Albanian migrants in Greece: transcending ‘borders’ in development

Abstract

The main argument of this paper is that Albania constitutes one of the cases where economic development needs to go hand-in-hand with the development of a stable and secure political environment. Central to this venture are the mechanisms of trust in a society. In exploring the different approaches towards how Albanians’ trust in political institutions can be restored on a grass-roots level, I consider the role of the Albanian migrant community. In this respect, I move the above argument further by linking Albanian development with the immigration management and experience in the host country. I explore the development of the Albanian labour market and its institutions from two viewpoints: the migrant returnees and the remittances sent by the migrant community. I shall assess the eventuality of return migration using data from recent fieldwork research. This study focuses on Albanian migrant households in Athens, Greek enterprises employing (amongst others) Albanian migrants, and evidence from other literature. I will identify the characteristics of the migrants who seem more likely than others to repatriate according to the above-mentioned household research. Subsequently I will explore the possible effects of return migration on both the host country in question (Greece) and the country of origin. This exploration will lead to the following two linked arguments: first, that the significant qualitative characteristics of the returnees might be devalued without stable socio-political infrastructures; secondly, that the respective functions of the Greek and Albanian labour markets are interconnected. Following that, I consider the relationship between the venture of restoring people’s trust in institutions, thus financing investment-wise the Albanian economy, and the management and experiences of the Albanian migrant community in Greece.