{"id":25336,"date":"2026-10-11T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amfora.al\/?p=25336"},"modified":"2026-10-10T10:49:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T09:49:58","slug":"they-take-our-jobs-and-increase-crime-anti-immigrant-narrative-spread-without-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amfora.al\/en\/they-take-our-jobs-and-increase-crime-anti-immigrant-narrative-spread-without-evidence\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThey take our jobs and increase crime\u201d: Anti-immigrant narrative spread without evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cAre foreign immigrants becoming a problem in our country?\u201d was the headline of a report in which the online newspaper \u201cShekulli\u201d brought together three incidents involving Indian nationals in a single\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0in August, including an attempted theft in Tirana, the theft of a mobile phone and the alleged filming of women and girls in Durr\u00ebs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By presenting these incidents together, the article raised the question of whether foreign immigrants were becoming a problem for the country, linking the behaviour of a few individuals to difficulties with integration. Although it provided no statistical evidence that these cases reflected a wider problem of crime among immigrants, a broader narrative gained momentum throughout September, with videos featuring workers, mainly from India, portraying them as a source of economic problems and crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 24 August, the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) reported that Albania had 32,163 foreign nationals with residence permits at the end of 2025, an increase of 46.6% compared with the previous year, while employment was the main reason for 55.1% of the permits issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0document an increase in the number of foreign nationals working in Albania but do not show that Albanians have lost their jobs to foreign workers or provide a comparison of wages between the two groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klodian Mu\u00e7o, a professor and researcher, linked this trend to the shortage of domestic labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do not see the arrival of foreign workers as an economic or social threat. On the contrary, I see it as an opportunity for Albanian businesses,\u201d Mu\u00e7o told Amfora.al.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Gajda, a law lecturer at the University of Elbasan, challenged the generalisation of one person’s actions to others of the same background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is always wrong to generalise about an entire ethnic or national group based on a negative or criminal incident that may have occurred,\u201d Gajda told Amfora.al.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 6 September, the labour market narrative escalated into calls for a boycott. \u201cWe boycott every anti-Albanian company that has brought in foreigners and tramples on Albanians,\u201d read a\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0by the Instagram\u00a0account<\/a>\u00a0\u201cZgjidh Shqip\u201d. On Facebook, the\u00a0page<\/a>\u00a0describes itself as an online media outlet. Although the post received around 3,700 likes and more than 400 comments, it did not identify any companies or Albanian workers who had been replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, on 12 September, the JOQ Albania account published a\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0of a confrontation at a resort in Radhim\u00eb, with the headline: \u201cAfricans have had enough in Albania. A fight breaks out among them.\u201d Although the circumstances were unknown, the individuals’ origins were inferred from their appearance. By 7 October, the video had received around 9,200 likes and 410 comments, including racist remarks and calls for their forcible removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INSTAT\u00a0statistics<\/a>\u00a0show a 17.4% increase in criminal offences during 2025 but do not identify the nationalities of suspected perpetrators. Nor do these data attribute the rise in crime in Albania to foreign nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign workers portrayed as \u201creplacements\u201d for Albanians<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late August, a wave of videos calling for boycotts began circulating on social media and\u00a0continues<\/a>\u00a0to this day, urging people to boycott companies that, according to the posts, were replacing Albanian workers with foreign nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 26 August, the accounts \u201cZgjidh Shqip\u201d and \u201cHistori Studentore\u201d published a\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0on Instagram showing a man arguing with an employee of the delivery company \u201cWolt\u201d. The footage carried the caption \u201cWhat is happening in Tirana?