the rise of the albanian migrant woman
TRANSCRIPT
The Rise of the Albanian Migrant Woman: An Exploration of Gender,
Migration, Employment and Household Empowerment.
9, 877
A dissertation submitted by 45103 to the London School of Economics & Political
Science, in part completion of the requirements for the MSc in Gender, Policy and
Inequalities.
September 2015
"I hereby state that this report is my own work and that all sources used are made
explicit in the text"
Acknowledgments
The completion of this dissertation and overall Master’s degree would not have been
possible without the guidance and support of a number of individuals that I am
grateful to have in my life and wish to thank. I would like to thank my parents, for
enabling me to have such opportunities and for inspiring my desire to explore
migration, as a result of the personal sacrifices they have made. I thank Shpetim, for
the implicit inspiration he has given me and for his belief in my abilities, helping me
see the potential in myself. Thanks to Sherife and my friends, who have shared the
highs and lows of this Masters journey with me and have been a pillar of support
throughout. Thank you to my supervisor, Dr. Ania Plomien, who has shown
enthusiasm in my ideas, patience in my work and provided invaluable guidance.
Finally, I thank the Gender Institute, for exposing me to the beautiful complexity of
learning and encouraging me to critique and explore beyond the surface.
Candidate Number: 45103 2
Abstract
‘At first nothing really changed, it was the same, my
husband still expected the same things from me… because
he said it was the wife’s job and not his, whereas now he
knows that his wife works and helps more with the
children.’ (Mirjeta, 29)
Acknowledging the fragmented focus on women’s individual experiences in the
migration literature, and a lack of attention directed at how migration, gender and
employment interact to shape forms of empowerment, this study interviewed five
Albanian migrant women, who shared their subjective experiences of gender,
migration, employment and empowerment. This study sought to explore the complex
relation between these areas and examine the combined effects on Albanian migrant
women’s household bargaining powers; which was treated as an indication of their
sense of empowerment. An analysis of the research findings supported the conclusion
that through an engagement with migration, which in turn opened up opportunities for
economic participation, Albanian migrant women were able to establish greater
bargaining powers within their households and achieved more balanced household
functions, which reflected their heightened empowerment. By providing a platform
for Albanian migrant women to voice the intricacies of their experiences, it was
anticipated that policy actors and non-government organisations could become better
informed when producing polices and services for such groups. However,
acknowledging the limited scope of this study, and its lack of engagement with the
diversity of Albanian migrant women in the UK, it was proposed that future research
should take a broader approach and incorporate a greater awareness of the power of
state policies in shaping the subjective experiences of migrant women in their host
countries.
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Table of Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………. 3Introduction…………………………………………………………………………... 5Literature Review……………………………………………………………………...8
Migration Processes………………………………………………………….. 8Gender Regimes in Albania……………………………………………………….. 10Employment, Bargaining and Empowerment…………………………………… 12
Methodology…………………………………………………………………………15Findings & Discussion……………………………………………………………….18
Gender Regimes in Albania………………………………………………………...18Migration Experiences, Processes and Effects…………………………………..21Employment, Bargaining and Empowerment……………………………………26
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….. …34Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………37
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IntroductionAn overview of the migration literature has often revealed the historical absence of
female migrants in the theory and discourse to emerge from this field. Where women
have been incorporated in more recent literature, their suggested incentives for
migrating, have often taken a passive shape; frequently being represented in their
gendered roles as the mothers, wives, and daughters of the proactive male migrant.1
Whilst some studies have attempted to expose fragments of agency in the motivations,
processes, and outcomes of female migration; little is known of the experiences of
Albanian migrant women residing in the United Kingdom (UK). 2 With the existing
research on Albanian migrants, often focusing on this group’s movement to the
popular neighboring destinations of Italy and Greece, few studies have attempted to
gain insight into the Albanian community in the UK. 3 Further, the potential to
conduct such research has been hindered by the lack of accurate statistical information
on the numbers of Albanian’s migrants in the UK, partly owing to the illegal nature of
much of this migration and the concealment of this specific ethnic group under the
category of ‘White’, in UK data. 4 Moreover, with studies underlining the varying
significance of economic participation in enabling a renegotiation of gender roles and
decision-making capabilities within heterosexual households; there are limited
accounts of the complex relation between migration, gender, employment and
subsequent forms of household bargaining powers. 5
1 Caroline B. Brettell, “Theorising Migration in Anthropology” in Migration Theory: Talking Across Disciplines. ed. Caroline B. Brettell and James F. Hollifield. (Oxon: Routledge, 2015); Erka Caro et al, “Negotiating Between Patriarchy and Emancipation: Rural- to- Urban Migrant Women in Albania”, Gender, Place and Culture 19, no. 4 (2012).
2 Floya Anthias and Gabriella Lazaridis, ed, Gender and Migration in Southern Europe: Women on the Move (Oxford: Berg, 2000); Nicola Mai and Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, “Albanian Migration and New Transnationalisms”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 29, no. 6 (2003).
3 Guy Stecklov et al, “Agency, Education and Networks: Gender and International Migration from Albania,” (Policy Research Working Paper, The World Bank, Development Research Group, Poverty Team, 2008), accessed July 23, 2015, http://datatopics.worldbank.org/hnp/files/edstats/ALBprwp08.pdf
4 Eleonore Kofman, “Female ‘Birds of Passage’ a Decade Later: Gender and Immigration in the European Union”, International Migration Review 33, no. 2 (1999).
5 Michael Bittman et al, “When Does gender Trump Money? Bargaining and Time in Household Work, American Journal of Sociology 109, no. 1 (2003); Jane R. Wilkie et al. “Gender and Fairness: Marital Satisfaction in Two-Earner Couples”, Journal of Marriage and Family Relations 60, no. 3 (1998).
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Seeking to bridge these identified gaps in the research, I aim to explore the subjective
narratives of five Albanian migrant women, maintaining a focus on their migration
experiences, their interaction with the UK labour market and the combined effects of
these experiences on women’s bargaining possibilities within their households.
However, in an attempt to allow flexibility in my analysis and highlight the
complexity between the components that make up the foundations of this study, I
have abstained from selecting a specific theoretical framework through which to
approach my research; instead, I draw on the following areas to further my
understanding. Specifically, I seek to explore Albanian women’s experiences through
what Floya Anthias has described as the ‘threefold positioning of social actors’, which
referrers to the significance of analysing migrant interactions at the level of the
‘homeland’, the ‘country of migration’, and ‘their own ethnic communities’, or in the
case of this study, their private family contexts. 6 Additionally, I refer to the
bargaining models literature to understand the complexity of the relation between
employment and the subsequent effects on women’s roles and empowerment within
their households. In understanding both the private and rather sensitive nature of this
research topic, as well as the scarce presence of Albanian migrant women’s voices in
the existing literature, it was felt that the semi-structured interview method would be
the most effective in justly capturing the rich experiences of such women.
My own subjectivity, as an ethnic Albanian migrant who has encountered the
migration process and settlement in the UK, has expectedly played a part in shaping
the focus of this research topic, which represents an area of personal curiosity and
significance. Moreover, with the more recent political tension surrounding migrants,
both in the UK and the wider European Union, and the scrutinisation of this group by
the mainstream media; a climate has been created where migrant women’s voices,
experiences, and individual histories of transition and empowerment, have been
particularly overlooked. 7 This study thus aims to contribute, through individual
6 Floya Anthias, “Metaphors of Home: Gendering New Migration to Southern Europe” in Gender and Migration in Southern Europe: Women on the Move. ed. Floya Anthias and Gabriella Lazaridis. (Oxford: Berg, 2000),18.
7 Michael Burleigh, “Forget the Greek Crisis or Britain’s Referendum, this Tidal Wave of Migrants Could be the Biggest Threat to Europe Since the War, Writes Michael Burleigh,” The Daily Mail, June 27, 2015, accessed June 30, 2015, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3141005/Tidal-wave-migrants-biggest-threat-Europe-war.html ; Russell King et al, Exploring the Migration Myths: Analysis and Recommendations for the European Union, the UK and Albania, (London: Fabian Society, 2003).
