Edi Rama © Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock
One year ahead of the next general election, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has embarked on a tour across Europe to make citizens living outside the country “Proud of Albania”. But the issue remains the electoral code, which currently does not allow people to vote from abroad
Athens: Cultural stereotypes and strict protection measures
It was with a short video depicting ‘Zorba the Greek’ dancing ‘syrtaki’ to the homonymous soundtrack by composer Mikis Theodorakis – perhaps the most popular melody associated with Greekness – that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama invited Albanian migrants living in Greece to join him on Sunday, 12 May 2024, at the ‘Christmas Theatre’, part of the ‘Galatsi’ stadium in Athens. The clip that played on Rama’s social media concluded with two messages: ‘Proud of you’ and ‘See you soon’. Two notions, pride and reunion, could summarise the message of Rama’s speech, which praised Albanian ethos.
The venue was flooded with people: a cheerful and excited crowd, waving Albanian flags, cheering and singing traditional songs. Many had arrived from different parts of Greece thanks to free transportation organised by the Albanian government, while others had used the same buses to come from Albanian cities. Some commented sarcastically on the social media that ‘there were more Albanians from Tirana than from Greece present at the stadium’. Many have commented on the Athens meeting about its organisational costs and folkloristic aspects.
Addressing one of the largest Albanian communities in Europe, Rama lingered on hardships that Albanian migrants have experienced in host countries like Greece and stressed the importance of keeping close ties with the homeland. He referred to incidents of discrimination and xenophobia that Albanians have faced on Greek territory in the previous years, as well as the challenges of supporting one’s family and keeping one’s language and tradition abroad.
Rama’s emotionally charged speech could perhaps still resonate with the first generation of immigrants who arrived in Greece on foot, crossing illegally the mountains of Kakavia. They are the ones who provided a cheap labour force, having done physically hard, seasonal jobs that locals would not normally do. The Albanian migrants of the 90s were often underpaid, looked down upon and, also, collectively stigmatised by Greek society on the basis of a ‘bad reputation’ that some of their compatriots had built through their involvement in illegal activities and serious crimes. Nevertheless, alongside rural populations driven by poverty and despair, there were also highly educated and well-skilled refugees, who managed to integrate faster in Greece, now occupying key positions in all spheres of the economy. Nowadays, the second and third generation of Albanian migrants in Greece are fully integrated in Greek society, and have also preserved their language and customs inside the realm of family and community. Mixed marriages are also a common phenomenon and no longer the taboo they used to be some years ago.
Iris Balli Hajdinaj is an Albanian language philologist and social worker based in Greece. Alongside her long career in the humanitarian sector, she is also the president of the Thessaloniki branch of the ‘Jeta’ organisation , a non-profit NGO established in 2016, which promotes the social, educational and entrepreneurial integration of women who are part of the Albanian community in Greece.
Asked about the content of Rama’s speech, Balli-Hajdinaj emphasises the need to bring forward a positive narrative about the Albanian community in Greece: "I would like to hear more about success stories instead of only hardships. Among the community, there are many examples of Albanian migrants excelling in all spheres of life. There are especially many women who have made remarkable progress in their lives and also, a young generation that works and studies as an integral part of the local society. These positive stories deserve to be heard".
In this context, why would the Albanian prime minister choose to reiterate in his speech an obsolete version of Albanian migration to Greece, one associated, in fact, with suppression and trauma? This is a strategy which has been studied over the last decades by prominent social anthropologists, such as Janet Reineck, Nita Luci and Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, who have analysed how Albanians have created and consolidated a collective identity as an oppressed or marginalised nation and how this narrative of self-representation is often used both at home and abroad, as a source of power and unity. In her 2008 research paper , Schwandner-Sievers discusses how and why Albanians living in Europe might strategically ‘produce and reproduce, and sometimes manipulate the stereotypes projected onto them by outsiders’, either encouraged by community dynamics or in an attempt to claim more favourable conditions for oneself or one’s family.
Political analyst and journalist Neritan Sejamini, emphasised that Rama's patriotism is false since he did not offer anything to the Albanians living in Athens, such as easing the bureaucracy to obtain residence permits or the problem with the Albanian language. Moreover, many of the immigrants present at the meeting can't vote in either of the two countries, be it Greece or Albania.
The promised diaspora vote
During the last decade, under the Rama government, three Diaspora Summits have been organised (in 2016, 2019 and 2023). Additionally, with the creation of the State Ministry for the Diaspora, during the second mandate of Rama (together with the Agency and Fund for the Development of Diaspora), there were attempts to create a stronger institutional and sustainable link to increase cooperation between the mother country and Albanians living abroad. However, at the time of writing, we do not have concrete results concerning the achievements of the summits and working groups. The same lack of progress can be said about the National Strategy 2021-2025, which clearly points out , among its goals, the creation of a diaspora register and professional networks, as well as granting their right to vote.
The latter has remained a "hostage" of the political parties responsible for drafting the electoral code, despite a decision by the Constitutional Court which addressed the "Diaspora for Free Albania" Association's complaint regarding the violation of immigrants' constitutional right to vote in the last parliamentary elections. The Court highlighted to the Assembly the unclear and unconstitutional manner in which the electoral code addresses the voting rights of immigrants, thereby infringing upon a constitutional right.
In recent months, the newly created political movement "Albania Becomes" has started a tour within and out of the country where Albanian citizens live (so far in Italy, Sweden, Greece) and collect ed and submitted the 20.000 necessary signatures for a new draft law, proposing the possibility of the diaspora to vote, to open the electoral race between the political parties, de-politicise the CEC administration and modify the law on referendums.
