A Study on the Correlation of the Remittances and the Life of the Albanian Families

Abstract

Our study focuses on the late trend of remittances in Albania and their correlation to the everyday life of the Albanian families. In order to come to our conclusions we have extensively made use of field studies and we have heavily relied on questionnaires and the date acquired through them. Nowadays the remittances are quite important to most of Albanian families. The fact that there are few Albanian families not benefiting in this or that way from remittances is another indication on their impact on the daily life of the Albanians. We made use of a three chapters questionnaire. They were used to bring us as much info as possible. More data to process will help us to come to sounder scientific conclusions. The data show the vast extension of remittance phenomenon and them being still important to the family budget. The data received from the questionnaire show also the remittances are feeling the pinch due to the economic crises hitting Greece and Italy, such an effect is coupled with the remittance cycle, too. In a nut shell, remittances do not consist any more the most precious “gem” in Albanians “coffers”. The remittances make their presence felt on the family business, too. Yet they can not replace or mitigate the fall in FDI(Foreign Direct Investments), as they consist of little amounts of money ramificated to a vast number of families, meaning too little to be an investment, too small to cause an impact. Only the money brought home by our migrants returning home for good from Greece and Italy due to the crises there can save as a sort of special FDI. Yet this is a one time act not a continuous flow as in the case of remittances. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n2p347