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female insights, an awareness of the complexity of migration, gender, employment
and bargaining powers, together with a final note on the potential policy implications
surrounding these areas of analysis. Whilst this study does not seek to examine
policies surrounding migration and women’s employment specifically, it does aim to
provide an informative illustration of migrant women’s experiences, which may be
employed by policy actors or non-government organisations (NGOs) to inform their
approach and initiatives for this group. Thus, following recommendations by Paul
Dolan and Robert Metcalfe for national governments to incorporate measures of
subjective wellbeing in order to create more tailored social policies, this study seeks
to contribute to these proposals, by exposing women’s subjective experiences of
migration, employment and household bargaining. 8 I return to the implications of the
specific findings from this study in light of proposals for subjective well-being
measures, in my conclusions, where I offer some final thoughts on how policy actors
may incorporate such insights in future.
The subsequent sections of this dissertation consist of a critical literature review that
explores the existing research on the themes of Albanian migration, gender,
employment and household bargaining models. Following on from this, a short
section on the methodology of this study is provided, leading to an analytical
engagement with the interview findings. The same themes that underpinned the
literature review are employed throughout; leading to a conclusive summary of the
research question, the implications of the study, and reflections on the research
process, followed by some recommendations.
8 Paul Dolan and Robert Metcalfe, “Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments”, Journal of Social Policy 41, no. 02 (2012).
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Literature Review
Migration Processes
Migration has long constituted a global phenomenon with very substantive
implications for both the individual who experiences the process of leaving their
homeland; as well as the host society, for whom important decisions on how to
accommodate for a changing political, financial and demographic climate, must be
considered. 9 Whilst migration remains a large and diverse area of study, the inclusion
of women in this arena has lagged behind a predominant focus on male migration.10
Indeed, the concept of ‘migrant’ has often been interchanged with ‘male migrant’,
thus excluding an awareness of women’s capacity to migrate independently, and often
representing women as simply following their male migrant relatives or partners, as
dependents.11 This theoretical interpretation, however, is suggested to have its roots in
an empirical trend, which illustrates that ‘migration is primarily male at the onset and
then becomes gender-equalised over time’.12 Nevertheless, it was only towards the
end of the twentieth century and around the time that women in the Western world
began protesting for female liberation, that migrant women were seen to gain
attention in the field of Migration studies.13 Whilst many studies have since uncovered
evidence of independent female migration, with women said to be migrating for many
of the same economic and political reasons that were formerly driving male
migration; the academic field and the insight gained into this groups rationales and
processes of resettlement, are claimed to be ‘sketchy’ and lack both breadth and
depth. 14
Research findings that highlight a pattern of increased male migration followed by a
more gradual female rate are said to be particularly true for more patriarchal societies,
where men’s occupied roles as the ‘breadwinners’ of the family and the heads of the
9 Dimitra Charalampopoulou, “Gender and Migration in Greece: The Position and Status of Albanian Women Migrants in Patras”, Finisterra 39, no. 77 (2004).
10 Russell King et al, “Gender Migration and Remittances: Evidence from London and Northern Albania”, Population, Space and Place 12, no. 6 (2006).
11 Anthias and Lazaridis, Gender and Migration in Southern Europe: Women on the Move; Charalampopoulou, “Gender and Migration in Greece: The Position and Status of Albanian Women Migrants in Patras”, 79.
12 Guy Stecklov et al, “Gender and Migration from Albania”, Demography 47, no. 4 (2010): 935.
13 Brettell, “Theorising Migration in Anthropology”. 14 Zlotni, 1995 cited in Kofman, “Female ‘Birds of Passage’ a Decade Later”, 270.
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households, are transferred to the context of migration. 15 Indeed, in the case of
Albania, the majority of female migration is understood to occur secondary to that of
men’s, with women primarily migrating for the purpose of joining their male partners
or relatives. 16 Providing some insight into the possible barriers preventing women’s
abilities to migrate independently of their familial ties, the Women, Immigration and
Nationality Group (WING, 1985) highlighted that ‘inhumane immigrant policies and
legislation’, which operate in some countries, are partly responsible for locking
women into a state of dependency to their male partners; arguably depriving women
of their ‘independent status’ as migrants and possible citizens. 17 This points to the
significance of broader state policies in shaping women’s mobility and subsequent
positioning within a society, with the citizenship literature illustrating the additional
barriers traditionally placed against women’s ability to gain citizenship, due to their
absence from the public sphere and confinement to the less regarded private sphere. 18
To provide some historical background on Albanian migration, it is important to note
that the political, social and cultural context of this South East European country, are
particularly insightful areas of analysis, primarily due to the eminent communist
regime19 that operated between the period of 1941 to 1985. 20 Studies that have
explored Albania’s political history have highlighted the significant and myriad
effects of the communist period for understanding the large-scale migration that
followed the year 1990. 21 The severe limitations placed on migration, which became
‘regarded as an act of treason’ for which perpetrators would be subjected to
‘imprisonment and even death’, were lifted after the demise of communism in 1985
15 Stecklov et al, “Agency, Education and Networks: Gender and International Migration from Albania”.
16 King et al, “Gender Migration and Remittances”, 410.17 Cited in Charalampopoulou, “Gender and Migration in Greece: The Position and Status
of Albanian Women Migrants in Patras”, 79.18 Barbara Hobson and Ruth Lister, “Citizenship” in Contested Concepts in Gender and
Social Politics, ed. Barbara Hobson, Ruth Lister and Birte Slim. (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2002); Jennie Munday, “Gendered Citizenship”, Sociology Compass 3, no. 2 (2009).
19 The communist regime of Albania, which spanned over four decades, was governed by Enver Hoxha, a political leader who’s former rule is perceived to be of continued significance for the Albanian people.
20 Russell King, “Across the Sea and Over the Mountains: Documenting Albanian Migration”, Geographical Journal 119, no. 3 (2008).
21 Mai and Schwandner-Sievers, “Albanian Migration and New Transnationalisms”.
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and the countries subsequent turn to democratic governance.22Moreover, this
transition from communism towards an attempt at democracy, was a shift that ignited
great economic and political disorder at various points during the 1990s, whilst the
breakdown of the financial pyramid investment schemes in 1997 furthered the chaos
in the country as almost half of the population suffered from significant monetary
loss; thus adding to the prominence of the external migration which soon followed. 23
The statistical figures put forward for the rate of Albanian migration in the 1990s are
both fragmented and dubious, when it is considered that many Albanian’s migrate
illegally through a range of strenuous routes, with many continuing to remain ‘në të
zezë’24, undocumented habitants, in their host countries. 25 More recent figures taken
from the World Bank in 2013 indicate that there are a total of ‘1,264, 185’ Albanian
migrants across the world, with an approximate eight-four thousand claimed to be in
the UK. 26 Collectively, these historical factors and statistical figures have added to the
relative normalisation of migration for Albanian’s, its large-scale and simultaneous
significance in reshaping the lives and opportunities of vast numbers of the
population, all of which have earned the country its reference as a ‘unique migration
laboratory’. 27
Gender Regimes in Albania
It is important to initially explore the particular gender regime that operates in
Albania, in order to understand the significance of gender in shaping household
interactions. In Albania, however, an exploration of gender is complicated by the
disparities between the northern regions of Albania, where traditional forms of
22 Russell King, “Albania as a Laboratory for the Study of Migration and Development”, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans 7, no. 2 (2005): 134.
23 King, “Across the Sea and Over the Mountains: Documenting Albanian Migration”24 The phrase ‘në të zezë’ is a common Albanian saying used amongst migrants to refer to
the illegal and undocumented nature of their residence and employment in a host country. Many Albanian’s remain in this state until they are granted an opportunity to become registered citizens or nationals of their host country, a process that can span a decade or more, depending on the Immigration law and policies of a particular country and the declaration of the migrant.