\u201d, while followers were urged to stop placing orders and delete the app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c2 years in Albania, benefiting from Albanian generosity and the Albanian market, and today Albanians are neglected, dismissed from their jobs and replaced by Indians and Pakistanis,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the footage was not recorded in Tirana but in Athens, where the name \u201cAthens Tiare\u201d, a hotel<\/a> in Omonia Square, was visible in the background. The video did not identify those involved or the cause of the confrontation and showed no Albanian involved in the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Illustrative graphic featuring social media posts. Graphic by Media Amfora.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two days later, \u201cIliria Lajme\u201d published an Instagram\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0showing a man wearing headphones in a call centre, accompanied by the caption: \u201cIndian \u2018learns\u2019 Albanian and starts working in a call centre in Tirana.\u201d The text claimed that businesses were hiring foreigners to reduce costs. \u201cThey are paid less than Albanians,\u201d it stated, without identifying the man, the call centre or any specific case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 5 September, \u201cHistori Studentore\u201d claimed in a\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0that 36,000 residence permits had been issued during the year to nationals from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, warning that Albania was \u201cdisappearing\u201d. No source was provided for the figure, while INSTAT reported 32,163 foreign nationals holding residence permits at the end of 2025, not 36,000 newly issued permits. Kosovo and Italy were the leading countries of origin, followed by India and the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to economist Klodian Mu\u00e7o, the claim that foreign workers are replacing Albanians does not reflect the economic reality created by their employment in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecruiting workers from abroad is not replacing Albanians or lowering wages. On the contrary, the opposite is happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mu\u00e7o explained that employers often provide food and accommodation for workers arriving from abroad, in addition to their wages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor several reasons, a foreign worker costs more than a domestic worker,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparing around 26,000 foreign workers with 1.2 million people in employment, Mu\u00e7o assessed that they currently account for a small share of the labour market. Robert Gajda, meanwhile, distinguished concerns about domestic employment from blaming foreign workers, describing them as two separate issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is nothing inherently wrong with calling for greater attention from the authorities to the employment of Albanians, but doing so by portraying the foreign workforce negatively is unfair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination, asked by Amfora.al about calls to boycott companies employing foreign nationals, explained that such matters are assessed according to the circumstances of each case. Without referring to the specific posts examined in this analysis, the institution explained that calls for boycotts solely because companies employ foreign nationals may raise concerns about incitement to discrimination in employment, particularly when they seek to influence employers not to hire or to exclude people because of their origin or nationality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLegal assessments are carried out on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with anti-discrimination legislation and labour law,\u201d the Commissioner explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isolated incidents turned into accusations against foreign nationals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 2 October, \u201cZgjidh Shqip\u201d and \u201cHistori Studentore\u201d published an Instagram\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0captioned: \u201cIndian burger thief in Tirana\u201d. The courier in the footage appeared to be eating food he was supposed to deliver to a customer, while the post raised concerns about food safety and called for a boycott of \u201cWolt\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the video had been published on 26 October 2025 by a TikTok\u00a0account<\/a>, whose description placed the incident in Tbilisi, Georgia. Footage that had been circulating for almost a year was thus presented as a consumer safety problem in Tirana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten days earlier, the same accounts had published another\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0showing a courier relieving himself at the entrance to a building. He was portrayed as an Indian national working in Albania, and the incident was used to call for inspections, boycotts and the employment of more Albanians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This incident had not taken place in Albania either. The footage had appeared in a post<\/a> from Georgia on 28 September 2025, with the description placing it in Tbilisi on 22 September. The individual was wearing a helmet, and there was no evidence establishing his nationality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Illustrative graphic featuring social media posts. Graphic by Media Amfora.