UNDP urges return of skilled Albanian migrants

TIRANA, Nov. 2 – The return of highly-qualified migrants has become an integral part of the Government Strategy for Migration, to effectively engage the Albanian Diaspora in the country’s scientific, administrative and economic development.
An initiative of the Albanian government and UNDP, the Brain Gain Program, is creating policies and incentives to encourage skilled people to remain in Albania, to return after university study abroad, or to visit on a short-term basis to engage in specific projects and reverse Albania’s “brain drain.”
Dr. Sokol Abazi is one among them. A chemical engineer by profession he had graduated in 1989 from the University of Tirana. First he began working at a university in northern Albania, where he received a scholarship from Switzerland. There he started to work on his PhD.
In 2006, he discussed with his Tirana University colleagues on the possibility of returning and in 2008 he started working at the Faculty of Science as a first lecturer within the Chemistry Department.
He also got involved with the UNDP’s Brain Gain Program trying to attract people who have had their education or PhDs abroad to return to Albania.
“There is a lot to do here in Albania. … To work here in a university that is working to promote itself and advance, is more motivation than being in a European University where most things have already been done. Here, we feel like we are creating something new in this university and that’s a nice feeling,” he said.