AMBASADA EMBASSY

E REPUBLIKËS SË SHQIPËRISË OF THE REPUBLIC OF ALBANI

Londër London
__________________________________________________________________________________

SFIDA’s Conference
“Through the Eyes of Children”

Hunslou, 3 April 2010

Address by the Ambassador of the Republic of Albania to the UK

H.E. Mr Zef Mazi

- It is indeed a pleasure to have been invited to address

Sfida’s Conference “Through our Children’s Eyes”,
organized jointly with the Council here in Hunslou today.
The fact that it takes place during the Eastern days makes
it even more significant. Let me thank the organizers for
putting together such an interesting event and inviting me
to deliver a key-note address. The topic chosen seems to
be multi-faceted. It makes it somewhat more difficult,
therefore, to speak substantially and succinctly at the
same time, as I understand I am required to do. Let me try
to set the scene by placing my contribution in the context
of Albania’s historical development. I believe this maybe
more helpful in better understanding the present and its
needs.

- When there is talk about closed countries of the former

communist East, Albania is a typical example of a regime
which kept the country separated from the rest of the
world for half a century. It was sort of the North Korea of
Europe.

- The first half of the 20th century can be described as the

period during which, after five hundred years of Ottoman
invasion and rule in Albania, it proclaimed independence
from Ottoman Turkey in 1912 and reaffirmed its presence
and sovereignty in the Balkans. After the Balkan wars and
the capitulation of Ottoman Turkey, it joined the League of
Nations. It carried out a democratic revolution in 1924 and
 then became a monarchy in 1928. The monarchy lasted
till exactlyl 71 years ago yesterday, on 7 April 1939, when
fascist Italy invaded the country and occupied it till 1943,
to be replaced by Nazi Germany in 1943. In November
1944, the country was finally liberated from Nazi Germany
but fell under a terrible Stalinist regime.

- That system, based on political and economic

centralisation and nationalisation, turned Albania within
40 years into the poorest country in Europe, totally
isolated and separated from all mainstream European
developments. (religion ban)

- Immediate post-war allies were Tito’s Yugoslavia, followed

by Stalin’s Soviet Union and later Mao’s China. Relations
with the latter were severed in 1978, when China
embarked on its first liberal reforms in its economy. After
the death of Albania’s dictator the communist system
survived another five years before the European events
engulfed Albania, too.

- The students’ movements of 1990s, supported by part of

the intellectual elite, brought about the collapse of the
communist regime and the birth of a system by means of
which Albania started dealing with the challenge of
creating and building up its democratic future. This
challenge (transition) proved to be longer and more
difficult than people initially thought.

- During the last 18 years since the fall of communism,

Albania has changed dramatically. With its 3.7 million
people, and some 28 thousand sq km, Albania is today a
parliamentary democracy based on the separation and
balance of legislative, executive and judicial powers.

- Numerous reforms have taken place, free elections have

been held, a society has been built on the principles of the
rule of law, a functioning market economy has been
established, though not without difficulties of growth.

- In the long process a whole package of changes – political,

structural, economic, legal, legislative, social, etc., wewre
 introduced and implememted. In short, an entire old
Soviet-styled system was replaced with a new system of
parliamentary democracy, rule of law and market
economy.

- The change of the political and economic system, the

disintegration of the centralised socialist economy, etc.,
were accompanied by a sharp fall in living standards. Lack
of foodstuffs supplies and the measures to liberalise prices
was accompanied with an inflation increase of over 225 %
in the early ‘90s. The gross national production fell by 40%
compared to 1989. This is the period when the biggest
waves of immigration in the last 120 years took place. One
out of every six Albanians left the country.

- Major radical reforms had to be taken forward.

Considerable support in that regard was provided by
foreign aid and assistance as well as remittances. The
year 1977 again brought about some difficulties. People
lost approximately USD 1.3 billion due to the collapse of
the pyramid schemes that sparked a deep crisis and
slowed down or halted a number of achievements.

- That Albanians would not forget, but appropriate lessons

have been drawn. Today we can be modestly proud that,
in less than one generation, the country has managed
very major political, institutional, socio-economic and
psychological changes and reeforms and has overcome all
kinds of hurdles inherited from a hermetically closed,
isolated society, and back into the fold of mainstream
European developments and family.

- Today Albania and the Albanians are trying hard to find

their place in an ever more global world by preserving
their identity while being very open to the outside world
and the international community. Whoever visits Albania
today would discover a place where the transition period
is still having its own costs, but where the energy the
human dynamism, the vitality and aspiration for
development are more present than anywhere else, I
would say. 18 years of change and democratic
expeerience is only too short, but given the magnitude of
 change, where it started from, and where it is today,
present day Albania can be considered a success story.

