ALBANIAN DEMOGRAPHY AND ITS RELATION WITH MIGRATION

Abstract

In 1990's, great economic transformation efforts to switch to liberal market economy had been experienced in former communist countries. This transformation process had also influenced the direction of economic policies and reformation of social policies. The collapse of central authoritarian regimes in East Europe and former Soviet Union provided freedom for migration of the erst while citizens fromthese countries to abroad.Albania, in the countries of Balkans, is an important country, which had experienced a social and economic transformation in a short while. The migration of Albanian citizens to abroad was restricted with laws and sanctions. The domino effect of this transformation also directly affected Albania. As in the case of East Germany, in the summer of 1990 thousands of Albanians invaded Western embassies in Tirana and were given exile in various European countries. By scaling the walls of the embassy compounds and accessing foreign sovereign territory,albeit within their own country, Albanians were taking the first symbolic steptowards asserting their blocked right to emigrate. Albanian government led by thecautious reformer Ramiz Alia, since Hoxha's death in 1985, overcomes this crisisby liberalizing of passports.Albania, with its characteristic demographic properties, is an important field of study for researchers. According to the latest census in 2011, there are variousfactors affecting demographic process. Especially, latest census shows that migration plays an important role in this process. It is impossible to consider demography without migration factor. Population distribution, urban-ruralstructure, population growth rate and economic statistics are closely related tomigration. In this study, both the demographic structure of Albania with regard to statistical data and migration will be discussed with different aspects.