Migration, remittances and inter-generational relationships: a case study from Albania

Eralba Cela, Polytechnic University of Marche
Ilir Gedeshi, Center for Economic and Social Studies (CESS)
Elena Ambrosetti, Università di Roma

The history of Albanian emigration presents unique issues different from those of other national groups. Its high concentration in a short period of time makes it an attractive emigration unique case. Because of the rigid impediments to mobility, both domestic and international posts by the Communist regime, only since the beginning of the nineties the Albanian population was involved in a very intense process of territorial mobility. At present Albania is one of the countries with the highest migratory rate in the world. In fact, about 25% of the Albanian population is presently living abroad. The most important destinations are Greece and Italy, which host together 95% of the total migrants, due to geographical, cultural, and linguistic proximity. During the migration process, the relationship between generations can vary considerably. In some cases they remain unchanged, in others they may change radically. The contact of the younger generations of migrants with more egalitarian society, may in fact disrupt the equilibrium of patriarchal societies. The same is true also about gender relations, that may undergo significant changes. The goal of our study is to analyse how the relations between generations are changing as a result of migration. In particular we will focus on the support between generations and the methods/tools used to implement it, developed by the Albanian emigrants. We use data from a series of surveys conducted between 2006 and 2009 by the Center for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) on a sample of 2200 Albanians both in the origin (Albania) and destination countries (Italy and Greece). The analysis will be initially descriptive, then logistic regressions will be made in order to find out which socio-demographic characteristics of migrants have the largest impact on the transfer of funds and human capital between countries origin and destination countries.