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Since 1990, migration flows from Albania have been massive, relative to the size of the country and its population, but they have also fluctuated over time. In the first section of the paper various descriptive trends are presented, mainly in graphical form, and discussed. The data come from the 2005 Albanian Living Standards Measurement Survey, an...
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Context 1
... expected, the stock of temporary migrants abroad in a given year sharply increased in correspondence of the two major episodes of migration 'outbreak' in the early 1990s and post-1996, and have leveled off over the past few years. Moving now to migrant vs. non-migrant comparisons, temporary, short-term migrants are mainly younger, male, married, slightly more educated individuals from male-headed and more numerous households (Table 2). On average, they have migrated about four times in a 14-year period for a total of 26 months . ...
Citations
... According to Mai (2011), this ambivalent circulatory movement represents a choice by migrants to adapt to and benefit from the different opportunities -economic, social and political -provided by both the origin and the destination countries. Compared to other forms of migration (international, internal or return), seasonal and circular migration are the least explored due mainly to their irregular nature, despite having traditionally been strategies for living for many Albanians, especially after 1990 (Azzarri & Carletto, 2009;Çaro et al., 2014;Mai, 2011;Maroukis & Gemi, 2013;Nicholson, 2004). The main destination countries for seasonal migration were Greece, Italy and, recently, Germany. ...
... Seasonal migration to Germany is nowadays based on the employment possibilities offered by different programmes or agencies operating in Albania, be they in healthcare, transport or services etc. Recently there has also been a growing number of countries, such as Malta, Sweden, France, the USA or the United Arab Emirates, employing seasonal migrants from Albania. 1 Unlike permanent migration, temporary migration was historically taken up by only one household member, mostly the male head of the house (Azzarri & Carletto, 2009). This trend has also changed recently due to the increase in the number of women working in the healthcare, elderly care or domestic and cleaning sectors. ...
The Covid-19 pandemic created economic turmoil and impacted various areas of life all over the world. One of the major socio-political aspects of this global crisis consisted of border closures and lockdowns imposed by governments. Migrant workers have been one of the most affected groups, because they are over-represented in vulnerable occupations and among workers with short-term labour contracts; hence, they are among the first to be laid off. Dependent for 30 years now on the financial capital coming from diverse types of migration – seasonal migration, circular mobility and remittances from international migration – the economy of Albania was negatively impacted by the consequences of these changes. Many migrant workers had to return to their country of origin and face the precarious situation from which they had already left. A lot of seasonal and circular migrant workers were trapped and could not emigrate. Outward mobility shrank or was postponed because of travel bans. The more significant consequences were experienced by seasonal migrants who are used to generating incomes through temporary work and who were unable to continue doing so due to being stuck in Albania. The fall in remittances during this period was partially caused by the strong impact that the crisis had on emigrant workers, be they temporary or permanent: the measures that prohibited many economic activities in the host countries; the difficulties of transferring money; as well as a significant portion of remittances normally making their way to Albania through informal channels.
... Initiated in a tumultuous period, emigration then followed a typical South-European pattern. The first waves were dominated by male workers, and were followed by a feminisation caused by increasing family reunifications since the end of the 1990s, at which time many illegal migrants were ''regularised'' in the main destination countries, Italy and Greece (Azzari and Carletto 2009; Stecklov et al. 2010). The number of Albanians abroad was equivalent to a third of the resident population in 2009 (Kupiszewski et al. 2009). ...
Our knowledge of the interactions between international migration and fertility in sending countries is biased towards family members left behind, who constitute a minority and decreasing share of populations. We assess the potential for emigrants’ social diffusion of low fertility into Albania and investigate how family behaviours are affected by indirect exposure to migration within the sending society, using data from multiple survey rounds. Effects arising from direct exposure within the family had a limited importance. Marriages were postponed and marital fertility was reduced because of the transformation of the larger social context, as indicated by the importance of community migrant networks and by women’s increased aspirations, which are induced by the perception of the prospects and benefits of migration in the society at large. The effects of emigration on the fertility transition seem therefore to be independent of periodic fluctuations in population flows and their associated economic benefits.
... Since the beginning of the transition from a centralized to a market economy Albania has been characterized by rapid growth in the volume of migration with a particular peak in 1997-1998 1 following the Pyramid Scheme collapse (Azzarri & Carletto, 2009), and in 2000. In conjunction with the migration, the volume of remittances directed to households in Albania has grown rapidly. ...
