This paper addresses the issue of the return of Albanian migrants back to their country. After a brief review of the literature on return migration, we discuss the results of a recent empirical survey of 325 Albanian former emigrants who relumed from Italy and Greece. We present the basic social and economic characteristics of the returnees in three distinct phases (before emigration, while living and working abroad, after return). Focusing on the socio-economic integration of returning Albanian migrants, the paper comes to the following conclusions: (a) emigration seems to have been an overall positive experience for the majority of the returnees, (b) the characteristics of the migrants and their labour market integration reflects the economy of the host country, (c) both, migration and return are not permanent situations, but they can be reversed at any time, d) host countries should assist the migrants who want tο return, especially in respect to economic development in the country of origin.