25 Zana Vathi, “ New Brits? Migration and Settlement of Albanian-Origin Immigrants in London”. (Working Paper, Sussex Centre for Migration Research, University of Sussex, 2010), accessed on July 15, 2015, https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=mwp57.pdf&site=252
26 “Bilateral Migration Matrix 2013”, The World Bank, accessed July 15, 2015, http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTDECPROSPECTS/0,,contentMDK:22803131~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:476883,00.html
27 Stecklov et al, “Gender and Migration from Albania”, 936.
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patriarchy are most prominent; and the central and southern regions, which are
described as being more gender progressive.28 Nicola Nixon explains that the
observable differences between men and women’s roles may be embedded in the
historical existence of the Kanun: a ‘customary code of laws’ which were practiced
most commonly across Northern Albania, which asserted notions of dominance in
men and secured passivity and the dependency of women. 29 Heterosexuality and the
establishment of a nuclear family are also important aspects of the Albanian gender
regime, with marriage seen to be a necessary route to procreation, and mothers often
loaded with the expectation of giving birth to a son, in order to continue the patrilineal
line of decent. 30 Nevertheless, in the urban cities of Albania, a hybrid of patriarchal
and ‘modern attitudes’ is forming; the legitimacy of which, is arguably rooted in the
awareness of the formal development of Albania’s gender discrimination laws at the
state level, and the ever-present segregation of women from employment and their
allocation to the private sphere. 31 In essence, Albania, can be seen to maintain aims of
addressing women’s strategic interests, without due regard to meeting their initial and
more immediate practical needs, thus women’s realities continue to be largely defined
by ingrained gender traditions. 32
A focus on the communist regime can yield further insight into the complexity of
gender in Albania, with the communist years having a significant, yet divergent effect
on the gender regime of the country. Indeed, during this period women were
commanded to engage in employment, with women’s employment regarded as one of
the highest in the European region by the end of the 1980s; whilst aims to raise
women’s educational levels were similarly achieved, depicted in the altering illiteracy
rate from ‘90%’ during the second world war, to a significantly reduced level of 10
28 King et al, “Gender Migration and Remittances”.29 Nicola Nixon, “ ‘You Cant Eat Shame with Bread’: Gender and Collective Shame in
Albanian Society”, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 9, no. 1-2 (2009): 109.30 Ines A. Murzaku and Zyhdi Dervihi, “Albanians’ First Post-Communist Decade. Values
in Transition: Traditional or Liberal?” East European Quarterly 37, no. 2 (2003).31 INSTAT, “Gender Perspectives in Albania: Population and Housing Census 2001”,
2004, accessed July 13, 2015, http://www.instat.gov.al/media/169453/gender.pdf 32 INSTAT, “Women and Children in Albania: Double Dividend of Gender Equality”,
2007, accessed July 15, 2015, http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/Women_and_Children_in_Albania_english.pdf; Caroline O. N. Moser, “Gender Planning in the Third World: Meeting Practical and Strategic Gender Needs”, World Development 17, NO. 11 (1989).
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per cent by 1989. 33 However, this gender progress at the state and public level, failed
to have a substantial impact on gender roles and responsibilities within households,
where women continued to be governed by patriarchal rule. Following the subsequent
downfall of communism, women’s success in the labour market was almost reversed,
shifting from ‘78 per cent in 1989 to 46 per cent in 2005’, thus returning to levels that
were common prior to communism. 34 Collectively, the co-existence of rigid gender
roles in the private arenas and communist attempts to advance the public role of
women, create a complex understanding of gender, which this study attempts to
explore further through women’s subjective experiences.
Employment, Bargaining and Empowerment
Many of the studies that have explored the development of women’s empowerment,
have taken the relation between employment and increased bargaining powers within
households, as their point of focus. Francisca Antman employs the ‘bargaining power
hypothesis’ to refer to heterosexual households which demonstrate that when a female
partner increases her economic participation to a level that is equal to her partner’s, so
too does the power of her decision making increase. 35 Such bargaining models work
to counter former ‘unitary household models’, which were founded on the assumption
that household resources and decisions were formed and shared equally by all the
household members; thus disregarding an awareness of individual preferences, the
potential conflict of interests, and the differentiated accumulation of, and access to
resources between household members. 36 This awareness is particularly important to
consider in policy terms, as social policies have conventionally assumed a false
equitability in family functions, thus failing to acknowledge the frequent inequalities
experienced by women in male dominated households. 37 However, there appears to
exist an important balance when considering how gender and employment interact to
33 Julie Vullnetari and King Russell, “ ‘Washing Men’s Feet’: Gender, Care and Migration in Albania During and After Communism”, Gender, Place and Culture (2015): 5. accessed July 20, 2015. DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2015.1013477
34 INSTAT, “Women and Children in Albania: Double Dividend of Gender Equality”, 6.35 Francisca M. Antman, “ Spousal Employment and Intra-Household Bargaining Power”,
Applied Economics Letters 21, no. 8 (2014): 561.36 Bina Agarwal, “ ‘Bargaining’ and Gender Relations: Within and Beyond the
Household”, Feminist Economics 3, no. 1 (1997): 2.37 Susan Himmelweit et al, “Sharing of Resources Within the Family and the Economics
of Household Decision Making”, Journal of Marriage and Family 75, no.3 (2013).
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shape bargaining power. 38 If a woman has higher earnings than her male partner, an
adherence to strict gender roles is reignited in an attempt to correct the supposed
‘gender deviance’ in the household. 39 This points to the importance of social norms in
shaping the value and appropriateness that becomes attached to certain actions and
behaviours for the two genders, with cross-country differences adding further
complexity to the forms of female engagements that are constitutive of bargaining
power, and determining what can be bargained over. 40
In the case of Albanian migrant women, studies have highlighted the forms of
employment this group has typically participated in. Specifically, in the neighboring
and more popular immigration destinations of Italy and Greece, Albanian women
have engaged in domestic work, child and elderly care, hospitality and restaurant
work; primarily, the jobs that are associated with poor pay and lower status. 41
Additionally, studies by Zana Vathi’s and King et al have explored Albanian migrants
in the UK and affirm a similar pattern of female labour work in ‘cleaning or catering’,
with these scholars expressing uncertainty over the potential for such employment to
have contributed to women’s sense of agency and household decision making. 42
Importantly, what these two studies highlight is a common predicament in the gender
and bargaining models research; that bargaining power can only function to a limited
extent in the face of stringent gender attitudes and pre-determined norms within
heterosexual households. 43 Nevertheless, in an aim to contribute to the lack of
attention directed at Albanian migrant women’s individual experiences, I explore the
subjective narratives of five Albanian women who have migrated to the UK after
1990, and seek to shed some light on their incentives and processes of migration, their
engagement in employment, and the subsequent implications for women’s household
roles and bargaining. By expanding Anthias’s reference to the ‘threefold positioning
of social actors’, I analyse the seemingly disparate arenas of migration, gender,
38 Karen D. Pyke, “ Women’s Employment as a Gift or Burden? Marital Power Across Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage”, Gender and Society 8, no.1 (1994).
39 Bittman et al, “When Does gender Trump Money? ”, 187.40 Mohammad A. Razzaque, and Ahsanuzzaman, “Intrahousehold Resource Allocation
and Women’s Bargaining Power: New Evidence from Bangladesh”, SSRN (2009), accessed July 14, 2015, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1550559
41 Charalampopoulou, “Gender and Migration in Greece”.42 Vathi, “ New Brits? Migration and Settlement of Albanian-Origin Immigrants in
London”, 9; King et al, “Gender Migration and Remittances”.43 Himmelweit et al, “Sharing of Resources Within the Family”
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employment and empowerment, with the intention of highlighting the complex line of
connection that draws these arenas together. 44
44 Anthias, “Metaphors of Home: Gendering New Migration to Southern Europe”, 18
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Methodology
For the purpose of this study, the semi-structured interview was employed as the
primary method of data collection. This method was chosen on the basis of its ability
to yield first-hand accounts from Albanian migrant women, regarding their
experiences of migration, engagement in employment, household gender relations and
decision-making. 45 Due to the relatively private and sensitive nature of these topics,
the interview method was deemed suitable in allowing for the establishment of
rapport and a ‘non-hierarchal’ relation between the interviewee and interviewer, in the
aim of enabling a secure space for the interviewees’ to share their experiences. 46
Further, unlike the use of closed questionnaires and surveys methods, which limit the
extent of the participants’ free expression; the use of semi-structured interviews
enabled me to maintain some command over the content of the interviews, whilst
equally allowing scope for the interviewees’ to express their individual voices. 47
In order to select the participants, a combination of the snowballing and purposive
sample methods was employed. These sampling methods were deemed to be the most
appropriate given the confidential nature of the topic of study, which in turn can limit
the likely cooperation of randomly selected Albanian migrant women; further, owing
to the fragmented documentation of some Albanian’s in the UK, the use of a random
selection would have also been logistically problematic. 48 As an ethnic Albanian who
is familiar with this ethnic community, I was thus able to contact participants with
greater ease; however, I am aware of the potential biases imbedded in such a selection
process, and have made efforts to remain objective throughout the research process.49
In total, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five ethnic Albanian women
who had: migrated with their families from Albania to the UK since the 1990s, or had
since started a family on arrival; were in some form of employment; and maintained
fluency in English. However, I recognise that by selecting participants on the basis of
their command of English, there is a risk that the type of participant chosen, will be 45 Edith de Leeuw, “Self-Administered Questionnaires and Standardized Interviews” in
The SAGE Handbook of Social Research Methods. ed. Pertti Alasuutari et al. (London: SAGE Publications, 2008).
