Gender and Labor Market Experiences of Albanian Immigrants in Greece

Abstract

The fall of the communist system, along with the transition from a centrally-planned to a market-oriented economy, unleashed
massive migration of people from Eastern to Western Europe. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Albania, a country which in a
space of two decades has gone from having no emigration to one in which at least 20 per cent of its citizens live abroad. During four and
a half decades of communist rule (1945–1990), the government of Albania imposed one of the strictest migration controls in the whole
former communist bloc, and perhaps in the world. This state of ‘no migration’ would come to an end in the early 1990s, when the
dictatorial regime in Albania, as elsewhere in Eastern Europe, collapsed, fostering a large-scale flight of Albanians to Western countries.
In the years to come, unprecedented numbers would follow, moving in particular to Greece, where Albanians are by far the largest
migrant group, and Italy, where they now constitute the second largest immigrant group after Romanians. This article examines through
the gender lens the labor market adaptation of Albanian migrants in Greece. I argue that in order to understand Albanian labour market
adaptation, we need to examine the economic environment of their socialist past. This, I suggest, provides a better framework within
which we can fully understand labour market experiences of Albanians in Greece, although, of course, the particular structure and
demands of the Greek economy also play a vital role.