Regionale und lokale Auswirkungen von Migrationen in Albanien
Regional and Local Effects of Migration in Albania

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. The combination of emigration and internal migration from peripheral areas to larger cities has crucially changed and shaped societal and spatial structures in Albania during the post-communist era. Some peripheral regions within the country itself suffer from extreme depopulation, resulting in partial abandonment of settlements. At the same time, the country’s central region experiences an unregulated, hardly controllable influx of migrants, who frequently foster close connections with their regions of origin. Even in the case of emigration, connections and relations with one’s home country are rarely completely cut off. Manifold backlashes of migration on regional and local development can thus be observed in Albania itself. This includes, for example, remittances of respectable amounts, which help families to secure their livelihood and often serve as seed capital for entrepreneurial independence as returnee’s business. There is even evidence of effects on the country’s cultural landscape through a kind of rent seeking mentality; for in those regions where the amount of private remittances from abroad received by households is high, the areas of fallow agricultural land are particularly large.

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