Migration under Ottoman rule
The earliest mass migration in the collective memory of Albanians took place in the second half of the 15th century, following the death of Albania's national hero, Scanderbeg, in 1467 and the beginning of the Ottoman conquest. Five centuries under Ottoman rule were accompanied by further emigration. Many Albanian men fled to escape blood feuds, local lords or the Ottoman persecution; yet others simply emigrated to escape poverty or to work in various trades and professions.
Transatlantic migrations
At the turn of the 20th century, Albanians became (a very small) part of the transatlantic migrations from Southern Europe. Some of them were refugees who fled the bloodshed that resulted from the Balkan Wars and the two World Wars. Others sought to improve their life by emigrating for work in the rapidly expanding industrial cities of North America and the agricultural industries of Australia. Labor migrants were in the majority men and after the 1930s some women followed. Most of them originated from south and south-east Albania.
As a result of these historical migrations, significant communities of Albanians formed in Greece, Italy, Romania, Egypt, Turkey and the US.
The communist years (1945-1990)
Albania emerged from World War II an economically devastated country. At the end of November 1944 a communist regime came to power in Albania. During nearly half a century of communist rule emigration abroad without authorization was banned and severely punished. Only a trickle of people managed to escape during those years, settling mainly in the USA.
Movements within the country were, likewise, tightly controlled and sanctioned only as part of the planned economy. As far as immigration was concerned, it was also almost non-existent during those years since all aliens, especially those from the UK and the USA, were viewed with suspicion. Only certain categories of visitors were allowed to settle for a fixed period of time, such as selected lecturers teaching at Tirana's university, members of the sister Marxist-Leninist parties, or students from friendly countries and those of Albanian origin (such as from Kosovo).
Emigration since 1990
Albania emerged from 45 years of communism with a third of its population under 15 years of age, suffering high unemployment and in dire poverty. The latter two problems would escalate in the early 1990s as the closure of industries and rural cooperatives led to mass unemployment, while 'shock therapy' of economic reform meant that prices and inflation shot upwards almost overnight. Desperate Albanians rushed towards the coastal cities of Durrës and Vlorë in the hope of boarding one of the ships leaving for Italy, while many more walked in droves over the mountains to Greece. The scale of this exodus is not easily quantifiable as most migrants were irregular and there was much to-and-fro, especially with Greece.
Table 1: Estimates of Albanians living abroad: 1999, 2005 and 2010
| Country | 1999 | % | 2005 | % | 2010 | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greece | 500,000 | 67.3 | 600,000 | 54.9 | 750,000 | 44.0 |
| Italy | 200,000 | 27.0 | 250,000 | 22.9 | 450,000 | 26.4 |
| USA | 12,000 | 1.6 | 150,000 | 13.7 | 400,000 | 23.5 |
| UK | 5,000 | 0.7 | 50,000 | 4.6 | 50,000 | 2.9 |
| Germany | 12,000 | 1.6 | 15,000 | 1.4 | 15,000 | 0.9 |
| Canada | 5,000 | 0.7 | 11,500 | 1.0 | 15,500 | 0.9 |
| Belgium | 2,500 | <0.3 | 5,000 | 0.5 | 5,000 | 0.3 |
| Turkey | 2,000 | >0.3 | 5,000 | 0.5 | 5,000 | 0.3 |
| France | 2,000 | >0.3 | 2,000 | 0.2 | 10,000 | 0.6 |
| Australia | 2,000 | >0.3 | 2,000 | 0.2 | 2,500 | 0.2 |
| Switzerland | 1,000 | <0.1 | 1,500 | <0.1 | 1,500 | <0.1 |
| Netherlands | n.a. | n.a. | 1,000 | <0.1 | 1,000 | <0.1 |
| Total | 743,500 | 100 | 1,093,000 | 100 | 1,705,500 | 100 |
Sources: 1999: Barjaba (2000); 2005: GoA (2005, p. 36); 2010: NID (2010, pp. 7-8)
Table 2: Estimates of Albanians living in key host countries, 1998-2010
| Country | Number | Female % | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greece | 368,269 | 40.0 | 2010 | Valid residence permits, March |
| 185,000 | n.a. | 2008 | Ethnic Greek Albanian citizens with long-term residence permits (not included above) | |
| 32,892 | 45.8 | 2010 | Stock of naturalized Albanian citizens (1998-2010) | |
| Italy | 483,219 | 45.6 | 2011 | Valid residence permits, 1 January |
| 24,028 | 48.5 | 2010 | Stock of naturalized Albanian citizens (1998-2010) | |
| USA | 113,661 | n.a. | 2000 | Stock of Albanians by ethnicity, US Census |
| 201,000 | n.a. | 2008 | Stock of Albanians by ancestry, 2008 American Community Survey | |
| 80,360 | n.a. | 2011 | Stock of Albanians with legal permanent resident status by country of birth (1990-2011) | |
| UK | 13,477 | n.a. | 2011 | Stock of Albanians by ethnicity, UK Census (England & Wales only) |
| 32,425 | n.a. | 2011 | Stock of Albanians by language, UK Census (England & Wales only) | |
| 7,236 | n.a. | 2010 | Stock of naturalized Albanian citizens (1998-2010) | |
| Canada | 25,000 | n.a. | 2011 | Stock of Albanians by language, Canadian Census |
Sources:
GR: Data of the Greek Ministry of the Interior in Maroukis and Gemi (2010: 13, 15, 16); IT: ISTAT database available online at Externer Link: http://demo.istat.it/altridati/noncomunitari/index_e.html, retrieved 31 January 2013;
USA: US Census Bureau, Externer Link: www.census.gov;
UK: 2011 Census data tables 'QS211EW ethnic group' and 'QS204EW main language' available online at: Externer Link: www.ons.gov.uk, retrieved: 31 January 2013;
Canada: 2011 Canadian Census online at: Externer Link: http://www12.statcan.ca, last updated: 09 January 2013, retrieved 31 January 2013;
data on naturalizations in Greece, Italy and the UK: Eurostat statistics 'Acquisition of citizenship by former citizenship' available online at: Externer Link: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/population/data/database, last updated: 22 August 2012, extracted: 31 January 2013.
Although the number of emigrants presented in Table 1 seems relatively small, their significance becomes clear when we put them in a comparative perspective. World Bank data ranks Albania ninth in the list of top-10 countries of emigration in the world, in terms of relative scale of emigration, i.e. as a percentage of the population living in the source country; by 2010 more than 1.4 million Albanians had emigrated and lived abroad, equivalent to almost half (45.4 percent) of the country's resident population.