46 Andrea Doucet and Natasha Mauthner. “Qualitative Interviewing and Feminist Research” in The SAGE Handbook of Social Research Methods. ed. Pertti Alasuutari et al. (London: SAGE Publications LTD, 2008).
47 Uwe Flick, Designing Qualitative Research. (London: SAGE Publication, 2007). 48 Flick, Designing Qualitative Research, 28.49 Nicholas Walliman, Research Methods: The Basics. (Oxon: Routledge, 2011).
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unrepresentative of the wider Albanian migrant women’s community; thus I make
efforts to refrain from making any generalised conclusions. 50 Nevertheless, the
selection of the interview participants based on the criteria above, was a conscious
decision rooted in an effort to ease comprehension and facilitate communication
between the interviewer and interviewee, thus minimising the risk of mistranslation.
To provide a demographic summary of female participants, all five women migrated
from Albania post-1998, were married mothers of two or more children, and were
aged between 29 and 43. They all live in London and were in some form of full or
part-time employment, maintaining a range of positions, such as: General Manager,
Barista, Kitchen Chef, Social Entrepreneur, and Carer/Student. The Social
Entrepreneur was specifically contacted due to her involvement with a London based
Albanian NGO, which offers a range of support services to the Albanian community;
thus this participant was able to provide a broader insight into the experiences of
Albanian migrant women. Collectively, the interview questions were designed to
uncover authentic experiences based around the themes of the research question:
gender relations in Albanian and the UK, migration experiences, employment, and the
potential bargaining powers operating in the present households. 51 I subsequently
analysed the data employing a thematic approach, using migration, employment,
gender, bargaining powers and empowerment as the guiding topics. 52
Moreover, in keeping with the ethical guidelines for social research, I created detailed
consent forms that the interviewees’ were asked to sign and provided verbal
reminders of the participant’s role, how confidentiality and anonymity would be
maintained, and their right to withdraw from the study at any time. 53 To ensure the
participants’ anonymity, all identifying features were removed from written materials,
and names were substituted with pseudonyms. 54 The research documents and data
50 James A. Bovaird and Susan E. Embretson, “ Modern Measurement in the Social Sciences” in The SAGE Handbook of Social Research Methods. ed. Pertti Alasuutari et al. (London: SAGE Publications, 2008), 281.
51 Leeuw, “Self-Administered Questionnaires and Standardized Interviews”52 Carla Willig, “Interpretation and Analysis” in The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data
Analysis. ed. Uwe Flick. (London: SAGE Publications, 2014). 147; Kathryn Roulston, “Analysing Interviews” in The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis. ed. Uwe Flick. (London: SAGE Publications, 2014).
53 Tina Miller and Linda Bell, “Consenting to What? Issues of Access, Gate-Keeping and Informed Consent”, in Ethics in Qualitative Research. ed. Melanie Mauthner et al. (London: SAGE Publications, 2002).
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were kept stored on a personal, password protected USB device, whilst the written
materials were stored in a personal locker.
Findings & Discussion
54 Matt Henn, Mark Weinstein and Nick Foard, A Short Introduction to Social Research. (London: SAGE Publications, 2006): 85.
Candidate Number: 45103 17
In this section, the most significant findings from the interview data are analysed in
light of the existing literature. To maintain continuity and structure, the themes that
were employed in the literature review are transferred here.
Gender Regimes in Albania
In regards to the gender regime and household roles in Albania, all of the migrant
women were unanimous in their depiction of an ingrained division in the expected
roles of women and men in Albanian culture. Connotations of dominance, freedom,
financial and public power, were rooted firmly in the descriptions of men, whilst
women were associated with passivity, domestication, care, and an unquestionable
adherence to their governing husbands, parents, or parent-in-laws. Yllita, a fourty-
three year old Barista, provides a description of her former household role in Albania,
which supports these connotations: ‘I had to get permission from my husband, I
wasn’t allowed to go (anywhere) without asking… I wasn’t allowed to do anything
but clean, cook, clean, cook’. Similarly, Ndrita, a thirty-five year old General
Manager, observes: ‘we had a culture where men are more dominating… they worry
more about their income in the family, whereas the women are more involved in
taking care of the household’. These personal reflections are in line with the an earlier
analysis of gender relations in Northern Albania, in which Ian Whitaker illustrates the
secondary role of women, who were denied the opportunity to voice opinion or exert
agency beyond their role as mothers and wives. 55 Research by INSTAT provides
further support for the ‘inferior’ position of Albanian women, relative to their male
counterparts, who are loaded with the responsibility of being the financial providers
of their households, which in turn is valued more highly than the domestic and care
duties of women, which remain discredited and arguably ensure their lower statuses.56
Further, for Lorina, a Social Entrepreneur who has works with Albanian migrant
women as part of her NGO, the customary independence afforded to men, is
contrasted with the surveillance and the need to shelter women, as she remarks: ‘the
boys have more freedom, in terms of going out… whereas the girls not necessarily, if
they are not accompanied by an adult’. The repeated emphasis on the lack of freedom
55 Ian Whitaker, “ ‘A Sack for Carrying Things’: The Traditional Role of Women in Northern Albanian Society”, Anthropological Quarterly 54, no. 3 (1981).
56 INSTAT, “Women and Children in Albania: Double Dividend of Gender Equality”, 8; Agarwal, “ ‘Bargaining’ and Gender Relations: Within and Beyond the Household”
Candidate Number: 45103 18
granted to females, together with their isolation from the public in order to secure
their rigid allocation to the private sphere of the home, may be an extension of the
attempt to protect family honour in Albanian culture, which has traditionally been
associated with the maintenance of chastity in female family members. 57 Indeed,
Susan Post’s interactions with a diverse range of Albanian women during the 1990s,
affirms the significance of female sexuality in Albanian culture, which was depicted
as a sight of protection and responsibility for the women themselves, as well as their
male relatives, who took it upon themselves to police women’s appearance and
actions. 58 Providing another interpretation, an INSTAT study on the Gender
Perspectives in Albania, draws attention to the implications of the ‘political turmoil’
the country faced during the period of 1990 to 1998, which in turn destabalised the
country’s security, and gave rise to men’s need to protect and in turn regulate women. 59 Nevertheless, these findings may be understood through an awareness of the covert
practices of traditional gender roles which have operated for decades across Albania,
both during the communist period where state efforts to achieve a more egalitarian
regime were underway, and after its demise in 1985; thus illustrating the ingrained
nature of the distinct functions of women and men in Albanian culture. 60
Moreover, the importance of gender imitation in Albanian households is underlined in
the interviewees’ discussions, where imitation is represented as a tool for socialising
children into their appropriate gender roles. Mirjeta, a twenty-nine year old Kitchen
Chef, reiterates: ‘girls were obliged to follow what their mothers were doing, whereas
the boys copied their fathers, depending on what the father did for a living’, whilst for
Valona, a fourty-two year old Student and part-time Carer, a comparable labour
division was acknowledged: ‘I basically stayed home and helped my mum with the
housework, whilst my father and brothers were out working’. Literature examining
the role of parents in the development of children’s gender identities, refers to the
significance of parents’ own demonstration of gender, through their daily role
modeling and attitudinal expressions, as key factors which sculpt the early
57 Nixon, “You Can’t Eat Shame with Bread”58 Susan E. P. Post, Women in Modern Albania: Firsthand Accounts of Culture and
Conditions from Over 200 Interviews. (London: McFarland & Co, 1998).59 INSTAT, “Gender Perspectives in Albania: Population and housing Census 2001”, 26.60 Stecklov et al, “Gender and Migration from Albania”.
