A substantial emigration from Kosovo has taken place in various phases during the second half of the 20th century. It is estimated that about a third of people born in Kosovo currently live outside Kosovo. Emigration has taken place in separate waves motivated mainly by economic reasons, but also as a result of the Kosovo War. The Kosovo diaspora is usually included in the wider Albanian diaspora with Albanians from Albania and North Macedonia.
Turkey
Today's Albanians of Turkey were created from three large waves of emigration at different times. The first happened while all was a part of the Ottoman Empire in 1910 when 120,000 Albanians from the Vilayet of Kosovo were deported to what would become present-day Turkey. The second was between 1926 and 1938 though agreements by Yugoslavia and Turkey, here about 400,000 emigrated to Turkey. The last one was after World War II (1953-1966) when nearly 400,000 were expelled to Turkey.
Western Europe
Emigration elsewhere was initially as seasonal workers (1964, in Switzerland and Germany) Another phase occurred with the dissolution of former Yugoslavia Immigration took place during and after the Kosovo War (1998–1999) Since 2014, estimates ranging from 40, 000 to 100,000 people have migrated for economic and other reasons.
As the population of Kosovo mainly consists of Kosovar Albanians, emigrant population was of a corresponding composition, with about 90% Albanians besides smaller numbers of Kosovo Serbs, Bosniaks, Roma, Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians, Turks etc.
The largest numbers of Kosovan emigrants are found in Germany (2022: 542,000), Switzerland, the U.S. and Scandinavia, making almost 800,000 Kosovar-Albanians living abroad. They are included in the Albanian diaspora.
Since 2008, the constitutional status of Kosovo is under dispute, it is recognized by some states as the Republic of Kosovo and by others as a part of the Republic of Serbia. After the creation of UNMIK, Kosovars were able to travel using specially created documents, while in 2009 the Republic of Kosovo began issuing passports. Some retain Serbian nationality which is open to all Kosovan citizens. For this reason, there is no reliable statistics of the figure of the Kosovoar diaspora.
Current situation
With 70 percent of the population being under the age of 35, Kosovo has one of the most pronounced youth bulges in Europe. There continues to be a significant trend for emigration, with about 50 percent of Kosovo's youth stating they would emigrate if they could. Kosovo's labour market is unable to absorb this high number. A Framework paper for the donor's conference held on 11 July 2008 by the UK Government's DFID (DFID, 2008) suggests that Kosovo could become an exporter of labour.