International migration from Albania : evidence from wave 2 of the Albanian living standards measurement survey

Abstract

Since more than one-fifth of the Albanian population lives abroad at any given point in time,
the present study uses information obtained from Wave 2 of the Albanian Living Standard Measurement
Survey (ALSMS) from spring 2003, in order to investigate the covariates that determine
whether an individual considers migrating abroad from Albania. To be specific, the main interest
of this research focuses on the impact of age, gender, education, household welfare, employment
status and other selected factors on considering migration. An important contribution of the
present study is the investigation of the impact of previous migration experiences on the likelihood
to migrate internationally from Albania in the future. Evidence from the empirical analysis
suggests that those who migrated abroad during the past twelve years are more likely to migrate
compared to those who didn’t migrate.