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 reasons has increased significantly in recent years. Eurostat reported that in 2022-2024 alone, an average of 20 thousand work permits were granted per year, mainly in Italy, Greece and Germany, up from around 3-4 thousand a decade ago.
Since 2021, the European Union has granted around 72,000 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 who leave for seasonal employment, is as much as 13% of employees in the non-agricultural private sector, according to other INSTAT data.
Departures on this scale have made finding a workforce an increasingly worrying problem, which is hindering the plans of local businesses to manage their daily activities and, above all, to expand with new investments.
The highest number of permits was granted in 2022, with around 22,000, but in the following two years, an average of 18-19,000 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 granted for employment reasons, with 7.2 thousand. Germany has become an increasingly sought-after destination, averaging 4.5 thousand permits per year and is attracting mainly nurses, doctors and IT specialists. Italy is the other country that continues to have 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. A favorite country was also Malta, 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, issues an average of 400-500 work permits.
Now the 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 flee 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
