Identity Check: Smart Borders and Migration Management as Touchstones for EU Readiness and EU Belonging

Following the Second World War Europe has witnessed profound transformations in the way European states try to regulate cross-border movements of people. The emergence of so-called smart borders and the concept of migration management are very important developments in this respect. This chapter discusses these innovative approaches and concepts in migration governance as important milestones of the EU accession process of two close European neighbours to the EU: Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Citizens of these two countries recently have been allowed to travel to Schengen states without a visa, provided they have biometric passports. Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina still feature prominently in EU discussions concerning migration, asylum, refugees, and the return of migrants and refugees. As a consequence, the EU has been using a set of measures to exert influence on the two countries, their state-building efforts, institutional reforms, and, in particular, their border and migration control strategies. This chapter vividly demonstrates the close link between migration as a process, the political attempts to govern/manage migration and borders, and, at the same time, the extent to which migration policies are embedded in, and, as well, form vital components of more overarching attempts of recreating order, peace and structure and determine the EU process

Gendered relations and filial duties along the Greek-Albanian remittance corridor

Remittances stand at the heart of the migrationdevelopment debate. However, they are overwhelmingly considered in financial and economic terms, neglecting important dimensions, such as gender and patriarchal family structures. This article contributes to rectifying this oversight by analyzing flows of remittances resulting from Albanian migration to neighboring Greece. We draw on a detailed questionnaire survey with 350 remittance-recipient households in rural southeast Albania and 45 in-depth interviews with a selection of these respondents and with remitters living in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. We found that gender is interlinked with generation and life-course stages within the context of Albanian patriarchal norms and that remittances are shaped accordingly. Although remitting to older parents is a filial duty for unmarried sons, upon marriage only the youngest son has this responsibility—other sons send small amounts as tokens of respect and love. Sending remittances is overwhelmingly seen as a “male thing.” Single young women rarely migrate on their own for work abroad. Meanwhile any remittances sent by married daughters to their parents are considered “unofficial,” referred to as “coffee money.” Within nuclear households, some increased power-sharing among husband remitters and wife recipients takes place. However, the latter are far from passive recipients, since they struggle to combine caring for children and the elderly with farmwork or day labor. We conclude that a deeper understanding of how remittances are gendered can be gained by placing their analysis within the migratory and sociocultural context into which they are embedded.ecge_1128 393..42