Albanian Students Abroad: A Potential Brain Drain?
Albanian Students Abroad: A Potential Brain Drain?

Summary/Abstract: Since 1991, Albania has become a fertile terrain for the study of migration and its relationship todevelopment. One aspect of the country’s intense and diverse experience of emigration which has receivedless attention is the movement of its students into higher education abroad. To what extent does this studentemigration constitute a potential brain drain? We answer this question via a mixed-method researchendeavour consisting of an online survey (N=651) of Albanian students enrolled in foreign universities andfollow-up in-depth interviews (N=21) with a sample of the survey respondents. The survey and interviewswere carried out in 2019–2020. The survey collected data on students’ social and academic background,reasons for going abroad to study, life in the host country, attitudes towards returning to Albania andperceived barriers to return. Half of the respondents do not intend to return immediately after graduating.The remainder have a more open or uncertain mindset, including 30 per cent who say they will return onlyafter a period spent working or doing further studies abroad. Those who intend to return, either sooner orlater, do so out of a combination of family ties, nostalgia and wanting to ‘give something back’ to theirhome country. However, the barriers to return are perceived as formidable: low pay, lack of good jobs,corruption and a general feeling that ‘there is no future’ in Albania. The scale of loss of young brains isthus potentially considerable and a major policy concern for the future of the country.

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