities.
19. Most of returnees are considering their re-emigration in the previous destination country or in another one. The intention and projects to re-emigrate shows that their reintegration is not sustainable and far from meeting returnees’ expectations.
20. Reintegration of returnees can be improved in the following areas: i) guidance on employment at the pre-departure stage through transnational cooperation and mediation between the structures of Albania, Germany and other receiving countries; ii) guidance to self-employment and entrepreneurial activities at the pre-departure and arrival stage; iii) integration of children within the school system; and iv) the implementation of programs to recognize and make available pension contributions.
21. Reintegration of returnees should be a shared responsibility between the central and local administrations in order to promote their contribution to local communities and local development.
22. A system of data collection and monitoring of inflows of returnees and of their presence in every sector and region is needed, as an indispensable tool for policies, interventions and incentives to returnees.