The intersections of gender and generation in albanian migration, remittances and transnational care

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The Albanian case represents the most dramatic instance of postcommunist migration: roughly 1 million Albanians, one quarter of the country's total population, are now living abroad, most of them in Greece and Italy, with the UK becoming increasingly popular since the late 1990s. This paper draws on three research projects based on fieldwork in Italy, Greece, the UK and Albania. These projects have involved in-depth interviews with Albanian migrants in several cities, as well as with migrant-sending households in different parts of Albania. In this paper we draw out those findings which shed light on the intersections of gender and generations in three aspects of the migration process: the emigration itself, the sending and receiving of remittances, and the care of family members (mainly the migrants' elderly parents) who remain in Albania. Theoretically, we draw on the notion of 'gendered geographies of power' and on how spatial change and separation through migration reshapes gender and generational relations. We find that, at all stages of the migration, Albanian migrants are faced with conflicting and confusing models of gender, behavioural and generational norms, as well as unresolved questions about their legal status and the likely economic, social and political development of Albania, which make their future life plans uncertain. Legal barriers often obstruct migrants and their families from enjoying the kind of transnational family lives they would like.

Albania on the Move : Links between Internal and International Migration

“…Women joined later, and children were either born there or brought from Albania (see also King & Vullnetari 2009). Although the aim continued to be capital accumulation, in real terms migration had all the signs of a semi-permanent settlement.…”

“…-Demographic composition Although migration started off as a typically male-led phenomenon -that is, men migrated first and then women followed (see also King & Vullnetari 2009) -it has resulted in a more balanced picture in recent years. Referring back to Table 3.2, we see that women constituted only 17 per cent of Albanian immigrants in the 1998 regularisation, but this figure rose slowly to 19 per cent in the 2004 residence permits, was at around 20 per cent for the next two years, climbed to over 30 thereafter to reach 40 per cent in 2010.…”

Transnational Family Money: Remittances, Gifts and Inheritance

“…The gendered norms about money, gifts in kind and inheritance in the family are reproduced in the migrant setting. We are building on recent work on gender, migration and remittances (Piper 2005, Mahler and Pessar 2006, Wong 2006, Ghosh 2009, King and Vullnetari 2009. In patrilineal societies, sons are expected to send money home to their families.…”

Diasporic youth identities of uncertainty and hope: second-generation Albanian experiences of transnational mobility in an era of economic crisis in Greece

“…In recent years the broad theme of gender and mobility has proved to be of vital interest to an emergent interdisciplinary migration studies scholarship (King & Vullnetari 2009, Baldassar & Gabaccia 2011, Vaiou 2012, Oso & Ribas 2013. This paper explores various dimensions of this topic from an ethnographic perspective.…”