The Chairman of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group, Taulant Balla, seems to have taken it upon himself to fix the image of Albanians in Great Britain, following the distant remarks between Rama and the British Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood.
Balla visited the business of Macaj in London, who arrived in Britain in 1996 as an immigrant and today runs a company with 75 employees and an annual turnover of 25 million pounds. According to Balla, this shows “the work, energy and potential of the Albanian diaspora”.
But, while the socialist MP boasts about Albanians who shine abroad, the question that many ask is, why aren't such stories emerging at the same pace in Albania?
Many of those who today achieve success in London, Milan or Berlin have left precisely because they did not find opportunities in their own country, a reality for which Albanian politics has borne considerable responsibility over these decades.
However, for many Albanians who leave for the same reasons that have been present for decades, lack of opportunities, bureaucracy, unemployment, corruption, this success abroad may also be a more honest reflection of political failures at home.
If this pace continues, many might think that the campaign to "improve the image of Albanians" in Britain would be much simpler if Albania first offered a terrain where it was not necessary to emigrate.
