Living here, investing here and there: migratory projects and remittances. Theory and evidence from a case study

Eralba Cela, Università Politecnica delle Marche
Eros Moretti, Università Politecnica delle Marche

This paper aims to focus on the importance of remittances and their use in Albania through a double survey conducted simultaneously in Italy and Albania: in Italy 400 Albanians legally residing in the Marche and Apulia regions have been interviewed. In Albania two different instruments were used in the same period: interviews of a sample of 200 families in the urban and rural area of Vlorë region, who have at least one member abroad; and two focus groups in the same areas. Our findings in Italy show that emigration cycle and remittance flows have entered a stage of maturity. Remittaces decrease year after year, but Albanians continue to remit mainly with investments. Albanian immigrants are “in between” the two coasts and regardless of their future migratory project they would like to keep the relationship with both Albania and Italy.