EUROZONE-GREECE/ALBANIA Albanian migrant workers weigh their options in crisis-hit Greece

Record ID: 147864

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/ALBANIA Albanian migrant workers weigh their options in crisis-hit Greece
  • Date: 8th July 2015
  • Summary: KAPSHTICA BORDER CROSSING WITH GREECE, ALBANIA (JULY 7, 2015) (REUTERS) PEOPLE QUEUING TO ENTER ALBANIA AT BORDER CROSSING VARIOUS WOMEN AT PASSPORT CONTROL SIGN READING "KAPSHTICA CUSTOMS" BUS WAITING TO ENTER ALBANIA RETURNING MIGRANT WORKERS ON BUS (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) MIGRANT WORKER RETURNING FROM GREECE, RIZA MUSTA, SAYING: "If they (Greeks) are finished, we are don
  • Embargoed: 23rd July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Albania
  • Country: Albania
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA43P9I0SMF6FMOO5V9Q3JZGUAF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Albanian seasonal workers who returned home from Greece on Tuesday (July 7) chose to take a cheaper bus fare at the border crossing in Kapshtica.
    Riza Musta, a 38-year-old construction and agriculture worker in Greece's Kalkidikia region, said he would return there after holidaying in Albania, saying things were "OK" for now there, but was afraid he could lose his job.
    "If they are finished, we are done, zero. We're workers, so if they won't have work for us, we have no other hope. We depend on them: if they have work, there will be work for us," he said.
    The prospect of getting back to Albania was not in his mind.
    Kristaq Gjordumi also working in Greece, says he will not return until he has the needed work years for pension.
    "I need to work two more years so I will have worked 20 years for the pension. I don't believe that I will get it but at least I would have the papers for it. (Off-camera question: Do you think that this situation will continue?) It depends on Miss Merkel, it all depends from the great Madame," said Gjordumi.
    Since communism fell in 1990, Greece has drawn some 600,000 migrant workers from its poorer northern neighbour Albania. Many, like Kullolli, come and go for agriculture jobs. But now, in a reversal of fortunes, Greece has imposed capital controls that have shut its banks for the past 10 days.
    With 40 percent of Albanian men aged between 24 and 35 living abroad, mainly in Greece and Italy, their remittances shaped the economy, fuelling consumer spending and the once-booming construction sector in their impoverished home.
    As remittances rose steadily from 2001 to almost US$1.5 billion in 2008 -- equalling 11.5 percent of the gross domestic product that year - Albania notched up uninterrupted economic growth of about 5.9 percent in that time frame.
    Since the financial and economic crisis hit the eurozone and the recessions of Albania's main trade partners and investors Greece and Italy, its growth has fallen to 1.1 percent in 2013, its lowest in 16 years.
    The International Monetary Fund said the spill over risks from the Greek crisis were low, and Albania's "remittances may be affected by developments in Greece, but have been declining in importance over the past few years".
    In or out of the Eurozone, Greece held more appeal than Albania for some two dozen drivers and a busload of Albanians returning on errands or from holiday on Tuesday. They said their future was there rather than in Albania, where they are considered "Greeks".
    Some 95,000 Albanians out of a total of 133,544 returned to Albania until 2013 when Greece's economy receded - about one sixth of an estimated 600,000 migrant workers living in Greece.
    Customs officials told Reuters they had not seen mass returns of migrants like they did in 2012 over the past months. On the contrary, some have even been bringing tractors with them back to Greece for harvests.
    Edmond Haxhi and his Greek partner in a garment factory used to sell their products in Greece but have now moved their business elsewhere to Europe.
    "At present we don't have any problem what so ever with the crisis in Greece. All our products we export to Europe," said Haxhi.
    With Greece losing its appeal as an economic paradise, some 16,000 Albanians have sought asylum in Germany from January to May, with 4,900 arrivals in May alone, when Albania began imposing restrictions at border crossings.
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