Using household survey data for Albania, the paper investigates the effect of remittances on health capital accumulation. Total expenditure is divided into two categories: expenditure on medicines and expenditure on visits and laboratory services. The estimation is presented for two separate sub groups, rural and urban area. In the paper both instrumental variable and propensity score matching are used to give answer to the research question about the impact of remittances in the health capital investment. The findings indicate that households increase their expenditure for medicines and other health services in the presence of remittance income. The positive relationship is statistically significant in the case of remittance receiving households living in the rural area. The magnitude is lower in the case of total expenditure for visits and laboratory. However, total expenditure for visits and laboratory are likely to have significant impact on the health outcome given their prevention nature. These findings show that remittance flows pay a heterogeneous role in the decision making process of remittance-receiving household members. However, these non-labor income flows may play an important role in supporting expenditures, especially for those living in rural areas.
... Since the beginning of the transition from a centralized to a market economy Albania has been characterized by rapid growth in the volume of migration with a particular peak in 1997-1998 1 following the Pyramid Scheme collapse (Azzarri & Carletto, 2009), and in 2000. Figure 1 shows the flow of the first-time migrant in the period 1991-2004, with a peak in 2000. ...
... Flows of first-time migrants by year of migration, 1991-2004Source: C. Azarri and G.Carletto (2009) ...
Using household survey data for Albania, the paper investigates the effect of remittances on health capital accumulation. Total expenditure is divided into two categories: expenditure on medicines and expenditure on visits and laboratory services. The estimation is presented for two separate sub groups, rural and urban area. In the paper both instrumental variable and propensity score matching are used to give answer to the research question about the impact of remittances in the health capital investment.The findings indicate that households increase their expenditure for medicines and other health services in the presence of remittance income. The positive relationship is statistically significant in the case of remittance receiving households living in the rural area. The magnitude is lower in the case of total expenditure for visits and laboratory. However, total expenditure for visits and laboratory are likely to have significant impact on the health outcome given their prevention nature. These findings show that remittance flows pay a heterogeneous role in the decision making process of remittance-receiving household members. However, these non-labor income flows may play an important role in supporting expenditures, especially for those living in rural areas.
DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n1s1p665
... The 2001 census data (INSTAT 2002: 19) estimated net loss due to emigration of around 600,000 persons between 1989 and 2001 -the total population in 2001 being 3 million -not including short-term migration of less than one year's duration. Newer data based on the 2005 Albanian Living Standard Measurement Survey revealed that since 1999 there has been a downward trend in emigration following the peak in 1997, but also that more people are now migrating to other European destinations such as the UK and Germany, as well the USA (Azzarri & Calogero 2009). ...
... It can also be observed that the demographic and socioeconomic composition of current emigrants has changed. While during the first years of the 1990s migration was mainly dominated by young men and of temporary or circular character, currently older individuals and women are migrating, a fact that points to the effects of networks and settlement (Azzarri & Calogero 2009). SEE ALSO: Balkans, migration, mid-19th century to present; Greece, migration 1830s to present; Italy: migration 1815 to present; War and migration; Wars and population displacement, 20th century ...
In the past two decades Albania and the former Yugoslavia have become associated with some of Europe's most dramatic emigration movements. During the four decades of the communist regime, the Republic of Albania was a blind spot in the imagination of Europe and the world. It was brought back into the collective consciousness in 1991 when media all over the world showed dramatic pictures of impoverished and desperate men arriving in overcrowded ships in southern Italy: Albania had its “boat people.” In addition, Albanian populations living in the former Yugoslavia, particularly Kosovo-Albanians, gained a world audience in 1998 when tens of thousands of refugees arrived not only in Europe, but also in Albania and other neighboring countries, after the outbreak of open war in Kosovo. However, migration in this world region cannot be reduced simply to such key moments; a historical perspective reveals that migration has been a constitutional aspect of the Balkans for a long time.
Keywords:
assimilation and exclusion;
cultural diversity;
community;
ethnic conflict;
geopolitics;
transnationalism
... Since the beginning of the transition from a centralized to a market economy Albania has been characterized by rapid growth in the volume of migration with a particular peak in 1997-1998 1 following the Pyramid Scheme collapse (Azzarri & Carletto, 2009), and in 2000. Figure 1 shows the flow of the first-time migrant in the period 1991-2004, with a peak in 2000. ...
Using household survey data for Albania, the paper investigates the effect of remittances on health capital accumulation. Total expenditure is divided into two categories: expenditure on medicines and expenditure on visits and laboratory services. The estimation is presented for two separate sub groups, rural and urban area. In the paper both instrumental variable and propensity score matching are used to give answer to the research question about the impact of remittances in the health capital investment.The findings indicate that households increase their expenditure for medicines and other health services in the presence of remittance income. The positive relationship is statistically significant in the case of remittance receiving households living in the rural area. The magnitude is lower in the case of total expenditure for visits and laboratory. However, total expenditure for visits and laboratory are likely to have significant impact on the health outcome given their prevention nature. These findings show that remittance flows pay a heterogeneous role in the decision making process of remittance-receiving household members. However, these non-labor income flows may play an important role in supporting expenditures, especially for those living in rural areas.
