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

Abstract

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