- It is frequently mentioned as one of the fastest growing

economies in transition and the highest in South Eastern
Europe since 1992. The World Bank’s Doing Business 2008
Report places Albania second top reformer globally with
regard to business environment reforms implemented
over the past years. It further commented, “Albania’s
record since it embarked on its transition in the early
1990s has been impressive. The country has successfully
built the foundations of market-based economy, created
democratic institutions and gradually built capacity in the
public administration to cope with political and economic
transformation. These efforts have resulted in a track
record of macroeconomic stability, as well as achievement
of the fastest rates of GDP growth in South Eastern
Europe.” The IMF has similar assessments to make.

- Achieving EU membership is Albania’s next major political

goal for the near future. Albania has a Stabilisation and
Association Agreement in force with the EU, has submitted
the application for candidate EU member and is warking
hard to get the avis to open accession negotiations.

- Building on the achievements and the road traversed so

far, a clear vision for the future and the richness of the
country – an excellent, dynamic, cultured younger
generation, full of vitality, and a wonderful landscape of
phantastic natural beuties, Albania is becoming an
attractive environment for tourists and businessmen,
artists and intellectuals from all over the planet.

- Albania became a full member of NATO in 2009. All the

above adding up, in a highly improved, normal and secure
environment which Albania offers, foreign investors will
definitely be rewarded.

- It is against this backdrop of not a very friendly history

and past and great efforts to bring about radical changes
in the last 18 years that one should see, accept, deal and
work with the Albanian emigration abroad to ensure they
 feel well and to help it get fully integrated in the societies
where they have chosen to live.

- Let me be more specific on the requirements of the topic.

- The Albanian community in the UK has evolved and

increased significantly to date from only 100 who were
here right after WWII. The biggest influx of Albanian
emigrants to UK was registered in the mid- and late ‘90s,
after the collapse of the communist regime in Albania, in
the run-up to the war in Kosova, during the war and the
years immediately after it. The Albanians people, the
Albanian Government and nation, will be forever grateful
to the British authorities and people for what they have
done for them, for opening the doors and welcoming, in
difficult years for the Albanians, a sizeable number of
them.

- The Albanian community in the UK, according to not very

accurate data, I should say, (who has accurate date by the
way when data discs are lost?!) numbers over 100
thousand. A considerable number of them have adapted
well into the British society and already have British
citizenship. Another portion has attained indefinite leave
to remain and/or are in the process of doing so. And
another portion is either with short stay permits or no
permits at all, thus staying illegally.

- For the most part, the Albanian community is organised in

a number of associations, 16 of which have come together
to form a coordinating Forum of the Albanian societies in
the UK with the sole aim of mutually supporting their
activities raise their effectiveness, enhancing
cohesiveness and the sense of commoness as a
consolidated community full of fine values.

- They reach out to their members through regular

meetings, communications and cultural gatherings,
various civic projects, children’s Saturday schools in
Albanian, etc. The most higly attended, organised events
are the Albanian and Kosova Independence days,
commemorated on the 28th of November and 17th
 February of each year, respectively, and other major
traditional festivites.

- Such a community mix, as described above, can actually

be considered relatively healthy given the short period
since their arrival in the UK. In the meantime, it would
undoubtedly pose a number of challenges, or grievances,
that need to be addressed, such as:

- Firstly, Albanian language teaching: The majority of

Albanians who arrived in England from the mid-90s have
settled in and around London. Most of them were young
and well-educated. A considerable number of them
continued studies in universities in London and elsewhere.
A good number have successful academic careers, or have
eminent positions in successful companies, banks,
medicine, art, or have established their own businesses
and are doing well.

- Education of children through, so far, Saturday classes in

Albanian is a principal activity for a number of
associations. Only two associations in London number
some 1200 pupils. Saturday classes are not enough!
Education represents a collective high priority of all the
families and the entire community, whose aspiration is to
ensure that their children grow educated and retain their
language, culture and traditions. Multiculturalism, so
developed in this country, is an asset, a richness. Albanian
can only enrich it further.

