Nga 'gulag' komunist në 'geto' ballkanike: Shqipëria dhe politikat migratore në vite [From communist 'gulag' to Balkan 'ghetto': Albania and its migratory policies over the years]

The fall of the Berlin Wall which symbolised the collapse of the socialist system in Central and Eastern Europe, was viewed with concern by some policy-makers in Western Europe who envisaged potential 'flooding' of their affluent countries with immigrants. Yet, this fear did not materialise and post-communist East-West migration was rather moderate. The exception was Albania, whose emigration displayed features of an exodus at least in the early 1990s in terms of its ratio to the country's population, its concentration over a short period of time, and the typology of these moves. Thus, between 1990 and 2005 an estimated 1 million Albanians or nearly a third of the resident population is thought to have migrated and be living abroad, primarily in Greece and Italy. By 2010, this figure had reached nearly 1.5 million, or almost half of the resident population, according to the latest World Bank data. Undoubtedly, migratory policies of successive Albanian governments, as well as external actors such as the EU and IOM, have played a key role in shaping these migratory flows. This paper is a modest contribution towards an analysis of these policies over the years. Its focus is the last two decades, although this is placed against a historical background.