Homeland (Dis)Integrations: Educational Experience, Children and Return Migration to Albania

Abstract

Based on empirical research conducted in Albania, this article reports that educational experience and performance, and hence, integration of the children of (returned) migrants in their parents' homeland is obstructed by structural factors linked to the educational system. A finding such as this challenges the centrality of an essentialized notion of ethnicity in models of “second generation” integration and evidences the centrality of the nation‐state, and the education system as one of its pillars, in the integration of migrants and their children. Comparative integration context theory appears to apply to the integration of children of returned migrants; yet it needs to take into account the mobile lives of migrants and their children, the transnational disjuncture between different educational systems, and the role of locality within the nation‐state. Moreover, including children in analyses of integration, in the context of education, calls for the inclusion of life‐course and scale in integration theories.

Choosing Unauthorized Migration: Evidence from Return Migrants

“…However, circular migration is commonplace in Albania: repeated stays abroad interceded by returns to the country (Stampini, Carletto, and Davis, ; Vullnetari, ; see Vathi, Duci, and Dhembo, for a discussion of the challenges of returning migrants in Albania). When working abroad, the majority of Albanians work in low‐skilled and unskilled sectors of the economy, often in the informal economy.…”

Youth mobilities, crisis, and agency in Greece: Second generation lives in liminal spaces and austere times

“…Additionally, the subthemes that emerge in the analysis illuminate the issue of noncapital investment in education, taken by first generation migrants in Greece, a topic that has been examined elsewhere (Michail, 2009), the issue of transnational mobility among the sending and the host country (Michail, 2013;Michail & Christou, 2016), as well as the issue of return (Vathi et al, 2016). Taking into account that, "possessing mobility capital is an antecedent of advantage, just as assuredly as social and cultural capital are" [and that] "the opportunities for mobility are far from uniform: the wealthy and privileged enjoy many more opportunities for being on the move than the poor" (Gulson & Symes, 2017, p. 126), how is migrant youth agency shaped by family views regarding investment in education?…”

Editorial Introduction: The Shifting Geopolitics of Return Migration and Reintegration

“…Grosa and King capture these by utilising a multi-stakeholder analysis involving children, parents and teachers. This post-communist Baltic state, which became an EU country in 2004, offers a rich context for the analysis of how children experience the geopolitical dimensions of their context of reintegration through teachers’ attitudes and the ideology of the education system (see also Grosa, 2022 ; Vathi et al, 2018 ). The key contribution of their paper is its evidence on the importance of the preparedness (Cassarino, 2004 ) of ‘returnee’ children and the role of schools in reintegration.…”