Mass Immigration in Albania – European Migration 第一部分
Table of Contents
Introduction
Origin of the migration
Political Reasons
Illegal migrations
Economic Reasons
Human consequences
Unemployment
Over-population
Emigrants Treatment and social crimes
Brain drain
Remittances
Conclusion
References
Introduction
Albania, a country in the Southeastern Europe has had major migration waves dating as far back as the 15th Century. History records three major waves of these migrations; the 15th century (1468 -1506) following the Ottoman conquer of Albania and the death of national hero, Skanderbeg. The second wave occurred in the mid 19th century while the latest was in the 1990 -2001 after a series of events surrounding the country’s administration mainly triggered by the Fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989-91. As at 2010, Greece held the highest number of Albanian immigrants at approximately 600,000, Italy at around 500,000 and an additional 150,000 spread across Europe and USA. For the purpose of this paper, we look at the mass exodus in the last wave for analysis.
Origin of the migration
The 1990-2001 migration was largely created over the communist administration that began in1944 only to end in the 1990 with the Fall of the Iron Curtain. The administration had put in place an anti-migration policy where those who went against it were punished under treason. After the collapse of communist rein in the country in 1990, there were phases of mass migration that were triggered by different factors in the economy.
Political Reasons
This form of migration mainly occurred after the fall of the communist leadership where Albania citizens walked in Western European embassies and were accorded the refugee status in the specific countries in 1991 fearing political insecurities. Many Albanians hoped to get away from unfair treatment that they speculated would be back in the next reign and the instability that was forecasted to last longer in the country. Asylum seekers were high among the migrants with a good proportion of leaders and opposition members fearing persecution and sort refuge to other countries in the region (Arrehag & Sjöblom, 2006). As leadership instability rose in the country, the numbers of migrations rose with it.
Illegal migrations
Early in 1991, a group of approximately 26,000 citizens of Albania crossed the Adriatic sea in boats into south Italy. This group was treated as refugees in Italy (Barjaba, 2004). The situation in Albania however did not improve and the levels of living conditions continued to fall rapidly raising the country to the top of the European poverty charts. Later in the year and into the following years till 1998, large groups of Albanians escaping the deteriorating state of their country migrated into the neighboring countries and others abroad (Carletto et al 2006). Among illegal immigrations occurring included crossing borders unauthorized, illegal shipping of human populations through the Schengen nations to the UK, Canada or the USA, overstaying tourist and student visas. By 1998, Italy had a total of over 300,000 Albanians with Greece hosting an additional over 500,000 (Kule et al., 2002); (Vullnetari & King 2011).
Economic Reasons
By 1990, the Albanian economy was already performing poorly from the late 1980s economic system collapse that was caused by heightened economic isolation, falling per capita output and high population growth rates (King et al, 2011). Since 1990, with high unemployment levels, large numbers of persons were pushed to migrate in search for employment to the west . In 1997, there was the collapse of pyramid saving schemes in Albania which saw 15% Albania’s GDP lost; approximately USD 2 billion. These investments belonged to several hundreds of thousands of Albanians in form of savings. What followed this crisis was a sharp rise in unemployment and poverty as a result of a further disturbed financial system. This drove out close to 100,000 Albanians out of the country in search of employment, better living and economic conditions (Barjaba, 2004).
Human consequences
As a result of this mass exodus, there were major changes for Albanians both those who were left behind at home and those migrating to other regions.
Unemployment
Unemployment originally existed during the communist leadership after the collapse of the Albania economy. When democracy set in, among factors meant to correct this economy and satisfy labor demand that mainly existed in the industrial sector was correct internal systems. During the adjustment period between 1993- 1996, the levels of unemployment were considerably lowered within the country (Telo, 1999). This situation was to be disturbed again in the civil turmoil and the acute socio-economic crisis experienced in 1997 and extended to the internal crisis that went into the millennium as a result of the Kosovo crisis (1999) (Kule et al., 2002). Italy (1995) and Greece (1998) revised their legislation policies legalizing migration from Albania; this enabled Albanians to access work permits in the two countries. Before this however, the only jobs migrants got were of low-status; farming, domestic cleaning and care, construction and bar work among others.
Over-population
With mass movement of Albanian citizens into the neighboring countries, the population levels rose in some of the countries mainly Greece and Italy that were the destination of the migrants and easier to access. At some point, there were annual deportation of immigrants as they were considered a social and security threat (Barjaba, 2004). With stability slowly returning to Albania towards 2004, citizens were reportedly returning home in small numbers (Kosta & Joniada, 2015). A high proportion of Albanians are still immigrants in the EU and other US regions as late as 2005.
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