In addition, the movement Diaspora for Free Albania, the official Democratic Party and the Socialist Party itself have proposed their own draft laws. Prime Minister Edi Rama says that the problem of enabling the diaspora to vote has remained a technical issue.
We asked Arber Agalliu, a young Albanian journalist based in Tuscany, who has been vocal on the main issues concerning the Albanian community (voting rights, citizenship for second generations, mutual recognition of pensions, close cultural ties with the Arberesh community, etc.), about his perspective on the results of the Diaspora Summits. "Although in recent years Albania has tried to give a voice to and involve its citizens living abroad through organisations such as the Coordination Council of the Albanian Diaspora or the Diaspora Summits, the perception of Albanians living abroad is that little has changed, they still feel very distant from the institutions that are supposed to represent them".
The CEC's proposal was also given by the Chief State Election Commissioner, Ilirjan Celibashi, where he emphasised that if the Assembly does not fill the legal gaps within the current work session (July 2024), the vote of the diaspora cannot be realised in time for the 2025 elections.
What's the size and economic weight of the Albanian diaspora?
While we await the results of the census data on the Albanian population that will be published this month by the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), we can refer to the available data from 2020 . The Albanian diaspora totaled about 1.7 million citizens, while the Albanian population within the country was estimated to be 2.8 million citizens. In other words, in 2020 the diaspora was one third (36.3%) of the total Albanian population.
Additionally, after 2020, net migration continued to be negative, so the percentage of the diaspora may be even greater . As for their contribution to the economy, remittances from the diaspora have always been a large component of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Albania. According to World Bank data, in 2022 Albania received 1.75 billion dollars in remittances. This figure translates to 9.2% of the GDP.
Thus, the objective of turning attention towards the diaspora is clear: get in touch with the Albanians abroad, with the aim to convince them to return, invest their savings in Albania and become part of the SP leadership, which is in need of fresh, new faces, after 11 years of ruling.
Milan: Time to come home and invest in Albania
After Athens, one more meeting was held in Milan on 26 May – two more were planned to take place in London and Düsseldorf in June, but were postponed to September due to the snap elections in the UK and UEFA European Football Championship in Germany. The invitation poster shared on Rama's social media, ahead of the gathering in Milan, depicted the Vlora, a ship full of Albanian migrants arriving in the Italian port of Bari, as a symbol of Albanian emigration to Italy. The organisation was similar to the one in Athens, with the participation of SP officials and journalists from Albania, although less in number.
Also Rama's speech was similar to the previous one: he highlighted the contrast between the experience and suffering Albanians had gone through during the first waves of landing in Italy with today's Albanian community, who is perfectly integrated in the Italian economic, social and cultural context. Rama reminded the audience of their sacrifices, struggles and the racism they have suffered in the past, having been stigmatised by the media for every criminal event.
Today, said Rama, the 'albanesi' are no longer on the first page of the newspapers for murder or theft cases but for successful stories of their entrepreneurship and of Albania as a tourism destination. Rama invited Albanians to return and invest in Albania while he also admitted that Albania still has a lot to do to fight corruption and crime. Rama noted that the good time of Albania had come and “we’re the only ones who can make this time that of final unification with the EU”.
In fact, while Rama takes credit for foreign policy achievements fully aligned with the EU and for post-pandemic tourism successes, culminating last year in a record-breaking 10 million tourists, reports from research institutes show systemic corruption at all levels of government. According to the recently published Trust in Governance report by IDM, an overwhelming majority of Albanians (over 81%) perceive petty corruption as widespread, with a similar percentage believing that grand corruption is rampant. This is further evidenced by various investigations from the Special Prosecution Against Corruption (SPAK) targeting ministers, mayors, and other officials.
As in Athens, Rama did not mention the diaspora vote at all, even though it has been an old promise of his since he was in the opposition.
Julian Kruja a young Albanian IT professional residing in the Milan area, considers the parallelism between the exodus of Albanians arriving in Italy in the 90s and the Italians coming nowadays to Albania for tourism as "outdated", as today, "the exodus continues, even though with different motivations. They no longer leave for survival but for better living conditions, away from corruption, state capture and lack of meritocracy".
For Kruja, Rama's meeting in Milan "was an extension propaganda show like the ones in Albania". He emphasises that Rama "did not come with any new promises that the diaspora needs, such as advocating for the acquisition of citizenship for the second generation of Albanians in Italy, who now have to wait to be 18 years old to apply for it. But – he concluded – this was expected, since he didn't even have the courage to mention the old promise of the diaspora vote".
Young activist Arilda Lleshi - who, together with other activists, displayed a banner at the meeting in Milan calling for the Diaspora to vote - tells OBCT that during the last three months, Albanians living in different European countries such as Italy, Germany, Austria, UK, Greece, etc., have known each other through social networks and "have decided to create the campaign "#IWantToVote2025", to advocate and request the Albanian Parliament to fulfil a Constitutional obligation, in particular following the decision of the Constitutional Court which orders the Parliament to enable the out of the country vote". They have held meetings and protested in various European cities where Albanians live, such as Munich, Milan, Vienna, Bruxelles, The Hague, London, etc.
In both meetings, Rama has likely employed a well-tested strategy of uniting ethnic Albanians through symbols and narratives that evoke memories of hardship and oppression. Within this framework, the "Proud of Albania" tour has meticulously utilised stereotypical sociocultural imagery to evoke feelings of nationhood, patriotism, and nostalgia among the diaspora. Sentiments that can potentially translate into votes, provided that Albanian legislators decide it is time to deliver concrete actions for the citizens whom Albania could not retain.
This article was produced as part of the Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI ), a project co-funded by the European Commission. Responsibility for the contents of this publication lies with Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa and does not in any way reflect the opinion of the European Union. Visit the project page
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