... Migration continued throughout the 2000s, albeit with declining intensity (Azzarri and Carletto, 2009). By 2010, the World Bank reported 1.4 million Albanians abroad, equal to half of the current resident Albanian population (2.8 million according to the provisional results of the 2011 Census). ...
Under the harshest communist regime in Europe, emigration from Albania was impossible, and internal migration was tightly
controlled. After 1990, everything changed. Twenty years later, 1.4 million Albanians, equivalent to half of Albania’s resident
population, live abroad; internal migration has also taken place on a massive scale. This paper describes these large-scale
migrations within the broader setting of ‘post-Wall’ European mobility and relates them to the changing context of gender
relations in Albania.
... Lerch and Wanner confirmed this regional contrast but pointed out that within high-emigration areas, remittances reduced inequality. After 2000, however, northern households participated more in migration abroad, often combined with a wider family survival strategy of internal migration from this remote and mountainous region toward the outskirts of Tirana, the national capital (Azzarri and Carletto 2009). Figure 1. ...
abstractRemittances stand at the heart of the migration-development debate. However, they are overwhelmingly considered in financial and economic terms, neglecting important dimensions, such as gender and patriarchal family structures. This article contributes to rectifying this oversight by analyzing flows of remittances resulting from Albanian migration to neighboring Greece. We draw on a detailed questionnaire survey with 350 remittance-recipient households in rural southeast Albania and 45 in-depth interviews with a selection of these respondents and with remitters living in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. We found that gender is interlinked with generation and life-course stages within the context of Albanian patriarchal norms and that remittances are shaped accordingly. Although remitting to older parents is a filial duty for unmarried sons, upon marriage only the youngest son has this responsibility—other sons send small amounts as tokens of respect and love. Sending remittances is overwhelmingly seen as a “male thing.” Single young women rarely migrate on their own for work abroad. Meanwhile any remittances sent by married daughters to their parents are considered “unofficial,” referred to as “coffee money.” Within nuclear households, some increased power-sharing among husband remitters and wife recipients takes place. However, the latter are far from passive recipients, since they struggle to combine caring for children and the elderly with farmwork or day labor. We conclude that a deeper understanding of how remittances are gendered can be gained by placing their analysis within the migratory and sociocultural context into which they are embedded.
... Using primary remittance senders as a proxy for migrants and remittance administrators as proxy for the local population, our survey data suggest that those who remain behind in the villages have lower levels of education than migrants (Tables 5 and 6). 1 This is also in line with other large-scale surveys and studies in Albania (e.g. Azzarri and Carletto 2009), as well as more widely, since migrants are generally positively selected amongst the population. In our case, this is not unexpected as the older family members will undoubtedly also have lower education levels, as will females who are in the majority as remittancereceivers in the village. ...
... However, policy has not kept up with the pace of change through which the country has passed, particularly in relation to the gendered impact of migration and remittances. Successive Albanian governments have taken a passive role on migration, considering it merely as a means to export unemployment and import wealth through remittances (Azzarri and Carletto 2009;Germenji and Milo 2009;King and Vullnetari 2009a). Even when they have been pro-active, their actions have been generally ad-hoc and incoherent, in order to remedy the present, but not looking very much into the future. ...
... Time may also be a factor. It might be logical to expect that remittances have an intitial effect on enhancing inequality due to the selectivity of migration at the early stages of the migration process, but then, as more people have access to migration as the migration flow "matures" and extends to other groups and areas of the country which were initially excluded, the effect becomes the opposite, and inequality is reduced (see Azzarri and Carletto 2009). Yet the reverse sequence may also occur, as Jones (1998) found in his study in rural Zacatecas in Mexico. ...
... However, they left from communities that have more individuals as current or past migrants. As found in other studies, that could be evidence of the fact that migrant networks and/or the culture of migration in the community are important for the migration decision (see Azzarri and Carletto, 2009). Finally, there seems to be quite a strong state dependency in circular migration: in 2005, 54.3 percent of the individuals that migrated repeatedly in the past (i.e. ...
This chapter addresses the following questions: To what extent do the socio-economic characteristics of circular/repeat migrants differ from the migrants who return permanently to the home country after their first trip (i.e. return migrants)? And, what determines each of these distinctive temporary migration forms? Using Albanian household survey data and both a multinomial logit model and a maximum simulated likelihood (MSL) probit with two sequential selection equations, we find that education, gender, age, geographical location and the return reasons from the first migration trip significantly affect the choice of migration form. Compared to return migrants, circular migrants are more likely to be male, have primary education and originate from rural, less developed areas. Moreover, return migration seems to be determined by family reasons, a failed migration attempt but also by the fulfilment of a savings target.
