The money that emigrants bring to their families in Albania continues to have an increasing trend, as the number of Albanians living abroad is increasing due to the new wave of emigration.
Bank of Albania balance of payments data revealed that income from emigrants reached a new record of 1.1 billion euros in 2025, with an increase of 5.9% compared to the same period a year earlier.
The growth rates accelerated in the third and fourth quarters, which traditionally have higher inflows as emigrants come to Albania during the summer holidays and then at the end of the year. For July-September 2025, emigrants brought 285 million euros to their relatives in their homeland, and in the last three months of the year, 302 million euros.
Since 2013, the money that emigrants bring to Albania has increased continuously (see chart), reflecting a new cycle of emigration, which began mainly after 2015.
After a decline in 2020, as a result of the pandemic, the upward trend accelerated significantly. In 202a, inflows exceeded the one billion euro mark for the first time.
Other INSTAT data show that net migration, the difference between the number of people entering to live and those leaving our country, continues to be negative in Albania throughout the period 2011-2025, showing an upward trend after the pandemic.
After the pandemic, emigration increased rapidly. In 2021, the net population loss reached -32,853 people and in 2022 it remained at similar levels, around -32,497 people. The peak was recorded in 2024, when net migration reached around -43,761 people, the highest level recorded also due to corrections from the 2023 census.
This trend was also confirmed by Eurostat, where for the period 2021-2024, EU member states issued 284,585 residence permits for the first time to Albanian citizens. There is an increasing trend for work permits, which account for almost 1/3 of total residence permits and have doubled compared to before the pandemic.
Market players claim that the main channels continue to remain traditional countries of immigration, such as Greece and Italy, but in recent years there has been growth from new destinations such as England and Germany.
Remittances are counted by the Bank of Albania as part of the current account in the balance of payments, according to IMF standards (BPM6).
They include all monetary flows that emigrants send to families and individuals resident in Albania, both through formal channels (banks, financial institutions and transfer operators), as well as through estimates of informal flows.
For this purpose, the Bank uses banking system data, periodic reports from licensed entities and specific surveys of beneficiary families, aiming to capture the entirety of real remittance flows in the economy./Monitor.al/
