9-40

• Arrehag, Lisa
• Sjöberg, Örjan
• Sjöblom, Mirja

Since the early 1990s, at least 600,000 Albanians have availed themselves of the option of temporarily or permanently emigrating. Although there is no denying that the consequences of large-scale emigration and the related return flow of money do have an impact on Albanian society, the question is, how? Drawing on the returns to a survey conducted in a border district in south-eastern Albania in late 2002, including a sample of 1,315 households, this paper assesses some of the basic features of remittances – recipients, channels, frequency, forms and use – in a society that has recently become a source of substantial flows of out-migration.

• Social Sciences
• Economics and Business

• Migrations of nations
• Economics

Albania, remittances, emigration, non-migrant households, poverty alleviation

Περιέχει πίνακες, διαγράμματα και βιβλιογραφίες, An earlier version of this paper was presented at the conference New Perspectives on Albanian Migration and Development, Korçë, Albania, 16-17 September 2004. We gratefully acknowledge support from Sida and the input by Per Ronnås and Katja Jassey in Stockholm and Linda Gjermani, Robert Hall, Annakarin Lindberg and Lars Oscár in Tirana to our work. We were also generously assisted by many of the individuals originally involved in implementation of the survey, including Diana Hiscock, Elfrida Zefi and students from the Fan Noli University in Korçë. Thanks are also due to Ilir Gëdeshi and Fehmi Xhemo, while Theodore Lianos, Maurice Schiff and participants in the above mentioned conference provided most useful comments on the paper itself. Any remaining errors are, of course, the responsibility of the authors., JEL Classification: F22, O15, P36, R23