Gendered experiences of Albanian migrants in Greece: ‘a life-course perspective’

The overarching aim of this thesis was to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of Albanian migrants in Greece within the home and the work domains, and across their multiple social roles as workers, parents, and migrants. Our analysis was based on 73 biographical interviews with Albanian migrant workers in Greece and returnees conducted in Greece and Albania between March 2014 and May 2021.We adopted the life-course approach in order to explore how the social and the economic lives of Albanian immigrants in Greece were altered and reorganised by the economic crisis. This thesis pays particular attention to the context in which decisions about important life course events were made, and to what extent they were shaped by structural forces and individual agentic actions. By considering how both individual agency and social forces structured migrants’ choices and decisions, this thesis provides an in-depth understanding of their experiences over different life domains.By drawing on the life-course approach, we gained more insights into how the migrants’ life courses were situated within the broader social, cultural, and historical contexts of both the origin and the host countries, and were embedded in and shaped by social institutions and networks. The life trajectories of Albanian migrants in Greece were drastically altered by social and structural factors representing major turning points that influenced their experiences and decisions. These experiences were constantly negotiated and played out in spatio-temporal contexts, while being subject to the intertwining effects of migration, care, gender, and labour regimes