Albania: should healthcare workers stay or move to Germany?

IWTW ‘Explore’ is about highlighting different trends around the world and presenting audiences with both sides of the story in order to facilitate a better understanding of world issues and decision making in the spheres of the economy, society, environment, technology and politics.

What is it about?

Germany has too few healthcare workers and is trying to plug the gaps with recruitment drives in poorer countries like Albania. As a result, many young and well-trained people are packing up and leaving the country.

Word has got around in Albania that the German health and care sector has a skills shortage. Many qualified healthcare workers have decided to leave for Germany. In Tirana, twenty-two-year-old Alketa Kaja is doing a special German language course for healthcare and nursing to prepare for her new life. A German clinic has offered her a job and is paying the course fees.

Only 50% of healthcare workers trained in Albania remain in the country. One of them is Kastriot Qehaja. Even though his job is strenuous and poorly paid, he doesn’t want to leave his country. Someone needs to look after the elderly people whose children have gone to work in western Europe.

Why should I watch it?

  • More than 136K views since 9 jan 2024
  • More than 2.2K likes

Full episode (by DW documentaries)

IWTW note: The opinions in the video don’t necessarily represent those of IWTW. The goal of IWTW ‘Explore’ is to inform its audience about interesting developments around the world through a selection of short and long documentaries. IWTW considers those documentaries to be great starting points for further discussion. I strive to update the selection of content should ‘better’ documentaries emerge over time.

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