Exploring Links between Internal and International Migration in Albania: a View from Internal Migrants

ABSTRACT Over the last 20 years, Albania has experienced sweeping economic and social changes, caused in part by increasing internal and international migration flows. Migration trajectories of Albanians represent a combination of internal, international, and return migration. Whereas scholars have previously focused mainly on international migration, the current research explores the dynamics between internal and international migration. Typically, the internal migration of a family is supported, psychologically and financially, by the international migration of other household members. This paper reports on the influence that social and economic remittances have on the livelihoods of internal migrants. Using an ethnographic approach, financial and social remittances were shown to improve internal migrants' quality of life, assisting their adjustment process. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.