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socialisation of children into their conventional gendered roles. 61 In Albanian culture,
where the collective takes precedence over the individual- illustrated poignantly in the
common practice of remittance amongst Albanian migrants- it is accepted that ‘the
family’ constitutes ‘ the strongest influence on the girls’, with mothers often
becoming the educators of their daughters in order to facilitate their transition into
marriage and domestication. 62 Nevertheless, Lorina makes an awareness of the cross-
regional nuances in the Albanian gender regime, which is said to be subject to
‘changes from the villages and the cities, from North and South’, although ‘as a
society, it’s a male dominated society’. This is an important consideration, which has
a bearing on how the particular findings of this research may be interpreted. As the
interviewees in this study consisted of migrant women from the central regions of
Albania, their experiences of gender, migration, employment, and household
empowerment may be presented differently, relative to women originating in
Northern Albania, where strong gender roles continue to maintain a stringent
influence on women and their households, thus possibly shaping alternative pre and
post-migration experiences. 63
Nevertheless, the Albanian gender regime captured in the narratives of the
interviewees, produces a strong contrast to the women’s personal desires to establish
more gender equal households and their recognition of a diminishing adherence to
gender roles amongst their children, who have predominantly grown up in what is
considered to be a more liberal UK context. Lorina’s description of the attitudes of
children of Albanian migrant parents, underlines this point: ‘even children
themselves, they don’t allow themselves to be distinguished by gender… they
question: “why should I do this?”’. Similarly, ensuring that children were exposed to
and practiced more egalitarian divisions of household labour and decision making,
was an important concern for Ndrita: ‘My kids, they both- doesn’t matter if it’s a boy
or girl- they do have the responsibility of tidying the house to make sure they take
care of their own things’. Erka Caro et al’s analysis of Albanian families engaging in
internal migration, highlights a comparable point, in that the daughters of these
migrant women interpreted themselves as being more progressive in both their views
61 Beverly I. Fagot and Mary D. Leinbach, “Gender Knowledge in Egalitarian and Traditional Families”, Sex Roles 32, no. 7/8 (1995).
62 Post, Women in Modern Albania, 13263 Caro et al, “ Negotiating Between Patriarchy and Emancipation”
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and subjectivities, as they sought to mark a break from the patriarchal norms which
governed their households. 64
Migration Experiences, Processes, and Effects
For all of the Albanian women in this study, the reasons given for migrating from
Albania were a collective of familial, social, economic and political factors, with
many interpreting the UK as a land of opportunities that stood in contrast to the
absence of possibilities in Albania. Indeed, Ndrita speaks of her and her husband’s
motivations: ‘we decided to move to England for a better life, better opportunities,
and a better job’, with reference also made to ‘some social reasons, as at the time in
1997 we had a government issue… people were killed for no reason, so it was a very
dangerous situation’. Strengthening an awareness of the economic and political
factors, Yllita reveals: ‘we immigrated because we were poor and we didn’t have any
job or opportunity there (Albania). Plus, we had some conflict when the government
was in transition to a democratic party’. The collective strength of these factors,
together with the life threatening means of migrating, arguably worked to create a
sense of urgency and a need to flee from Albania, which is captured in Lorina’s
description of Albanian migration:
Everyone has put their life in the danger to be able to escape the country, quite a lot of them have travelled on the lorries, or on speedboats.... And I think that this kind of decision, you can take them with your family, only when your family is really in risk and you can’t see any other ways of surviving.
Many of the motivations and strategies for migrating that are captured in these
narratives, mirror the existing empirical work that has classified Albania as being
particularly insightful for an analysis of mass migration. 65 At the heart of many of the
issues illustrated by the interviewees, is the communist regime and its aftermath,
which scholars affirm was a notable period that gave rise to a host of social, economic
and political issues that in turn created varying degrees of impact on the Albanian
population, often reducing the possibilities of individuals to have their basic needs
met in their homeland. 66 Coupled with the limitations on legal migration routes;
migration became a dangerous endeavor, which strengthened its significance in the 64 Caro et al, “ Negotiating Between Patriarchy and Emancipation”65 King, “Albania as a Laboratory for the Study of Migration and Development”66 Derek R. Hall, “Albania: Rural Development, Migration and Uncertainty”, Geo Journal
32, no. 2 (1996).
Candidate Number: 45103 21
lives of those individuals who viewed it as the only liable route out of the
multifaceted turmoil they experienced in their home country. 67
Much like the existing migration literature, which has drawn attention to the lagging
migration patterns of women, who were primarily seen to migrate following the initial
outflow of men, the interview data presented here, affirms a similar gendered pattern. 68 For Yllita, Ndrita and Mirjeta, whilst the potential for migration to lead to ‘a better
life’ played a role in securing their participation, this appeared to represent a
secondary factor to the more pressing influence stemming from the need to join their
husbands, who had migrated before them and were facilitating their partner’s
subsequent arrivals. As Mirjeta puts it: ‘I didn’t really have a reason to migrate…
because of the husband I chose, I was obliged to leave and join him’. In this sense, it
can be argued that for some Albanian women, personal agency is absent when
‘independent migration strategies’ are considered, with women mostly partaking in
migration as a result of pressures from their husbands and their duties as wives, or as
a requirement set by parents in household that do not consist of sons. 69 In an attempt
to identify the types of groups most likely to migrate from Albania, Adriana Castaldo
et al affirm that married women, rather than single women, were more inclined to
deliberate the prospect of migration, whilst on the other hand, the opposite appeared
to be true amongst married and single men. 70
When questioned about their feelings towards the initial prospect of migrating, the
aspirations and apprehensions which occupied this decision, and the ensuing feelings
post-migration; the Albanian women described a range of experiences which
collectively touched on uncertainty, the sense of isolation and loneliness, maintaining
67 Stecklov et al, “Agency, Education and Networks: Gender and International Migration from Albania,”; James F. Hollifield and Tom K. Wong, “The Politics of International Migration: ‘How Can we Bring the State Back In’ ”, in Migration Theory: Talking Across Disciplines. ed. Caroline B. Brettell and James F. Hollifield, (Oxon: Routledge, 2015).
68 Brettell, “Theorising Migration in Anthropology”; Julie Vullnetari and Russel King, “‘Women Here are Like at the Time of Enver (Hoxha)…’Socialist and Post-Socialist Gendered Mobilities in Albanian Society”, in Mobilities in Post-Socialist States: Societies on the Move. ed. Kathy Burrell and Katherin Horschelmann. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
69 Stecklov et al, “Agency, Education and Networks: Gender and International Migration from Albania”
70 Adriana Castaldo et al, “ Who is Most Likely to Migrate from Albania? Evidence from the Albanian Living Standards Measurement Survey”, Eastern European Economics 45, no. 5 (2007): 83.
Candidate Number: 45103 22
fictional ideals of the UK, and experiencing emotionally strenuous familial
separations. Mirjeta captures most of these themes in her personal experience:
In Albania, we always thought that in the UK the life is better. We believed it was a better quality of life, even though we didn’t really know what it was like. But of course, it was very hard at first, because I wasn’t used to being away from my parents. My family is worth a lot to me.
The often fabricated assumptions of UK life, such as the work possibilities and
myriad opportunities, which travel within the Albanian community during the pre-
migration stage, appears to function both as an initial incentive for migrating, and a
simultaneous setback once the reality of being in a culturally, linguistically and
systematically unfamiliar country, becomes apparent at the point of arrival.
Charalampopoulou’s interviews with Albanian migrant women in Greece, highlights a
similar awareness of the elaborate descriptions of host countries, which are often
depicted as a ‘promise land’ by former migrants and the wider community. 71 These
findings may also be reflective of some aspects of ‘chain migration’, whereby the
experiences of migrants residing in a host country, who have accumulated an
understanding of the migration process and settlement, are utilised to encourage the
potential migration of others in the home country. 72 The disjunction between
expectations and reality, however, is mirrored in Lorina’s encounters with numerous
Albanian migrant women at her NGO, as she states:
Quite a lot of people come here, because they think this is a free country where they can get whatever they invest… And then they come here, they face the reality, and sometimes the reality is tough, probably they discover they can’t even work because they don’t have even the permission to work.
