Albania is facing a deep demographic and social crisis, which could compromise the long-term comprehensive development of our country. This crisis has affected the younger generation of the country’s population, especially the 15-30 age group, and has already manifested itself in every area of the country’s economic and social life.
By Myqerem TAFAJ
The decline in birth rates is a major cause, but the mass emigration of young people is the other most important cause. There is much discussion about the causes of emigration, especially of young people. However, the main cause remains the one that every Albanian knows: Albania has become an unlivable place for citizens, not only of the poor, but also of the middle class, due to the adoption of an antisocial and aggressive economic model, with a cost of living affordable only by a very thin layer (less than 2% of the population) of entrepreneurs and by a very small group that circulates black money. The drastic decline in birth rates and mass emigration, which has now taken on the real dimensions of depopulation, have caused schools not only in rural areas, but also in all cities in the country, up to the outskirts of the capital, to empty at a rapid pace from year to year. The same thing is happening with university auditoriums.
Compared to the 2013/2014 school year, in this school year (2025/’26), Albania has 40% fewer students. Now the government was relieved, because it almost “successfully” halved the number of students in just 12 years of government! But the decline is almost linear and by the end of this decade, the government’s success could become even more spectacular and Albania could have fewer students than Kosovo. But the consequences of the rapid shrinkage of the youth age group are multidimensional and affect the entire economic and social life of the country. Albania is the only country in Europe that does not have any student social action, so much so that it seems that there are no more students in this country. Those who have remained, it seems, are “well-managed” politically. Our students today do not even talk about the extraordinary economic difficulties they have to cope with living during university studies, let alone the quality of education, their rights, etc. Tirana has at least 60 thousand students, but they no longer feel, even though they face rents at the level of major Italian cities, with staggering living costs, etc. Who speaks for the students today? Nobody, because not even the students themselves feel about their troubles. If we look beyond the borders, the students are completely different.
The voice of students in Kosovo is very strong for their rights and conditions. If you go further into Europe, you will notice that the voice of students is very strong not only for their rights, but also for major issues of their countries. We recall here the students of France, Austria and other EU countries, or the most recent case of the very powerful movement of students, initially of the University of Novi Sad and then of all universities in Serbia, who, for almost a year, have become an impassable barricade for Milosevic’s former propaganda minister, today’s autocrat Vučić, and will surely overthrow him. Even young high school students are forgotten. No one talks about them. Who cares about the conditions of schools, their safety, especially from drugs, without going to the quality of secondary education. Parents, seeing the conditions of insecurity in public schools, have chosen to enroll their children in private high schools, which are safer. Those high school students who cannot afford private school fees console themselves with semi-private courses. Neither high school students, nor teachers and their unions, nor parents raise their voices against this state of insecurity in public high schools. The cannabis epidemic that invaded the country 10 years ago brought about this flood of drugs, which also reached the doors of schools. The propaganda actions of the police have not brought any noticeable improvement in the security situation in public schools.
Albania has a National Student Council on paper, but it is no longer felt, while high school students have no functional organization of their own, beyond their schools. High school and university students make up about three-fifths of young people in the 15–25 age group. The problems of the rest of this age group are equally acute, because they are related to employment, poverty, emigration, etc.
The drastic contraction of the young population has deeply shaken the labor market in all sectors. The emptying of villages by youth became a precursor to the rapid depopulation of rural areas and the gradual extinction of agriculture and livestock in these areas. Neither mountain agrotourism nor the “Mountain Package” can revive agriculture and livestock in rural areas. The guesthouses and restaurants of these guesthouses in these areas will increasingly serve imported livestock products (meat, milk and their products) frozen for months and years, but decorated with labels as local products. But the massive emigration of young people and active labor forces has hit the development of agriculture and livestock even in the lowland areas of the country, because they cannot find workers.
Every sector of the manufacturing and service economy is suffering from a shortage of labor. Only the politicized state bureaucracy does not suffer. It swells in numbers from year to year, but this does not improve anything in services to citizens, but simply acts as a giant voting machine for power.
The public sector is also the main deformer of the labor market. Appointments to central government agencies and municipalities in the country, to (anti)public enterprises, and the public sectors as a whole are made without merit, but simply on political, nepotistic and corrupt grounds. Every young man and woman in Albania knows this and this deformation of the labor market has increased the skepticism of young people, especially students, that they can be employed on the basis of merit and investment in their education and qualifications. The labor market crisis for qualified active labor forces is deepening. The health and social care sector is the first service sector to be hit by the massive emigration of doctors and nurses. It was followed by the tourism sector, which does not find even simple workers and educated employees. After them comes the IT sector, because those educated in this field are the second largest group, which is emigrating massively, after the first group, that of doctors and nurses.
The government only talks about young people when it needs it for propaganda, but it does not take action to support young people. We are the country that invests less in education than any European country, and in terms of investment in education and knowledge, we are only comparable to third world countries, even though we dream with our eyes wide open of being accepted into the EU in 2029! Have you heard that the issue of youth is a topic of discussion in any parliamentary session or that any legal parliamentary initiative, be it a resolution, is being taken for youth?! What is remembered from recent years is the famous law on the obligation of medical students. Is there any supra-party organization of deputies up to 30 years old in the Assembly? None! For the Assembly, our country has no youth, no students, no high school students, no young workers, who have endless troubles. Opposition parties have used little space in parliamentary sessions and parliamentary committees to highlight the serious problems facing our youth. Even the forums of opposition political parties deal more with political issues in general and less with the major problems of high school students, students, young workers, etc. For example, in the May 11 campaign, the DP presented an excellent program for young people, but this is not enough to be done only in the campaign, but it must become a well-structured activity of the party, the parliamentary group and its forums.
Civil society organizations have done a lot for youth issues. Although few in number, the few NGOs that are dedicated to youth issues are the only ones that speak for our youth. Albania is perhaps one of the few countries, if not the only one, where internationals are listened to more than the country’s institutions. If we accept this reality, we must say that if internationals had invested funds, time and statements equal to one hundredth of what they have invested and done for justice and prisons, perhaps far fewer young people would have left the country and depopulation would not have been so rapid. For example, the EU has numerous EU programs for youth, their education and employment, from which the youth of our country should also benefit. But, unfortunately, very rarely and very little is heard about these programs in Albania. Even when a project is promoted within the framework of these programs, few people follow them. It is paradoxical that when European leaders visit Albania, they do not say a word about the depopulation of the country and the massive departure of young Albanians from the country, even though the parliaments and party activities of EU countries are full of discussions and criticisms about immigrants and the problems they have caused in the host countries. What about the written and visual media, how much space does it devote to young people? Unfortunately, very little.
The Albanian media devotes the main part of its space to politics and black chronicles. It is true that politics must reflect that, ultimately, governance and politics are responsible for how the country is governed. But the fact is that young people, for years, do not even want to listen to politicians, because they have realized that they have forgotten their real problems. I think that structured programs are necessary that aim to reflect the real problems of young people: youth poverty, emigration, education, employment, security, youth entrepreneurship, their needs for creating new families, the problems of youth in urban areas, in rural areas, or Albanian youth in emigration who could potentially return and many other challenges that the youth of our country are facing.
It would not cost the government anything to finance projects in the most popular mainstream media outlets for thematic shows that address the real issues of our youth. This modest article highlights only some aspects of the very broad issues and challenges facing our young generation, which seems to be forgotten in its own country. There is no real investment in young people, no real representation and voice of their interests in the country’s development policies, and their voices are not really heard. This situation has caused young Albanians to see themselves forgotten, without real opportunities to develop their careers and build their lives in their own country, and as a result, they choose emigration as the only path left to them.
