Thirty plus years later and Albanians still dream of immigrating
It is very difficult to sit down and write or wait for inspiration to strike when you’re busy living; And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since I settled in Albania. When I arrived, the country had very lax Covid restrictions, and I left at a time when NYC had the highest Covid mortality rate in the world, so restrictions were everywhere.
Not so in this sun-drenched little haven. Sure, there are rules, but minimal. I believe most of the population here either had Covid and/or has developed immunity to it by now.
Back to my lazy days here. I haven’t been able to write or focus or be diligent about much. I don’t know if it’s the culture, the climate, the lax attitude toward everything, or all the above. Today I felt compelled to sit down and scribble something… anything.
I am at a local, favorite spot, aka bar-cafe and I’ve become quite friendly with the staff here, however it seems I will not be seeing them for very long. Much like during my previous stays here, almost every young working person is getting ready to leave the country for a life elsewhere, Western Europe and the US still topping the charts as favorite places for a better life or at least, better income.
In the last decade alone I’ve lost nearly every friend to immigration. One even made it to her dream place – New York City!
And that’s all I still hear. Chatter of leaving, either through a work visa, a visitor visa or even through illegal means.
But it’s not so bad here. And yet, sometimes it is. It is a small country of 2.8 million, with a very small market for everything and an extremely competitive atmosphere. So in a way I totally understand for the newly graduated to dream of elsewhere where they will most likely be hired for the skills they learned and acquired.
And speaking of small markets: This fact always brings me back to the thought of Albania uniting with Kosovo and expanding their economic activity. It would be beneficial to both countries to unite. There are no downsides. But they don’t take any steps towards this. Neither country even mentions it. And there are internal as well as external political reasons for this.
Personally, this much awaited unification (at least by us, the diaspora) will be the only thing that saves the economies of both places. Of course they believe joining the larger EU structure is the way to go about it but I don’t see it. They will still be two small countries with insignificant markets within the larger EU family. In my opinion it’s best the unite, at least as a federation if not as a republic, and then join the EU. But larger politics require a different solution.
As I write this, many young people are planning to and scheming of leaving. But not just them. A lot of seasoned professionals too, mainly with a background in healthcare. My personal doctor left about a month ago. She flat out said she’s leaving for good to go and work in Germany – the main country hiring Albanian medical care staff. And she did leave. Her former office is now just a shuttered space of nothing.
What solutions would you offer for this situation?
