Albanian seasonal work migration to Greece: a case of last resort?

This chapter discusses post-communist migration from Albania to neighbouring Greece, with particular reference to seasonal flows. Albania’s emigration rate as a share of the country’s resident population is amongst the highest in the world, having increased rapidly in the last 25 years from a base of nearly zero during the communist rule. This unique context provides fertile ground to investigate ways in which migration links with development, particularly in post-socialist societies. The research which this chapter is based on is part of such endeavour and stems from the author’s doctoral work. Hosting by far the vast majority of Albanian migrants, Greece has offered them valuable opportunities, while also meting out on them discrimination and exploitation. Amongst the most disadvantaged are seasonal migrants who are often lower-skilled individuals from poor backgrounds in rural Albania, and usually work in the agricultural sector in Greece, at times in deplorable conditions. Through their stories and experiences we begin to understand the reasons behind their decision to take this particular migration trajectory, and its impacts on migrants’ families and areas of origin. The findings have wider application, given the structural demand for agricultural labour as well as rapid ageing throughout industrialised societies

Gender and remittances in Albania: Or why 'Are women better remitters than men?' is not the right question

There are abundant literatures on linkages between migration, remittances and development, between gender and migration, and between gender and development. The missing link in this set of overlapping literatures is gender and remittances. Thus far, some studies have tried to determine whether female migrants are 'better' remitters than men: results are mixed. But this is not the right question. It is more important to explore how gender relations shape the sending, receipt and utilisation of remittances; and how, in turn, the remittance process reshapes gender relations. This paper takes the case of recent Albanian migration to neighbouring Greece one of post-communist Europe's largest cross-border migrations to illustrate how the patriarchal nature of the sending society, Albania, fundamentally shapes both the gendered pattern of migration and its equally gendered corollary, remittances. Based on questionnaire survey (n=350) and in-depth interview (n=45) data from fieldwork in rural south-east Albania and the Greek city of Thessaloniki, it is shown that the male-structured process of migration hardly allows women to remit, even when they are earning in Greece. Typologies of household-to-household remittances are developed. Interview data reveals that migration to Greece, and its attendant remittance flows, does give, within limits, increased agency to women within both the migrant and residual households, but things are on the whole slow to change

Unpacking the ageing–migration nexus and challenging the vulnerability trope

The nexus between ageing and migration throws up a variety of situations. In this paper, we map out the various circumstances in which ageing and migration fuse together as entwined trajectories to produce situations of vulnerability, coping, active ageing and variable well-being. The ageing process is seen to be socially constructed and culturally embedded; hence, place – at ‘home’ or ‘abroad’, or some transnational mix – becomes a paramount structuring variable. Different models of successful ageing compete as migrants move and age in different countries and different cultures; the Western model of individual self-reliance should not necessarily be imposed on ageing migrant populations. In the final part of the article we challenge the prevailing trope of vulnerability applied to the perceived double disadvantage of being both an older person and a migrant, and present four case-studies in which older migrants enact agency and independence to achieve a greater level of material and subjective well-being

‘Home to go’: Albanian older parents in transnational social fields

Albania is one of the countries with the youngest population in Europe, yet concerns for its elderly have rapidly taken centre-stage due to large-scale internal and international migration since 1990. Given that mobility in Albania was extremely limited during nearly half a century of communist rule, adjusting to the new post- communist reality has not been easy for this group. Yet the story of ‘orphan pensioners’ trapped in the vortex of rapid post-communist transformations has gradually made place for the emerging image of the ‘migrating grannies’ who feel rather at home as ‘transnational grandparents’. Drawing on narratives of older people collected during research in Albania over several years, this chapter seeks to examine the impact of transnational migration on their understandings and experiences of ‘home’, ‘home making’ and ageing. Notions of ‘home’ as a locus of intimate relations and multi-sitedness given meaning by emotions, practices and materialities will be discussed alongside politics of gender, class and intra-family relations