Author: Dallandyshe Xhaferri
"Tirana is beautiful. Albania has good people and I like your way of life",- this is how Pradeep Kumar, a 40-year-old from India, who has been working in the construction industry in Tirana for months, begins the story for "Sinjalizo". According to him, Albania offers better employment conditions than his hometown in this sector.
"Here we work normally, without pressure or criticism. Engineers treat workers well", he says, adding that the arrival and employment in Albania was carried out legally.
Meanwhile, for the 20-year-old from Turkey, Umut Çomak, Albania is a good place to gain experience, but not to live for a long time.
"In Elbasan, I work in a dental laboratory", Çomak says, adding,-"I want to start university here in Albania, but after a few years, when I have completed my studies as a dental laboratory, I want to work in Germany or somewhere else in the West".
Hundreds of workers from the East in various sectors
The head of the Association of Fasoneri, Edvin Preçe, tells "Sinjalizo" that "the manufacturing sector currently has about 20 vacancies".
“Our representative and member businesses are focused on employees from countries like Nepal and the Philippines,”- he says, asserting that in the manufacturing sector "currently there are over 350 employees who have been working here for months".
Kumrie Zika, an employment expert, tells "Sinjalizo" that our country is welcoming employees from the East in various sectors.
"I am in the process of recruiting workers in the field of agriculture, fashion, in the field of construction, quarrying and in two months it will be finalized", she says.
Zika specifies for "Sinjalizo", in which sectors foreign citizens are employed in Albania. "In agriculture, I am first leading people from Sri Lanka, as I know that they are people who work in the villages, especially with medicinal plants, they also have knowledge in animal husbandry",-she points out. "For requests in restaurants, I am focused on Nepal, because they know the family culture, they know the work tasks and they have experience in what they do. This is good as they have good experiences in Dubai and Qatar in this field and their service is different from an Indian or a Filipino one.", she says.
Foreign workers, why are they needed?
"Our need for foreign workers arose in 2019 and the first applications began this year, but considering that the pandemic cut off all connections with other parts of the world, then such an experience was also interrupted", Florian Zekaj, coordinator of "Pro Export Albania", says for "Sinjalizo", adding that "immediately after the pandemic, the situation was taken up again and we started to have our first experiences".
According to him, the main reason why employers in this field turn to foreign employees is the demand to grow enterprises.
"The demand to expand our enterprises is great and after the pandemic this demand was emphasized more, because our customers for many reasons started to give up China, India, Bangladesh for reasons that we already know: distance, blocking of contracts and others", - says Zekaj.
With the language of numbers, Preçe shows that the manufacturing sector during 2022 has been quite successful. "The sector has maintained the trend of about 40% of all exports 'Made in Albania' with about 650 million euros in invoicing and in total with all the raw materials exceeds 1 billion euros", - he says.
Meanwhile, the employment expert, Kumrie Zika tells "Sinjalizo" the difficulties that employees from Asian countries have to obtain work visas in our country.
"It would be very good if our country would liberalize our visas with these countries, through state institutions to make our recruitment process easier, so that the employee arrives on time." - she says, adding that there are many requests from businesses for staff in the tourism sector.
"Vlora is suffering for workers. Saranda and Durrës, too. They can't wait for the whole long process to get the work permit, they need to have the workers and start the work,"- concludes Zeka.
Why are the Albanian workers leaving?
For Pradeep Kumar, the departure of Albanian workers is closely related to the lack of investment in the industry sector.
"You have sun all the time, but you are still dependent on imports. Why? The possibilities are,”- he says, during the conversation adding that "The government should help Albanian investors with income so that they can open food, clothing, and various businesses. Why should they go to another country when they can stay here?"- concludes Kumar.
Meanwhile, according to Preçe, the problem is deeper, since "from the latest statistics, we see that the state is suffering for genuine staff, also in other sectors. There is no more regeneration of employees with new forces and the salary increase has not had a positive effect in this aspect at all.",- he says, adding,- "I think that this problem is of a global character".
Also, for Preca, it is necessary that the Albanian state "to make emergency, real, development policies for export sectors".
"The root strategy, the sector has never seen nor initiatives. I believe that we have the need and maturity that this sector (manufacturing) to transform into real producers, but the lack of liquidity that businesses have to renew production plants and automate, certifications, employee training and promotion at international fairs, become impossible without government support", Preçe concludes.
Not only from jobs, Albanians are also giving up citizenship
1903 Albanian citizens have applied to renounce their Albanian citizenship during the period January 2020-November 2022. The Ministry of the Interior has informed "Sinjalizo" also the fact that at the same time the application of foreign citizens to endowed with Albanian citizenship.
During the time frame of two years, 2020-2021, the total number of foreigners who have applied for Albanian citizenship is 1034, while only in the time frame of January-November of the year we left behind, 1370 citizens have applied.
Meanwhile, the institution of the Presidency through the response to the request for information informs that "The number of citizens who received Albanian citizenship during the period 2020-2021: 1050 citizens. Nthe age of citizens who received Albanian citizenship January 2022- November 2022: 355 citizens",- it is said in the answer of the Presidency.
