Ana, Eri and their two kids came back from Bucharest, Romania, in December 2015.  They have settled down in Eri’s parents’ house in a village close to Bushat, Shkodra district, northern part of Albania.

Ana and Eri spent half of their lives in Romania. They met in Albania in 1996 and a year later, while thousands of Albanians were emigrating to Greece or Italy, Ana and Eri decided to go overseas, to the USA or Canada. The plan was to travel first to Bucharest and from there continue to America. They left as soon as they got the visa to Romania and once in Bucharest, while trying to apply for an American visa, they found jobs and slowly settled down. Soon, they were both regularly employed in a supermarket, rented a small apartment, started to fill satisfied about their situation and therefore, postponed their trip to America. The salary in Romania was quite low compared to other countries, but they were hard and trust-worthy workers. Their income could satisfy their needs and also allowed them to support their relatives in Albania. Their first son, Dritan, was born in Bucharest, 13 years ago.   His parents are very proud of his scores at school and his mother proudly displays his diplomas.

During their period in Romania the family would rarely travel back to Albania. One of the few times they returned, on the occasion of Ana’s mother demise, their second child Violeta was born. When Violeta was a toddler and Dritan was in primary school, Eri and Ana began to face difficulties. The supermarket they worked for closed and they were left jobless. They could find only occasional and off the books jobs; moreover, they could not renew the permits of stay and were forced to live as irregular in the country they considered their home. “We tried everything to regularly stay in Bucharest, but because of the economic crisis and also of the lack of permits of stay it became difficult to find good and regular jobs. The last three years we lived in fear of being found by the police and be expelled" says Ana. Eri looks down and continues: “Finally we decided to return to Albania. My father has managed to build this house, and we can live here with him, my mother and my brother's family. We started from scratch. This is why the reintegration support of IOM is so important for us: it gave us the first push, it gave us the confidence to begin a new life in Albania” he says.

IOM’s support through the Reintegration Programme was two-folded: Eri and Anna could purchase some furniture and appliances for the household and also a small tractor, a water pump and a harvesting machinery. Eri has started to plough the family’s plot of land.  He intends to plant olive trees in it. “Thanks to IOM part of the harvest will be sold, while the remaining will be for family use. Once we will have the money to buy a second hand motorcycle, I will start to look for a job in Bushat or in Shkodra”, he said. The family’s challenges to reintegrate are not only of an economic nature: their son Dritan has problems with the Albanian language as he never really practiced it. "If I could go back 20 years ago I would not emigrate”, Ana admits. “We have always worked hard and honestly for all these years, we made a lot of sacrifices in order to be integrated into the Romanian society and culture. Today we must start it all over again.  IOM is giving us a medium term strategy to start a new life in our country. It gives us the confidence in the future”.

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