Indeed, Albanian migrants desire to enter employment upon arrival to the UK is
poignant, but as Vathi’s (2010) analysis illustrates, the tightening of immigration
policies since the 1990s, has worked to limit the legal pathways into employment and
compounded the formal economic potential for this group, thus arguably placing
barriers for women’s potential to engage in paid work and subsequently establish
forms of household empowerment.73 Additionally, this understanding, points to the
71 Charalampopoulou, “Gender and Migration in Greece”72 Caro et al, “ Negotiating Between Patriarchy and Emancipation”, 48073 Vathi, “ New Brits? Migration and Settlement of Albanian-Origin Immigrants”
Candidate Number: 45103 23
significant role of the political climate, which gives shape to particular state policies
and their approach, either creating or obstructing potential avenues to settlement and
belonging, specifically though access to economic resources such as employment,
which arguably has a bearing on the potential empowerment of migrant women. 74
Nevertheless, these primary misunderstandings and insecurities, eventually become
replaced with more positive affective experiences, as the women recall having
received support from their social networks, the state and NGOs, which in turn eased
their process of settlement, and led the migrant women to increase their engagement
with the host country. For Ndrita and Mirjeta, support in the shape of their network of
Albanian friends, proved to be the most valuable, as they were given guidance by
similar migrant women who had established a greater understanding of the host
society. The utilisation of social networks is recognised as a prevalent way of
migrants gaining more efficient access to employment and relevant support services,
which in turn enhance their sense of belonging in the host country. 75 Conversely, for
Yllita, the state and the British people acted as her source of help, as she reflects:
‘when I came to the UK, the English government helped us a lot. And I felt that I
didn’t have this kind of help from the government or the people in Albania’. It is
important to consider Yllita’s experience in context, as in contrast to much of the
existing literature that reflects the declining state support and access to citizenship for
migrants, Yllita’s expresses a more positive encounter with the state, which may be
explained by the higher state tolerance towards migrants in the decade of 1990,
relative to the reforms that have happened since this time, which have worked to
reduce an acceptance of and access to welfare, for this group. 76 Supporting an
awareness of the withdrawal of government-funded support for migrants, Valona’s
experience reflects the important role occupied by NGOs, which sought to bridge
these gaps in the services available to migrants: ‘I found help from an Albania charity,
there I could take my children to do activities when they were younger and I made
74 Irene Bloemraad et al, “Citizenship and Immigration: Multiculturalism, Assimilation, and Challenges to the Nation-State”, The Annual Review of Sociology 34, (2008).
75 Charalampopoulou, “Gender and Migration in Greece”; Eugenia Markova and Richard Black, “ East European Immigration and Community Cohesion”, (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, University of Sussex, 2007), accessed on July 15, 2015, http://www.jrf.org.uk/system/files/2053-immigration-community-cohesion.pdf
76 King et al, Exploring the Migration Myths; Bastian A.Vollmer, Policy Discourses on Irregular Migration in Germany and the United Kingdom. (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
Candidate Number: 45103 24
friends with the other Albanian women who had been through the same thing as me.’
As Valona illustrates, her engagement with an Albanian charity acted as a gateway to
further facilities, such as childcare and community networking opportunities. The
ability of NGO’s to act as gateways to further facilities and networks, is a key
acknowledgment made by Lorina, who also draws attention to the lack of such nation-
specific organisations prior to 1998, and their subsequent emergence as greater
numbers of Albanian migrants entered the UK:
So you’ve got two times, one was the time before 1998, when there wasn’t any support in the Albanian language… whereas now, this has changed, because there are societies or organisations, such as this NGO, which translate all the knowledge from the UK environment to an Albanian understanding, so people have got a better understanding of mental health, of domestic violence, of employment.
The sacrifice of moving away from one’s family and homeland is countered with the
subsequent opportunities for cultural and personal freedom as well as access to
financial resources, which in turn appears to represent a more desirable alternative,
worthy of the original struggle. Indeed, this is captured by Yllita’s comparison of the
lack of gendered surveillance in the UK relative to Albanian, as she expresses: ‘I miss
my family a lot, but I am more happy because I have more freedom here than back
home. Back home they still judge you- how you dress and how you walk’. This
reasoning is to some extent recognised by Anthias and Lazaridis, who note that
migration can act ‘as an escape route from patriarchal structures’, particularly for
women who have entered a host country where gender is less constitutive of one’s life
choices and possibilities. 77 However, as King et al acknowledge, the status of
‘migrant’ also risks producing an additional layer of ‘oppression’, to the likely
subordination experienced by such women due to their gender, their ‘ethnicity’, and
their belonging to the ‘labouring underclass’.78 Despite these concerns, the emotional
challenge of parting with their loved ones and the familiarity of their country,
appeared to act as a motivational force for the interviewees’, driving their desires to
better themselves, often through employment, in order to justify, both to themselves
and their families, the sacrifices they have made. As Ndrita puts it: ‘I left everyone
behind, I left my parents, I left my friends, I left my country… so I thought at least I
77 Anthias and Lazaridis, Gender and Migration in Southern Europe: Women on the Move, 10.
78 King et al, “Gender Migration and Remittances”, 410
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can do something better for myself’, while Mirjeta expresses: ‘my hopes were that I
would find a job, and create a better life and future’. In a similar vein, King
acknowledges that the very act of migrants remaining in a host country and not
returning to their country of origin, symbolises the success of migration to the
families that the individuals leave behind. 79
Employment, Bargaining and Empowerment
Amongst the five interviewees, three had been involved in some form of employment
prior to their migration to the UK, with Lorina having worked as an Engineer and
later occupying her current role as a Social Entrepreneur in the UK; whilst both Yllita
and Valona had worked on a Farm from the early age of fourteen, until they married
their husbands at the age of twenty, and now work respectively as a Barista and Carer
in the UK. For Mirjeta and Ndrita, their exit from education at the age of eighteen, led
directly to their marriages, and thus they did not engage in employment until arriving
in the UK, where they now occupy roles as a kitchen Chef and General Manager,
respectively. The majority of the women in this study (apart from Ndrita and Lorina)
maintain occupations, which are reflective of former studies of Albanian female
migrants, concentrated in areas of catering and care80. With the exception of Lorina,
whose personal experience of employment appears to have been positive due to the
family support she received in Albania; the remaining four women appeared to
express largely similar views on the role of employment in shaping their household
roles and experiences, irrespective of their dissimilar levels of engagement with
employment during the pre-migration stage.
This may be explained by the understanding that Yllita and Valona’s employment was
based in rural Albania, where such agricultural work constitutes a norm amongst
residents, who are expected to work for the sole purpose of providing additional
financial support for their immediate families. Thus, the significance of such
employment in altering the household roles and bargaining powers of individual
women is arguably reduced. Indeed, Yllita’s explanation of her pre-migration
employment supports this explanation: ‘I am one of nine children in my family, and I
was the third daughter, so I left school when I was fourteen, and my dad had to send
79 King, “Albania as a Laboratory for the Study of Migration and Development”80 Charalampopoulou, “Gender and Migration in Greece: The Position and Status of
Albanian Women Migrants”
Candidate Number: 45103 26
me to work because we had to feed my other siblings’. The above quote reflects the
importance of context, familial relations and social norms in shaping the extent to
which employment correlates with female empowerment. Where employment is an
imposed obligation set by the family and intended for the purpose of financing the
family, the potential for employment to be seen as an individual choice and a personal
benefit is reduced. 81
Therefore, it can be argued that the element of choice is significant in determining
whether or not employment is associated with greater empowerment, as the
experiences of the female interviewees appears to support, it is at the point at which
employment becomes a self-chosen endeavor, intended for personal purposes, that its
ability to increase women’s bargaining powers and alter their household roles,
become more visible. Indeed, Yllita’s personal case would appear to illustrate this
point, as she marks a distinction in her reasons for working in Albanian and the UK:
‘I was always pushed to work when I was a young girl back home, but here (the UK) I
wanted to not stay at home, I wanted to work for myself, to have money for myself
and to not ask my husband for the money’. In turn, this decision to work had a
markedly positive impact on Yllita, as she continues: ‘basically, to work for yourself
makes you happy because you make the money to pay your bills and everything. I
don’t have to ask anyone for the money because I have my own’. In a similar manner,
Valona’s provides the following reason for working in the UK: ‘I wanted to build
some experience and also to earn a little bit of money whilst I was studying’, and she
later recalls that: ‘employment has made me feel more liberated as I released that I
don’t need anyone in order to get by’. Further, Ndrita reports the notable rewards that
have occurred through her paid employment: ‘it makes me feel more valued, like I am
more important… I feel better when I see my children, because then they can also see
that me and my husband share equality, that we are equal’. For Mirjeta, however, her
justifications for working in the UK reflected a combination of external factors, such
as ‘economic reasons and document reasons’, as she was responsible for paying for
the renewal of her Visa; nevertheless, Mirjeta’s interpretation of the impact of her
employment mirrors that of the other women, as she affirms: ‘I feel very good
because I am not tied just to the house and the family… I don’t feel like I am relying
on anyone’.
