Albania and the Western Balkans continue to have high migration rates to the world's wealthiest countries, with Albania seeing a 50 percent increase in migration to the European Economic Area from 2011 to 2019, according to a report issued by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The OECD report notes that Albanian migrants are most likely to get residency in the EU for family reasons, with the number of residency permits issued under the family category increasing from 25,000 in 2011 to 29,000 in 2020. Although migration in other areas, including for employment, was also on the rise.
Albanian migrants were also the most likely to attain a residence permit in the “Other” category, with 20 percent of permits issued to Albanian migrants in 2020 being for asylum or residence without the right to work (such as pensioners) and people in the intermediate stages of the regularization process.
Italy and Greece continue to host the majority of migrants from Albania, although Greece saw a decrease in the past decade, while Italy saw a slight decrease. Germany saw the most significant increase. Albanians stood also out as having the highest migration rate in the region to the United States. While the United Kingdom hosts only 3 percent of Albanians abroad, according to data published in the OECD report.
The authors of the report work for the 38-member OECD, an organization encompassing all of the world's wealthiest countries, including all of the European Union and non-members in Western Europe, Turkey as well as the United States, Canada and Australia.
Its latest report looked at labor emigration waves from the Western Balkan Six economies over the past decades, noting WB6 migrants live mainly in a handful of OECD countries: Germany, Italy, Greece, Austria, the United States and Switzerland, but emigration to neighboring EU countries like Croatia and Slovenia has been increasing in recent years.
Labour migration and student mobility were on the rise prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Migration from the WB6 economies to the European Economic Area and Switzerland saw an important increase from 2011 until the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Moreover, migration from the region appears to be accelerating, as the number of first residence permits for paid work issued to citizens of the WB6 economies was between five and ten times higher in 2019 than in 2011, according to the report.
However, WB6 migrants continue to experience lower employment and labor force participation rates and higher unemployment than the average foreign-born population in OECD countries.
On average, more than half of all WB6 migrants in OECD countries were employed in mid-skilled jobs, while only about one-fifth of them were employed in low-skilled and about one-fifth in high-skilled jobs. The most frequent employment sectors of WB6 male migrants in OECD countries are building and related trades as well as blue-collar manufacturing jobs, while WB6 female migrants are most frequently employed as cleaners and helpers, sales workers, personal service and care workers, and health associate professionals, according to the report.
SOURCE: Tirana Times
