Half of returned migrants want to leave again

2025-12-02 07:11:17, Sociale CNA

Immigration and population aging are among the greatest wounds our society is going through and require a serious commitment to mitigate this phenomenon.

But surveys show that even those who try to return cannot find themselves and want to leave again, as the difficulties are even greater than before the first departure.

A survey by the Austrian Central Bank at the end of 2024 noted that half of those who had returned to Albania wanted to leave again. 30 percent of those who participated in the survey had lived abroad before, but half of them, around 50%, want to leave again, as they are experiencing disappointment.

Albania has been facing high levels of emigration for years, but returnees report a worsening of the phenomenon. Many of them, after trying to rebuild their lives in the country, encounter the same barriers that forced them to leave in the first place.

Low wages on the one hand and rising living costs, institutional uncertainty and a weak economic climate for the skills they have acquired abroad on the other are influencing decisions to re-emigrate. For many of them, the expectations created during emigration do not match the reality of the domestic market.

According to INSTAT data and estimates from international organizations, over 40 percent of the country's population is in emigration, one of the highest levels globally.

Studies even estimate that a portion of returned emigrants contribute to the balance of double departures, as they not only leave themselves, but also motivate family members to leave with them.

High re-departures prove that reintegration policies have failed. While remittances continue to inject money into the economy, they are not being structured in a way that brings long-term development or sustainable investments.

In the absence of a reliable business climate and real support for quality employment, returnees are seen as “temporary tourists” in their own country, ready to leave as soon as they realize that reality does not promise stability.

In the Balkans, Bulgaria is a positive example. In the 2010s, almost all of a generation of medical students emigrated, while today the country is attracting students from other countries who study medicine in English-language programs, who then choose to stay in Bulgaria.

But in Albania, education has been left in the shadows and unrelated to the labor market, and instead of becoming a cause for development, it has become a cause for leaving the country./ Monitor.al