Mirlinda Qerama Caton and Dr. Mark Choate, History
When communism collapsed in Albania, in 1991, thousands of men and women left the country in search of a better life. This migration flow increased the trafficking of Albanian women exponentially into Western Europe. In addition, it was also associated with high levels of discrimination for Albanians in Western countries.
The purpose of my research was to uncover the primary factors that contributed to the marginalization of Albanian women in Western Europe, a direct consequence of this vast migration flow. Unfortunately, according to my research, many of the intervening variables that lead to marginalization, originated from aspects of spousal relationship. How women perceived their duties in the home, often determined how aware they were to possible discrimination and exploitation. Women with lower education and more rural backgrounds, were more likely to be in patriarchal relationships with their husbands, or more likely to view possible relationship to men in terms of patriarchy. Additionally, women from rural areas were more accepting of the patriarchal role and their own marginalization in and outside the home. Hypotheses to be tested:
1. Why are the Albanian women mostly hired in the domestic sphere in Italy and Greece?
Through my interviews with Albanian women in Albania, Greece and Italy, I found that: Many women who had college degrees, could not equivalent their diplomas in Greece or Italy due to language barriers. As a result of unemployment in Greece and Italy, they could not find the job they desired, and the only option was the domestic sphere. Three of the women interviewed who had finished a medical degree, were able to find a job in their profession in Greece, whereas others could not. One of the participants finished her Bachelors degree in Sociology in Albania, but could not equivalent her diploma “since the Albanian diploma was not recognized in Greece.” Other women, who did not have a college degree, were looking to find a job. The only jobs they could find were cleaning houses or taking care of the elderly. Some of the women, when interviewed, commented: “In Greece even Greeks have hard time finding a job!”
I also interviewed some Roma Albanian women, who said that the reason they could not find a job abroad was because they were Roma. Thus, my assumption that the citizenship was the major factor contributing to the marginalization of Albanian women abroad, was not fully supported. Other factors, such as race and age played an important role in this process.
2. How has this phenomenon affected the economy of these countries and the economy of Albania?
I found out that this migration flow has had huge impact on the economy of Albania and the one of Italy and Greece. First, many of the women who had left alone, were able to send money and help their own families in Albania. In addition, the economies of Italy and Greece fulfilled the supply for work in the domestic sphere, which was not as desirable by Italians and Greeks. Through the interviews, I also found out that the migration of women, often accompanied by school age children, has caused problems in the continuity of family and social life in Albania. From the cohort of women who had left Albania with their kids, there was not a significant weakening of the family structures. In most of these cases, husbands were supportive and patient. Other women who had left alone, seemed to have more troublesome relationships. One of these women volunteered to say, “My husband and I factually divorced; we just do not want to make it official.” Another woman testified: “I left to Greece three years ago, and since my visa expired, I could not go home to see my husband. Because my husband was Muslim, he could not get a visa to go to Greece. He bought a visa, but they returned him home as soon as he passed the border. One day he called me and said that if I did not return home within a week, he would leave for another woman. I decided to go back to Albania.” From these interviews, my hypothesis, that the migration of women has weakened social structures, was partially supported.
3. What are some major reasons pushing a great number of the Albanian women into prostitution?
Due to risk factor, I did not interview prostitutes. However, I consulted the non-governmental organizations such as the Advice Center for Women and Girls, Women’s Center and the Women Advocacy Center. According to these NGOs, some of the reasons that might push Albanian women into prostitution are the poor economy and the easy exploitation of girls, who flee abusive families, but have no way to live independently. However most of the victims do not have any idea of what is going to happen to them, and very few are allowed to leave the business. The majority is forced to remain in the business.