81 Wilkie et al. “Gender and Fairness: Marital Satisfaction in Two-Earner Couples”.
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Amongst all of the interviewees, therefore, the significance of being able to rely on
oneself financially and dismantle the former relation of dependency to one’s husband,
can be interpreted as a key benefit arising from their engagement in employment. This
finding is supported by the existing literature on bargaining powers, as it is explained
that through their economic participation, women are able to accumulate personal
finances that in turn form a ‘fall back’ for them. 82 Thus, when a decision to remain or
exit a relationship is presented, women’s independent financial assurance enables
them to make a decision based on their best interest, rather than an obligation to
remain in a relationship due to their financial dependency. Moreover, the interviewees
were unanimous in their portrayal of a shift in their household power dynamics;
whilst the type and scale of the household alterations varied, all of the women
appeared to primarily root these changes in their participation in employment.
For some of the women, their economic engagement had a positive effect on the
amendment of gender roles within the household, with their husbands taking on more
of the duties that were traditionally considered to be female tasks, such as childcare
and domestic work. This is supported by Ndrita’s household scenario, as she remarks:
‘Now that I am working full time, the household responsibility is shared with my
husband. So he does have his own responsibilities in terms of food shopping and
making sure that the kids are back from school’. Noting the significance of time in her
comparable experience, Mirjeta states:
At first nothing really changed, it was the same, my husband still expected the same things from me… before he would not look after our daughter, because he said it was the wife’s job and not his, whereas now he knows that his wife works and helps more with the children.
In both cases it appears that the women’s increased involvement in employment,
which has reduced their available time and heightened their economic contributions,
acts as a reasonable justification for the expectation that their husband’s take up more
of the household duties and balance out what were previously the sole responsibilities
of the women. This observation is supported by In-Sook Lim’s earlier study of
82 Tahire Erman et al, “Money-Earning activities and Employment Experiences of Rural Migrant Women in the City: The Case of Turkey”, Women’s Studies International Forum 25, no. 4 (2002); Cecilia Rio, “Whiteness in Feminist Economics: The Situation of Race in Bargaining Models of the Household”, Critical Sociology 35, no. 5 (2012): 675.
Candidate Number: 45103 28
Korean immigrant women, their employment, and the implications for their family
roles, where it is acknowledged that women adopt ‘the politics of appeal’: a method
whereby women instrumentalise their increased tiredness and lack of time due to their
paid work, in an effort to justify the equal housework contributions they expected
their husbands to perform. 83
Nevertheless, whilst for some of the migrant women their engagement in employment
did not appear to greatly alter the share of household duties, it did have a notable
impact on their ability to openly challenge their husbands demands, and exercise their
own views when important decisions were made. 84 As Yllita reflects in her household
scenario: ‘of course he (her husband) is an Albanian man so sometimes he says, “yeah
you can do it”, but then I have the freedom to say. “No, you do it”’. Comparably, in
Valona’s case, her possibility of exerting a preference or an opinion on household
decisions was heightened: ‘my work and studying have given me more power in
decision making…. For example, I have more of a say on if we spend money on a
holiday or fix a room’. Highlighting a change in her husband’s approach to decision
making, Mirjeta reflects: ‘in the beginning, only my husband made the decisions and I
followed what he said, but now we make decisions together’. Supporting an
awareness of the more balanced decision making patterns between Albanian migrant
women and their husbands, Lorina proposes an explanation: ‘I think it is because of
the contributions they (women) make… you share your roles, you share you job, you
share everything so even in decisions you are more empowered as a person’.
However, caution should be taken when interpreting women’s increased levels of
economic responsibility, balanced household contributions, and decision-making, as
essentially representing their empowerment, due to the complexity that operates
between these relations. 85 This is illustrated most poignantly by Yllita’s case, as
whilst her ability to negotiate with her husband on important decisions, such as
purchasing their home, was said to be done with greater ease; her emotional
confession regarding her husband’s gambling problem, illustrates the necessity of this
shift in the household power dynamics, which appear to have come about because of
83 In-Sook Lim, “Korean Immigrant Women’s Challenge to Gender Inequality at Home: The Interplay of Resources, Gender and Family”, Gender and Society 11, no. 1 (1997): 41.
84 Wilkie et al. “Gender and Fairness: Marital Satisfaction in Two-Earner Couples”.85 Pyke, “ Women’s Employment as a Gift or Burden? ”
Candidate Number: 45103 29
her husband’s financial failures, rather than her independent financial gains. As she
declares:
My husband is… a gambler. I am suffering a little bit, but I decided that the mortgage would be under my name so that I can control it…. I have to be in control, one of the reasons is because my husband is a gambler, and the other reason is of course he has changed, he is open minded.
Thus, while Yllita’s heightened economic position as a result of her formal labour
market engagement, may have shaped her control over the household finances, the
true effects of employment and the extent to which this form of household decision
making may be considered as empowerment, is questioned, in the face of her
husband’s personal financial downfalls. Such an insight remains absent from existing
studies of Albanian migrant women, although, Vathi’s study of this group comes
close to acknowledging an increase in gambling practices amongst Albanian migrant
men in London; though the implications of this on the family power dynamics and
gender relations, has not been sufficiently explored. 86 Conversely, Erman et al point
to some husbands decision to make their wife’s responsible for the handling of money
due to their greater efficiency with maintaining ‘the family budget’, irrespective of
their wife’s employment status; thus complicating the extent to which the simple
handling of money constitutes a form of household empowerment for women, and
highlights the significance of context in shaping empowerment. 87
Moreover, as all of the interviewees were mothers, each one spoke passionately of
migration as a gateway to opportunities that would benefit the wellbeing and future
livelihoods of their children. Specifically, Valona asserts that ‘my main ambitions
were for my children to be educated and succeed in a career when they get older, so
they could have a better standard of life’. As Yllita implies, the pleasure derived from
her engagement in formal work, appeared to occur after her primary duties as a
mother, loaded with the responsibility of providing care for her children, had been
accomplished and the children were old enough to not require full time support: ‘I am
very happy to be working in this moment, because my children have grown up as
well, so I am more free than when I was younger’. To a similar extent, from her
86 Vathi, “ New Brits? Migration and Settlement of Albanian-Origin Immigrants”87 Erman et al, “Money-Earning activities and Employment Experiences of Rural Migrant
Women”, 401.
Candidate Number: 45103 30
experiences of working with migrant women, Lorina reinstates the centrality of
children in Albanian women’s sense of fulfillment, stating: ‘the women are quite
happy now that they can earn their own money, they are working, and they are better
role models for their children’. Additionally, Ndrita affirms ‘it made me feel good
coming home and making sure that I can provide some income to my children and my
husband, and then our lives can be different’. This may suggest that the potential
sense of empowerment women gain from their engagement in employment is valued
to the extent that it enables women to strengthen their ability to provide for their
children, in their role as mothers. Erman et al’s comparable study, supports the
altruistic nature of the empowerment experienced by the Turkish migrant women in
their study, and draw attention to the importance of maintaining a diverse
interpretation of empowerment, which goes beyond an individualist, Western feminist
understanding: maintaining more cultural sensitivity. 88 However, Agarwal draws
attention to the common altruistic tendencies of women when engaging in household
bargaining, and their concealment of more personal preferences, which arguably
lowers the weight of their bargaining power and in turn questions the extent to which
altruistic bargaining of this kind can shape individual empowerment. 89
Literature on women’s negotiations of household bargaining powers as a result of
their increased engagement in employment, has also drawn attention to the adverse
effects that can arise from women’s attempts to enter male dominated spheres such as
employment, and create more egalitarian households. 90 In the case of Yllita, it appears
that her exposure to more equal forms of gendered behaviour, social norms and
female employment in the UK, has contributed to the sense of threat her husband feels
towards his masculinity and dominance, as he is suggested to frequently remark:
‘because you are in the UK, you think you can do whatever you want’. Moreover,
whilst noting a ‘power shift’ in households where Albanian migrant women have
begun to undertake some form of paid employment, Lorina also stresses that ‘we see a
lot of increase in domestic violence as a result’. These two quotes are insightful, as it
has been understood that when gender relations alternate drastically, specifically
88 Erman et al, “Money-Earning activities and Employment Experiences of Rural Migrant Women”; Leslie C. Gates, “The Strategic Uses of Gender in Household Negotiations: Women Workers on Mexico’s Northern Border”, Bulletin of Latin American Research 21, no. 4 (2002).