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWolt\u201d is a digital platform for ordering and delivering food and products from businesses to customers. The footage carried the caption \u201cWhat is happening in Tirana?\u201d, while followers were urged to stop ordering from the company and delete the app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier,\u00a0\u201cShekulli\u201d<\/a>\u00a0had reported on a 31-year-old arrested in Kombinat on suspicion of attempted theft, footage in which an Indian national allegedly took a mobile phone from an elderly person in Durr\u00ebs, and allegations that another individual had filmed women. \u201cVersus Albania\u201d\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that police had taken the latter individual in for questioning, without providing details of any subsequent action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShekulli\u201d acknowledged that many Indian nationals integrate without causing problems but linked the incidents to employment difficulties, without establishing whether the individuals involved were workers or whether those circumstances had any connection to the reported actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Gajda, the problem lies not only in mentioning nationality but also in the imbalance created when foreign nationals are portrayed primarily through negative incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf reporting on foreigners focuses only on criminal or negative aspects, it will naturally create a negative impression of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to him, prejudice is more pronounced towards people of Asian or African origin. \u201cThus, a German and a Bangladeshi are both foreigners, but they are not perceived in the same way,\u201d Gajda said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding media coverage of criminal incidents involving foreign nationals, the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination explained that the problem arises when individuals’ actions are used to generalise about an entire community. The institution provided an assessment of reporting principles without referring to specific cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe problem lies not in reporting the facts, but in turning an individual fact into an attribute of an entire group,\u201d the Commissioner emphasised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individual incidents, footage taken from one country and presented as occurring in another, and unverified nationalities were used to construct a collective threat, without evidence showing that foreign nationals were more involved in crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The growing number of foreign nationals with residence permits in Albania was portrayed on social media and in the media as a threat to Albanian workers’ jobs and a source of crime. Official data confirm this increase but provide no evidence that their arrival has led to lower wages, the replacement of Albanian workers or a rise in crime. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":25318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3895],"tags":[4511,11645,11662,4395,4550,11695,11701,11666,11667,11676,11681,11644,6597,11668,11675,10741,11693,11670,11661,11659,10993,10747,11647,11705,11655,11654,11699,11696,10898,11688,11689,11652,11657,11646,11697,11704,11649,10888,11679,11680,7072,11703,11690,11683,6598,11665,11660,10882,11708,11707,10883,11706,11656,10745,11648,11650,11678,11700,11702,11673,11682,11677,11669,11672,11694,11664,11658,11684,11691,10746,11674,11698,11653,10751,11685,11692,11651,11663,11686,11671,11687],"class_list":["post-25336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-en","tag-albania-3","tag-albanian-media","tag-albanian-workers","tag-amfora-media-2","tag-amfora-al-3","tag-athens","tag-bangladesh","tag-boycott-of-companies","tag-calls-for-boycotts","tag-collective-blame","tag-commissioner-for-protection-from-discrimination","tag-copy-all-tags-amfora","tag-crime","tag-discrimination","tag-discriminatory-generalisation","tag-disinformation","tag-durres","tag-employment-discrimination","tag-employment-in-albania","tag-employment-of-foreign-nationals","tag-facebook","tag-fact-checking","tag-false-information","tag-foreign-communities","tag-foreign-nationals","tag-foreign-workers","tag-georgia","tag-greece","tag-hate-speech","tag-histori-studentore","tag-iliria-lajme","tag-immigrants-in-albania","tag-immigration","tag-independent-journalism","tag-india","tag-indian-nationals","tag-information-manipulation","tag-instagram","tag-instat","tag-institute-of-statistics","tag-investigative-journalism","tag-italy","tag-joq-albania","tag-klodian-muco","tag-kosovo","tag-labour-costs","tag-labour-market","tag-media","tag-media-ethics","tag-media-reporting","tag-mediaamfora","tag-migrant-integration","tag-migration","tag-misinformation","tag-misleading-narratives","tag-misleading-videos","tag-official-statistics","tag-pakistan","tag-philippines","tag-prejudice","tag-protection-from-discrimination","tag-public-safety","tag-racial-discrimination","tag-racism","tag-radhime","tag-replacement-of-albanian-workers","tag-residence-permits","tag-robert-gajda","tag-shekulli","tag-social-media","tag-stereotypes","tag-tbilisi","tag-tiktok","tag-tirana","tag-university-of-elbasan","tag-versus-albania","tag-videos-taken-out-of-context","tag-wages","tag-wolt","tag-xenophobia","tag-zgjidh-shqip"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t