In the past two decades Albania and the former
Yugoslavia have become associated with some
of Europe’s most dramatic emigration movements.
During the four decades of the communist
regime, the Republic of Albania was a
blind spot in the imagination of Europe and
the world. It was brought back into the collective
consciousness in 1991 when media all over
the world showed dramatic pictures of impoverished
and desperate men arriving in overcrowded
ships in southern Italy: Albania had
its “boat people.” In addition, Albanian populations
living in the former Yugoslavia, particularly
Kosovo-Albanians, gained a world audience in
1998 when tens of thousands of refugees arrived
not only in Europe, but also in Albania and
other neighboring countries, after the outbreak
of open war in Kosovo. However, migration in
this world region cannot be reduced simply
to such key moments; a historical perspective
reveals that migration has been a constitutional
aspect of the Balkans for a long time.