89 Agarwal, “ ‘Bargaining’ and Gender Relations: Within and Beyond the Household” 90 Pyke, “ Women’s Employment as a Gift or Burden? ”
Candidate Number: 45103 31
within household contexts that were formerly governed by patriarchy; men may
reassert or even exaggerate what are deemed to be traditional masculine
characteristics, such as dominance, control, and even physical power, in an attempt to
revive their superior gender position over women. 91 Similarly, studies exploring the
relation between women’s employment and their subsequent household bargaining
powers, assert that as women’s earnings surpass that of their male partners, the
division of housework declines, as men refrain from engagement in an effort to
reinstate more conventional gendered divisions of labour; thus indicating the
limitations of employment in altering women’s potential household bargaining and
empowerment. 92
The hierarchical gender relations that have traditionally, and arguably continue to
prevail, in the rural areas of Albania, are contrasted with the heightened sense of
equality and liberty the interviewees’ experience in their current UK households. The
disparity between one’s former life and their more present experiences is illustrated in
Yllita’s description of her decision-making possibilities at the pre- migration stage,
during the time in which she resided with her husband and his parents: ‘I wasn’t
allowed, for example, to say that I wanted these sofas or wanted the room like this,
because it was the father-in-law, then the mother-in-law, then your husband, then you;
so I never made a decision’. In a similar vein, Mirjeta’s reflection on her household
role in Albania, reinstates an awareness of the levels of authority: ‘If I wanted to do
something, I would speak to my mum and then with my dad, before I could do it. We
would make plans, but at the end, it was my father who decided’. This quote
emphasises the lack of influence some Albanian women maintained in their homeland
and specifically amongst the members of their own or their husband’s household,
where a wife and daughter’s low status limits her ability to express a preference or
voice a request. When compared to the current subjective positions the Albanian
migrant women occupied in the UK, with many repeating the term ‘I have more
control’, ‘more power’, ‘I feel more important’, and ‘I can do anything on my own’; it
91 Valentina Calderon et al., “Forced Migration, Female Labour Force Participation, and Intra-household Bargaining: Does Conflict Empower Women?”, (MICROCON Research Working Paper, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 2011), accessed July 17, 2015, http://www.microconflict.eu/publications/RWP56_VC_MG_AI.pdf
92 Himmelweit et al, “Sharing of Resources Within the Family”
Candidate Number: 45103 32
can be argued that a transition has occurred in the roles and responsibilities of these
women within their households, for which the combined effects of migration and
employment may be the likely cause.
In summary, the Albanian migrant women in this study speak of gains: in the familial,
relational, materialistic, and personal sense. These gains appear to correlate with the
women’s migration to the UK and their process of settlement; with the majority of the
women acknowledging that their household roles began to change as their time in the
UK increased, as they began to assimilate with the host country, and more
significantly, as they took part in paid employment. Ndrita’s story is illustrative of
this transition and ties together gender, migration and an opening to new forms of
household relations:
Before if there was cleaning that needs to be done a man wasn’t expected to do that… whereas now we don’t have those kinds of divisions, he (her husband) is expected to do everything. I think one of the reasons for the difference, is that we are both working now, but also it is the culture (in the UK) as well.
Additionally, these gains frequently stand in stark contrast to the experiences of
gender, household roles and employment in Albania during the pre-migration stage,
thus adding further validity to the suggestion that the combined effects of migration,
and a more prominent engagement with the labour market, has allowed the migrant
women in this study to renegotiate their household bargaining powers. However, it
remains important to consider these shifts in household patterns and processes as
complex consequences, sculpted by migration, exposure to a more gender egalitarian
cultural context, and an engagement with employment, which have varying levels of
impact on the establishment of Albanian migrant women’s sense of household
empowerment.
Conclusion
The study sought to examine the combined effects of gender, migration and migrant
women’s employment practices, on women’s household bargaining powers, which in
Candidate Number: 45103 33
turn could be interpreted as an indication of their empowerment. Acknowledging the
fragmented literature dedicated to these topics: with studies of migration having
historically portrayed females as dependents stripped of their independence; and
studies of women’s employment and household bargaining powers, similarly
abstaining from an awareness of how migration and gender regimes may shape such
engagements; a need for a combined analysis of gender, migration, employment and
empowerment, was highlighted. Providing an academic space for the projection of
migrant women’s personal reflections on their route towards empowerment, was also
deemed critical in light of the growing hostility towards migrants in the UK political
arena and mainstream media, for which a reduction of mobility has become the most
prominent response93. Following Anthias proposal of exploring social actors at
varying positions, such as during the pre-migration stage in their home country, the
post-migration stage in their host country, and in their more recent communities; this
study examined Albanian migrant women’s in the three contexts described above, and
attempted to draw a line of connection between these different spheres94.
As a result, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five Albanian migrant
women who resided in the UK with their families, had been participating in
employment, and were able to share their personal experiences in order to illustrate
the complex interweaving of gender, migration, employment and the effects on
empowerment. The findings of this research highlighted both the complexity of
individual experiences and their contextual nuances, whilst also illustrating the shared
experience of transition: from a gender traditionalist and restrictive pre-migration
state, to a more proactive, liberating and relatively empowered post-migration
positionality. Whilst each woman reflected diverse narratives of struggle, sacrifice,
challenge and change, all five women were equally unanimous in their recognition of
the significant role of employment in securing their greater bargaining and decision
making possibilities within their current households. Although the forms of their
empowerment differed, it can be said that these women’s involvement in migration,
which acted as an exit from the more oppressive gender regime in their home country,
and a gateway to opportunities for greater economic participation, within a
perceivably more progressive society; represented a shared experience amongst the
women. Thus, the findings from this study support the conclusion that rather than
93 Vollmer, Policy Discourses on Irregular Migration94 Anthias, “Metaphors of Home: Gendering New Migration to Southern Europe”
Candidate Number: 45103 34
examining how employment sculpts women’s household bargaining powers and
empowerment in isolation; it is worth considering the combined influence of
migration, gender and employment in the establishment of an enhanced sense of
empowerment.
In light of these findings, it is important to consider the implications for policy actors
and NGOs seeking to work with, or target policies towards Albanian migrant women.
Firstly, as highlighted by the depiction of a relatively positive transition and enhanced
sense of empowerment for the migrant women in this study; recent government
proposals to curb migration and limit the pathways to employment, poses a threat to
the possible establishment of empowerment for other migrant women. 95 Additionally,
recognising that migrant women have historically been treated as dependents in state
laws, as well as having traditionally been limited in their economic participations due
to their gender; migration policies which seek to reverse the opportunities for migrant
women to enter and engage in a host countries labour market, may work to lock
women in oppressive situations. This can be of detriment, not only to the women’s
sense of self, but also to the a nation states ability to enhance gender equality,
encourage a more balanced labour market, and benefit from the economic
contributions of this potentially untapped resource of people. 96 Secondly, as the work
of Donald and Metcalfe illustrates, an awareness of the subjective experiences of
migrant women, such as those explored in this study, can be of benefit to policy actors
or NGO’s that wish to produce more effective policies and services for such groups. 97
Although the practical incorporation of subjective well-being measures of this kind,
have reasonably been questioned; the results of this study illustrate the significant
scope for greater understanding and more bespoke policy responses, that can emerge
when migrant women’s voices are heard.
Finally, reflecting back on the research process, the most prominent limitation to
emerge is an awareness of the lack of diversity in the participant sample and the small
sample size used, which in turn produced data that could not be generalised to the
wider Albanian migrant women’s community in the UK. Additionally, future studies
may benefit from incorporating the subjective experiences of other household
95 Brettell, “Theorising Migration in Anthropology”96 King et al, Exploring the Migration Myths. 97 Dolan and Metcalfe, “Measuring Subjective Wellbeing”
Candidate Number: 45103 35
members, in order to better contextualise women’s experiences and examine a
potential disparity between different genders and generations; whilst a more detailed
engagement with the changing Immigration policy in the UK and Europe may create
opportunities to examine how migration experiences are shaped by wider state
ideologies.
Candidate Number: 45103 36
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