Immigration in Albania since 1990

Julie Vullnetari

02.05.2013 / 3 Minuten zu lesen

Although inflows of migrants are almost negligible they are becoming the focus of attention for some government agencies under pressure from the EU. Adequate data are lacking for most years, and what exists is patchy and at times contradictory. For example, the World Bank reports total stocks of around 90,000 by 2010, the equivalent of 2.8 percent of Albania's resident population. More than half of these are women with top source countries being Greece, Macedonia, the Czech Republic, Israel, Italy, and Russia. The picture is more nuanced when we look at data derived from MoI databases. Table 6 gives a snapshot of selected figures of permits given to foreign residents by citizenship during 2006-10, while table 7 gives a break-down of these permits by main types.

Table 6: Foreign residents in Albania by country of citizenship, 2006-10

*Note:* Numbers of Rumanians and Bulgarians are counted in the EU totals only from 2007.
Country	Year
	2006	%	2007	%	2008	%	2009	%	2010	%
Europe	1,749		2,894		4,298		5,007		4,114
Italy	483	16	608	15	656	11	709	10	827	15
Greece	89	3	117	3	131	2	145	2	171	3
Other EU	272		368		410		487		592
Kosovo	100	3	129	3	158	3	220	3	354	6
Turkey	477	15	1.396	34	2.573	44	2.947	43	1.649	29
Rest of Europe	328		276		370		439		521
Asia & Middle East	751		498		820		1,047		733
China	551	18	276	7	588	10	786	12	381	7
Americas	491		547		557		579		621
USA	411	13	451	11	448	8	447	7	463	8
Africa & Oceania	120	4	147	4	137	2	160	2	189	3
Total	3,111	100	4,086	100	5,812	100	6,793	100	5,657	100

Source: MoI data in GoA (2010: 30-31)

Table 7: Types of permits given to foreign residents in Albania, 2006-10

Purpose	Year
	2006	%	2007	%	2008	%	2009	%	2010	%
Employment	1,531	49	2,177	53	3,707	64	4,398	65	2,601	46
Humanitarian/Religious	1,235	40	1,355	33	1,464	25	1,565	23	1,547	27
Family reunification	288	9	494	12	555	10	622	9.2	977	17.3
Study	23	0.7	28	0.7	55	1	90	1.3	183	3.2
Asylum seekers	34	0.1	32	0.8	31	0.5	35	0.5	42	0.8
Other	0		0		0		83	1.2	313	5.5
Total	3,111	100	4,086	100	5,812	100	6,793	100	5,663	100

Source: MoI data in GoA (2010: 29-32)

The tables show the following. First, the issuance of residence permits has been generally – although slightly – increasing over the years. Second, the vast majority of these permits are issued for employment reasons, peaking in 2009. Family reunification has remained constant throughout these years at around 10 percent, only to jump to over 17 percent in 2010. Asylum permits have remained low.

The third feature is the geographical spread of origin countries. The data clearly show Turkey's dominance, with the Chinese and Italians competing for second place, followed closely by US citizens. The fourth feature is their geographical location within Albania, namely a concentration in the Durrës-Tirana conurbation with an average of around 84 percent of migrants with a residence permit registered as living there. Equally, more than half of work permits issued in 2010 were for applicants based in the capital. Finally, the vast majority of immigrants are men – with women constituting on average a quarter of total immigrants during 2006-10 – most of whom are in the working-age bracket.

When combining types of permits issued with country of origin, age and gender the following picture emerges: there is a dominance of Turkish men in the working-age bracket with residence permits. This is related to two factors: first, the visa-free regime between Albania and Turkey, which started in 1992, facilitates in-migration and secondly the awarding of large-scale contracts in the country's infrastructure to Turkish companies, which in turn employ Turkish citizens, such as in the construction of the Durrës-Kukës motorway. The Chinese, on the other hand, are mainly self-employed in their own shops and employed in those owned by their co-ethnics, primarily trading in Tirana. Interesting to note is the presence of Filipinas who are employed as domestic workers by foreign professionals or consular staff stationed in Albania and by Albanian affluent families who consider them as a status symbol.

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