Setting up a small business in Albania: Return migration and entrepreneurship

Abstract

In this paper, I deal with the phenomenon of Albanian return migration. I focus on the category of returned migrants from Greece, who own a small business in Tirana, the capital of Albania. The aim of the research is to explore the circumstances under which the migrants decided to return and set up a business. I try to analyze the reasons they engaged in entrepreneurial activities through the necessity-opportunity entrepreneurship approach. Some became entrepreneurs out of necessity to avoid unemployment; others because of business opportunities. Within this last group of opportunity-seizing returned migrants, there are some who planned their return and intended to set up a business before migrating. Their objectives in Greece were to save money and gain the know-how enabling them to start and run a business back in Albania.