Ifigeneia Kokkali (p), Nikolaos Kokosis, Andrea Verhulst

Alain Jarne

Albanian migration has been a mainstream phenomenon in the last three decades, so that the country has been characterized as ‘a laboratory for the study of migration’ (King, 2005). Albania is among the twenty major export-countries in the world with respect to its population (World Bank, 2016). In 2020, the Albanian emigration rate worldwide passed over 30 percent (1.25 million people), with most of Albanians abroad concentrated in Italy (43%) and Greece (35%) (OECD, 2022). Greece, that has been a major destination for Albanian emigrants since the 1990s, still captures an important part of this out-migration. In 1991, Albanian citizens formed 12% of the whole migrant stock in Greece, in 2001 surpassed 57%, and in 2011 formed approximately 53% of the total foreign population. In the last Greek Census (2021), Albanians are still the major migrant group, reaching 49% of foreigners.
The proposed paper seeks to provide an updated state-of-the-art on contemporary Albanian migration towards Greece, relying upon census data from both countries over the past thirty years, with a particular focus on the post-2010 era. We conduct a spatio-temporal analysis to explore the directionality of Albanian international migration, with a specific focus on the Albania-Greece axis. By examining migration patterns from the 1990s to the present, we analyze the areas in Albania that “expel” migrants and those in Greece that “absorb” them. We assess whether migration trends from the 1990s-2000s share similarities with earlier and more recent movements; and we also seek to evaluate the impact of Albania's urban and territorial reorganization before and after 1990 on these dynamics. A key aspect of our investigation focuses on place-based characteristics and their potential in shaping the degree of migrant integration at the local level in host communities. Finally, we investigate the linkages between the regions, districts, and places of departure in Albania and the corresponding arrival points in Greece, identifying commonalities that influence settlement patterns.

Alain Jarne (p)

Ifigeneia Kokkali

The issue of Albanian migration has been the subject of sustained interest from researchers. But research on internal migration has remained in the background. This article aims to help fill this gap by describing a certain number of quantitative data that have been little used until now and by proposing approaches to exploit them with a view to improving knowledge of the movements of the Albanian population in the period from the 1918 census to that of 2011.

This work was deployed along three axes:
a) Acquisition of available data down to fine geographical levels for around fifteen censuses conducted during modern Albanian history
b) Identification, location and mapping of all localities enumerated
c) Documentation and mapping of relevant spatial groups (administrative divisions, cultural areas, etc.) and design of a territorial typologies to support the explanation of movements at different stages of the history of Albania.

The contribution does not aim so much to hold a discourse on migration as to show the sources and their potential in the context of the designed heuristic framework. To this end, a series of historical examples of migratory movements of various kinds will be described on the basis of the interpretation of three types of data.

The first approach consists in describing and interpreting precisely localized intercensal changes in the population. Although it is most often not possible to distinguish the respective contributions of migration and natural balance, the description of these intercensal changes allows to draw a fairly precise picture, in particular of the contrasting stages of Albanian urban development.

A second indicator of movements is the distribution by sex. At several points in Albanian history, there are significant disparities in the distribution of women and men in the territory, and rapid changes in spatial distributions, which indirectly reflect significant migratory episodes.

Finally, for certain points in Albanian history, we have very precise spatial information on population movements through the recording by censuses of the place of residence at the time of the survey, to be compared with the place of residence at birth, during a previous census, or the year preceding the census.

This article contributes to the special session on Albanian migration in several ways: 1) a broad vision of Albanian migration from an essentially quantitative and territorial perspective; 2) historical depth; 3) methodological contributions; 4) a good knowledge of Albanian statistics which could be useful for future research.

Ifigeneia Kokkali (p), Apostolos Lagarias (p)

Alain Jarne

Internal migration movements in Albania during the last thirty years have been a major factor of extensive urbanization, while bringing in a drastic reduction or even full-scale depopulation in many Albanian regions. Existing research highlights the important role of dominant socio-political regimes in shaping the spatio-temporal processes, formulating the ground of what can be perceived as a rather unique and “peculiar” case, outstandingly different from both west-European and east-European urbanization models.
The proposed paper seeks to contribute to research dealing with post-1990 urbanization in Albania, aspiring to assess the role of complex migration flows (out-migration, in-migration, return migration) in the transformation of the urban hierarchy. Τhe nexus population-change/land-use is on focus, in particular with regard to urbanization and sub-urbanization of greater Tirana, as well as the axis Tirana-Durres. We investigate the urban development of Albania post-1990, with particular focus on the post-2006 period, in an attempt to comprehend the extent and locational characteristics of urbanization, while assessing its impact into space.
Methodologically, we rely upon a) the study of census data on demographic/ population change in Albania in the last thirty years (2001, 2011, 2021), at region, district and -where available- village/commune level, b) extensive land use analysis, as derived by high-resolution satellite-driven data and their processing using geospatial methods.
Results cast light into the complexity of the process, helping us identify the distinct character of the recent urbanization wave, and also extract a set of generalizable conclusions regarding urbanization processes in the Balkan region in the context of advanced globalization and neoliberal capitalism.