- A major concrete step in this regard would be to ensure

that the Albanian language is added to the list of GCSE
languages. Work started in individually and an
unorganised way almost two years ago, but has now
reached a stage where a Motion to that effect has been
tabled, and not challenged, in the Parliament on 17 March
2010. We would call on the new Parliament, including the
MPs to be elected in this constuency and others, for a
unhesitaating support of this motion so that the required
number to transform the motion into a bill is reached as
soon as possible.
- Secondly, status of the Albanians in the UK: It has been
with a great sense of relief and, I would say, some
satisfaction that at the Albanian Embassy we are
observing a decreasing number of Albanians calling in for
consular services. This is a clear indicator that issues
relating to their status are gradually being resolved. This
is very good indeed. With a regular status, immigrants
would not hesitate to fornally look for jobs, to get engaged
and become openly active in the British society. An
unclear status, no status or a limbo status with no future
in sight, no matter whether the individuals are Albanians
or else, would admittedly leave room for insecurity,
uncertainty, sometime misconduct or unwillingly falling
into the rings of wrong-doers. All necessary steps need to
be taken to avoid this from happening.

- The quicker issues related to the status of the Albanian

immigrants are resolved, in general, the better for them,
their families and the society that hosts them. They are
here, they are a reality and they ought to be dealt with by
the relevant authorities with generousity, effectively and
efficiently, swiftly and with forward-looking vision.

- Thirdly, strengthening bonds of the family and the society

they live in: Albanian associations have these issues at the
focus of their attention. In general Albanians traditionally
cherish their families, and do retain their family bonds,
based more around a patriarchal structure, although in the
modern era things seem to have changed also for the
Albanians. Life as emigrants may not provide all the luxury
of living with one’s own family abroad. Whatever the case
is, it is highly desirable and needed, therefore, that in that
regard, programmes and projects are being carreid out, to
ensure that family bonds are strengthened, and the links
and interaction betweem and among them and the society
they live in are consolidated. They would by so doing get
more and more actively involved in communal life, in
sharing of experiences, in interacting and contributing to
the common good, with a good feeling, that they are
accepted not chased, with a sense of inclusiveness, of
being poart of the fabric of this society. I am awarre of
 positive results in this regard, and less and less worrying
news.
- Before moving to the forth and last issue, the above are of
course inter-connected. The bigger the progress in each of
them, and in their inter-relationships, the higher the
positive impact and advances of the Albanian community
in the UK towards their full integration, in an environment
that has inclusion as a priority while assisting them to
retain their cultural and linguistic identity.

- Forthly, the media, the perception that is created by the

media. There are plenty of examples in which the media
has been overdoing its role and, regretably,
enthusiastically towads the Albanians. Everything that
happens and is considered to make news is grabbed by it
and it rushes to conclusions: done by a group of
Albanians. A host of examples can prove they have been
very one-sided, biased and prejudiced, or totally wrong.
And they never regret for disseminating uncorroborated
news or news proven completely wrong.

- Something needs to be done to rescue the reputation of

my Homeland from the clutches and misunderstandings of
the populist press in the UK that, targeting them, portrays
the Albanians as the new gangsters engaged in human
trafficking and drug smuggling, as cheats and perhaps
worse preying on the vulnerable, the young and the weak.

- This is unfair, unethical, incorrent and, of course, we

object to this view and seek to redress it, but we cannot
do it alone. A wider understanding and support of the
British public opinion, your support and that of others
would be required and would be most highly appreciated.

- One cannot identify a whole nation, a whole emigrant

community of over 100 thousand, with tiny isolated
groups of ill-doers who deserve to be caught, are being
caught and be taken to justice. The overwhelming
majority of the Albanian community in the UK works and
toils hard, keep and raise their families through honest
work, take children to schools and invest in their
upbringing and education, pay taxes, are honest, smart
 and cultured citizens, who make a contribution to the
British society. We are proud of them.

- Last not least, the support required to address the above:

any immigrant group or community, no matter how good
they are and how perfect their programmes and projects
are done on paper, would not go too far with their
implementation and integration programmes without
proper financial support. Time has come, in my view, to
perhaps consider less number of projects but much bigger
in size and substance, hence, with bigger outcome and
impact.

- Let me, by way of concluding, express the gratitude of the

Albanian Government, the Albanian Embassy and that of
the Albanian community in the UK for the gracious
support, both moral, political and financial, that the British
authorities, the various Councils, have given to the
Albanian community associations in the UK. I am very glad
to note also, and I consider it very important, that my
contacts with various council representatives and their
communications clearly indicate that this support has
been used effectively, in the best of the abilities, and the
impact has indeed reached and been felt by the end-
users.

- I am convinced that the Albanian emigrant community in

the UK are lucky to live and work in the midst of one of the
greatest nations and they have a bright future. In this
country, that has hosted and is home of 40 or more
different nationalities, immigrants are proud to consider
the UK their home sweet home away from their home
sweet home. So do the Albanians.

- Thank you very much for your attention.