Republic of Macedonia is a very small landlocked economy, and as such appears to exemplify the typical pattern of labor mobility – an estimated 18.2% of the population in the country was living abroad by 2005 (“B, 2008). With such a high proportion of emigrant population relative to the tidal population of the country, remittances sent by migrant workers have become critical to the survival and welfare of a significant number of Macedonian households.

Even that the absorption of remittance flows into the economy is important for stabilization and growth of the country, there has been little concerted effort to estimate the true size of remittances into the economy, so far.

The main objective of the paper is to examine the impact of migration on the standards of living in the Republic of Macedonia drawing upon the latest Quality of Life Survey. The survey is based upon regional representative sample of 2.797 households. Households with members who lived/worked abroad at any time since January 2004 constitute 4.12% of all households, while households reported receiving remittances in the last 6 months constitute about 7% of all households in the country. The results of the survey show that while only 26.76% of the households are of Albanian origin, 41% of all households with migrants happen to be of Albanian origin. The percentage of such households in rural and urban areas other than the capital city of Skopje is substantially higher than in the capital (7% in rural areas as opposed to less than 1,5% in Skopje).

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