For many Albanians, going abroad is a way not only to improve their own lives but to help those back home. Besides gaining opportunities that are unavailable domestically, emigrants pump money into the Albanian economy, one of Europe's poorest.
But do these gains come at too steep a price? Although money from abroad may provide a windfall for needy families, emigration also deprives the home country of skilled labour and may hurt its chances to thrive.
"Usually the emigrants' money is being considered as a positive factor for the Albanian economy -- the funds that they send to their families or the euros and dollars that they spend when they come to their motherland," writes Xha xhai in his blog. "But is it true? In my opinion, since 1990, the people who migrate from Albania represent the most productive part of the population and we are not speaking only about the intellectual part of the population."
"The brain drain continues also today and it doesn't seem to stop. This is not a good thing for the future. More complicated is the issue of money that they send to their families. It is obvious that the money has a really big value for their families, but does it have value also for the economy? In my opinion the money that they send is one of the reasons why everything is being imported," he concludes.
Elsewhere in the Albanian blogs, peshkupauje posts a report on public protests against a planned thermal energy plant at Vlora.
Commenting on the action, Blendi thinks that whether or not local residents are right in their opposition, the fact that they are doing so is healthy for democracy.Even if the problem definitely has a NIMBY ("not in my back yard") aspect, we have to applaud the responsibility of the citizens regardless of whether they are right or wrong. The right to a referendum can't be denied," he writes.
Anonymous disagrees. "This thing with the referendum is a 'slippery slope'! A very bad precedent is being created! Because tomorrow other cities will request referenda in order to close the city prison, get the madhouse out of the neighbourhood, the high tension pylon out of the city grass....."
Blendi replies: "The thermal plant is a real need, but the government is wrong. This area has other values -- the environment, tourism -- and we can't allow them to ignore this fact."
"In my opinion it isn't easy to achieve an equal democracy," Wasu concludes. "In theory I agree with the referendum but in practice I think that is very difficult. As for the protest, I don't think that they are wrong. On the contrary, I congratulate them."