Pasquale Lupoli, head of the International Organization on Migration in Kosovo, argued that increasingly strict immigration laws in the West were partly to blame. “On the one side you have an increasing trend of migration or movement of people. On the other side you have fewer possibilities for legal migration. The combination of the two factors makes it possible for this new network. People are lured to better jobs, and become easy victims of such a trade.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/761183.stm
Even though the interviews provided answers for the hypotheses, they also brought new insights that I would briefly like to discuss. Throughout my interviews, I noticed that women with degrees of higher education were more aware of domestic abuse and less inclined to accept patriarchy. Most of these women were not scared of being recorded.
Other women, mostly from the provinces of Albania, who had migrated to Albania and Greece, tended to be less aware of different forms of abuse and more inclined to accept patriarchy. For example one of the interviewed women said: “I am grateful to my husband for what he provides in our family. He works hard and gets home very late. To show gratitude, I do not mind preparing his dinner and sometimes, wash his feet.” She wanted to make it clear that he did not force her to wash his feet; she said she did that because she wanted to show love and gratitude. Women from the lower strata were more suspicious of being recorded and were scared that their husbands would find out.
My other assumption in this research was that citizenship played the major role in the marginalization of Albanian women in Greece and Italy. Through the interviews, I found out that this hypothesis was not fully supported. Additional factors such as race and age played a very important role. For example, one of the women interviewed said that she was marginalized not because she was Albanian, but because she was Roma. Also, the women under 25 years old were more satisfied when it came to job finding than women over forty. Thus age and race, in addition to citizenship might be contributing factors to the marginalization of Albanian women.
Methodology
This research included field work of two months in Albania, Greece and Italy. I interviewed a total of 60 Albanian women, between the dates of May 15 and July 25, 2003. The interview length was supposed to be between 25 and 30 minutes each, however, there was some fluctuation in these lengths. A few interviews lasted an hour and a few lasted ten to fifteen minutes. Many of the persons I interviewed, I arranged through relatives and friends in Greece. Some subjects were illegal and legal migrant women employed in the domestic sphere and employed in the clothing industries. Some subjects came from higher social-economic backgrounds. In addition, through my mother, who is a member of a Health Women NGO in Albania, I met with various leaders and members of NGOs in Tirana. These women represented women, who migrated and then returned home to Albania. Within this group were women whose husbands were abroad and young women who had completed a University degree from either Albania or Greece.
The interviews were primarily individual and anonymous unless the participant authorized the mention of her name. Some women insisted on conducting the interviews where their husbands could listen to the interviews. The differences between these interviews and the anonymous interviews were noted as were their reasoning for this environment. To this, I added my own observations, based on my understanding of the culture. No interviews were conducted with vulnerable women. I informed all subjects on the purposes of my research, and let them know that they were taking minimal risks by participating in these interviews. These risks included providing information on possible sensitive issues, such as salaries, age and legal status. I taped some of the interviews and could not do this for other interviews, because some of the participants did not agree to be interviewed. The research on Albanian prostitution was based on native sources, US and International NGOs.
My assumption in this research was that citizenship plays the most important role when it comes to hiring Albanian women. In order to counter possible spurious effects, I also noted the subjects’ age and race, which could have played a major role in the hiring of these women. The sample frame consisted of Albanian women age 19 or older who lived in Albania, Greece and Italy. I studied and interviewed women from the ages of 19 to 30 years old, and women from the ages of 30-60 years old. I interviewed gypsy Albanian women, and Caucasian Albanian women, women from 19-30 years old and women from 30–60. I chose two samples: A group consisted of women who were living and working in Greece, and the other consists of women who have never left Albania. I treated this group as if they were part of a static-group comparison design. I compared variables (salaries, income, consumption, age, race), to see whether these groups were comparable. This included Albanian migrant women living in Greece and Italy, and Albanian women in Albania.
The idea of the following table is to understand how much a particular pattern of ideas or behavior is shared by members of a culture, how collective it is, and how legitimate they think it is. I took a note of whether the participant volunteered the statement, or if it was engineered by me. Similarly, I conjectured that statements and behaviors that are volunteered are more likely to be part of the shared, collective culture, than statements that are engineered by the researcher.