Immigration in Albania since 1990
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.[1] The picture is more nuanced when we look at data derived from MoI databases.[2] 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
| Country | Year | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | % | 2007 | % | 2008 | % | 2009 | % | 2010 | % | |
| Source: MoI data in GoA (2010: 30-31) Note: Numbers of Rumanians and Bulgarians are counted in the EU totals only from 2007. | ||||||||||
| 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 |
Table 7: Types of permits given to foreign residents in Albania, 2006-10
| Purpose | Year | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | % | 2007 | % | 2008 | % | 2009 | % | 2010 | % | |
| Source: MoI data in GoA (2010: 29-32) | ||||||||||
| 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 |
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.[3] Equally, more than half of work permits issued in 2010 were for applicants based in the capital.[4] 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.[5]
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.[6] 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.
