Policy Forum: Is returning to Albania worth it?

On 21 December 2011, EMA in cooperation with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) organized the policy forum “Is returning to Albania worth it?” The guest speakers in this forum were: Mr. Përparim Kabo, Anthropologist, Mr. Bernard Zeneli, Programme Manager of ‘Brain Gain’ and Mrs. Silvana Banushi, Director of Migration, Return and Reintegration Policies, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. The forum brought together representatives from state institutions, employment agencies and academia who discussed the problems faced by high skilled returnees during reintegration in their country of origin. The forum was opened by welcome speech of Executive Director of EMA, Mr. Gledis Gjipali, emphasizing the role of human capital in social, economic, and political development. In this respect, the return of attention to carefully analyzing different phenomena related with human capital takes a significant importance.  Mrs. Blerta Hoxha, policy researcher at EMA, presented the main findings of the survey carried out with the high skilled returnees, listed as below:

• It is reaffirmed the growing trend of high skilled professionals returning in Albania. Young Albanians mainly go abroad for study reasons, rather then employment ones. Family ties represent a strong incentive to return.
• However, the number of those leaving the country every year remains high. Consequently, it is hard to estimate the dynamics of both processes: brain drain and brain gain.
• Among difficulties high skilled returnees face during their integration in Albania, differences in the working culture and corruption are the most common ones.
• The desire to return shrinks because of weak links that returnees establish with the state institutions. Few are those who receive assistance from state institutions during the re integration process.
• The diploma validation is still perceived as a lengthy and bureaucratic procedure – best to avoid it if it is possible.
• informal ways of employment are dominative, such as by contacting directly the employer (37.9%) or through relatives and friends connections (36.4%). State institutions continue to be unpopular as a reference point for employment. These data confirm that the official channels of employment in the Albanian market remain weak, reducing the opportunities for transparent and competitive recruitment.
• Albania is still threatened by the risk of “brain waste”. About 42% believe that their professional advancement is modest, or there is no advancement at all. Even though, most consider their decision to return as good or very good one (79%), the fact that 36% of high skilled returnees do not see their selves in Albania in the next five years is an issue of concern.

Based on the key findings of the survey and also at the assessment of current employment policies, Mrs. Hoxha pointed out that in order to make best use of the human capital, a more structured and long term approach for the reintegration of highly qualified returnees is needed.

The anthropologist Përparim Kabo, held a speech on “Brain Gain” as a phenomenon, reality and trend!” During his discussion, Mr. Kabo was particular focused on the ‘market of ideas” concept, the core of each is compounded by the competition of values and skills. Brain gain is an individual act but its coordination becomes a valuable asset for the whole society. According to Mr. Kabo, what actually prevents the development of the market of ideas in Albania is the commercialization of values, the political-party-fanaticism including clientelism and family nepotism. Albanian society suffers from lack of circulation of elites which brings consequences for the development of the society in itself preventing in this way the usage of values brought even by the high skilled returnees. He tried to analyze this phenomenon in terms of a philosophical point of view using several metaphors which derive from reality as a need for better addressing this issue. Mr. Bernard Zeneli, Program Manager of “Brain Gain”, presented a comprehensive overview of the program, its achievements and future challenges. Mr. Zeneli focused mainly on the innovations that the implementation of this program brought to the public debate, by introducing the concept of “Brain Gain” on public policy discourse and significant legislative changes that followed.  However he mentioned that for a variety of reasons, mostly related to delays in disbursement of financial support or even lack of donors’ interest, a new phenomenon “Brain Gain fatigue” is emerging. Despite these problems, the case of Albania is inspiring other countries in the region to undertake such a program by serving as a positive example in the context of promoting brain gain policies. Mrs. Silvana Banushi, representative of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, pointed out in a broader context the role of the institution that she represents in return and reintegration of all Albanian citizens who lived abroad. Mrs. Banushi stressed that due to the interventions’ nature and support that high skilled returnees need, problems of this category are less addressed in the National Strategy for Migration 2005-2010. However, currently the Ministry has set up a working group in charge of drafting the new Strategy on Migration and Development, which will pay a more attention in this regard. Mr. Banushi invited EMA and other actors of civil society to be involved in the drafting process in order to better address the problems associated with the brain gain and brain gain phenomena. The policy forum was followed by an open discussion session where participants brought up personal experiences and discussed the promotion policies in the context of establishing a friendly and constructive environment based on meritocracy and professionalism. Media coverage of the event can be found at EMA in the Media section.