in agriculture – upon return, evidence from this and other studies seems to suggest that these negatively selected groups of migrants are bringing back few acquired skills to enable them to significantly improve their financial situation once back home. As a consequence of this, migrating again is often the only option left to many.

In line with previous findings (Stampini _et al._ 2008), our hazard analysis has also highlighted the importance of networks to promote migration, but also to delay return and favor integration in the host countries. As networks develop, the costs associated with migration and assimilation in the host country go down, thus facilitating migration by less suited individuals, even to farther, more favored destinations.

# **Notes**

1 The survey collected information on all sons and daughters of the household head and/or the spouse older than 15, as well as the spouse if he/she is no longer living in the household and residing abroad. The vast majority of these splitoffs belong to the first category, with sons and daughters accounting for about 98 percent of the total number. 2 For the same reason, figures relative to more recent years and particularly 2004 should be interpreted with caution as for these recent migrants the distinction between permanent and temporary might be less clear-cut. 3 In this and in the following figures in this section, the year indicates the year of first migration of current migrants. Thus, in case of multiple events prior to settling abroad, we are using the timing of the first of such events. However, in the majority of cases, permanent migrants only reported one migration episode. Also, the lower numbers in the early 1990s reflect the fact that a higher number of these early migrants have now returned and settled back in Albania, as reflected in the high numbers of past migrants in these early years of transition.

4 For this analysis we use INSTAT’s fourfold regional division: Coast, Centre, Mountain, and Tirana. 5 If migrant households are classified only considering sons and daughters abroad, as expected the proportion of female headed households drops to 13 percent, compared with 18 percent in Table 1, which also considers migrant spouses. 6 On the one hand, poverty might be hypothesized to cause migration; on the other hand, only the more wealthy households may be able to afford migration, particularly to more distant destinations. Furthermore, the returns to migration, largely in the form of remittances, lift households out of poverty. Some of these issues are further explored in Zezza _et al._ (2005).

7 This number is likely to be an underestimation of the total number of episodes due to the way full histories were collected. In addition, as shown by Smith and Thomas (2003) for Malaysia, some of the short episodes far back in time are likely to be under-reported, particularly when the events are multiple and spanning over a long period.

8 Compared to Italy, the process of obtaining legal status in Greece is more difficult for Albanian migrants, as family reunification has been discouraged and migrant regularization has been slower (Baldwin-Edwards 2002). In this respect, it should not be surprising that particularly the flow to Greece has been more temporary in nature.

> 9 Although the use of duration models had its origin in biomedical research, this estimation technique has been increasingly applied to a variety of issues in economics, including technology adoption, unemployment spells and even participation in social assistance programs. For reviews of empirical application of duration models in social sciences see Kiefer (1988) and Lancaster (1990).

10 The origin of the spell is either 1990 or the year in which the individual turns 15, whichever comes later. 11 Greece has had two separate regularizations. The first in 1998 was completed in the span of a few months, while the second, started in 2001, took longer to be implemented due to administrative difficulties. Italy’s largest regularization was carried out in 2002, following several others earlier.

> 12 It is worth highlighting that in each year _t_ the household composition refers to year _t-1_ and, as such, is not affected by migration of its household members in _t_ .

25