While the numbers of asylum requests from Albanian citizens in one of the European Union countries have declined significantly in recent years, the flight is now in a different, more official form.
People who decide to leave are doing so through regular employment contracts, as indicated by Eurostat figures on residence permits granted for the first time and their reasons.
The number of Albanian individuals leaving for employment has increased significantly in recent years. Eurostat reported that in 2022-2024 alone, an average of 20 work permits were issued per year, mainly in Italy, Greece and Germany, up from around 3-4 a decade ago.
Since 2021, the European Union has granted around 72 first-time residence permits for employment reasons to Albanian citizens. This figure, which includes only official departures, not counting those who are unregistered, working illegally, or those leaving for seasonal employment, is as much as 13% of those employed in the private non-agricultural sector, according to other INSTAT data.
The exodus on this scale has made finding labor an increasingly worrisome problem, hindering the plans of local businesses to manage daily activity and, above all, to expand with new investments.
The highest number of permits was granted in 2022, with around 22 thousand, but in the following two years, an average of 18-19 thousand lek were granted per year.
Greece and Germany lead
In 2015, residence permits granted for work reasons accounted for only 4.5% of the total, as most of them were granted for family reasons (family reunification for immigrants who left in the 2000s).
The new wave of immigration that began after 2016 was more employment-oriented. In 2024, according to Eurostat data, processed by Monitor, about 29% of permits were granted for employment reasons, 51% for family reasons, 3.1% for study reasons and about 17% for other reasons.
In 2024, Greece led the way for the highest number of permits issued for employment reasons, with 7.2 thousand. Germany has become an increasingly popular destination, averaging 4.5 thousand permits per year and attracting mainly nurses, doctors and IT specialists. Italy is the next country with around 3 thousand permits per year.
Croatia is a country that is attracting workers in construction and tourism, with around 1.4 to 2 thousand permits per year. Malta was also a favorite country, in construction and tourism, but in 2024 the permits issued by this country were halved to around 500.
France, which is the largest recipient of asylum applications, grants an average of 400-500 work permits.
Now escape is through work permits, not asylum
The number of those fleeing with work permits is now almost twice as high as those seeking to leave through asylum. Other Eurostat data shows that in 2022 there were 15 thousand asylum applications from Albanian citizens in EU countries, in 2023 their number dropped to 11 thousand and in 2024 it was 9.3 thousand./Monitor
t7 live
