Analysing the post-1990 Albanian migration to Italy, this text is a study of one of Europe's newest, most dramatic yet least understood migrations. It explores the dynamics of this migration and takes a look at migrants' employment, housing and social exclusion in the country, as well as the process of return migration to Albania.

This is the first major book on Albanian migration, the most significant East-West migration since the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Prevented from leaving their country for over 45 years, the citizens of the Republic of Albania emigrated en masse during the 1990s and the exodus continues. According to the 2001 census, one in five Albanians was a migrant living abroad, mainly in Greece and Italy but also, and increasingly, in a range of other European countries and in North America. The volume offers a comprehensive and integrated understanding of Albanian migration, addressing its temporal and spatial dynamics, its diversity of types and destinations, and the implications of the migration for Albanian society and economic development. Its contributors comprise key researchers on Albanian migration from around the world. The book reflects the wide diversity of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches deployed by researchers studying this phenomenon.

Includes statistics.

This open access book draws on award-winning cross-generational research comparing the complex and life-changing processes of settlement among Albanian migrants and their adolescent children in three European cities: London (UK), Thessaloniki (Greece), and Florence (Italy). Building on key concepts from the social sciences and migration studies, such as identity, integration and transnationalism, the author links these with emerging theoretical notions, such as mobility, translocality and cosmopolitanism. Ethnic identities, transnational ties and integration pathways of the youngsters and adults are compared, focusing on intergenerational transmission in particular and recognizing mobility as an inherent characteristic of contemporary lives. Departing from the traditional focus on the adult children of settled migrants and the main immigration countries of continental North-Western Europe, this study centres on Southern Europe and Great Britain and a very recently settled immigrant group. The result is an illuminating early look at a second generation “in-the-making”. Indeed, the findings provide ample grounds for pragmatic and forward-looking policy to enable these migrant-origin youngsters, and others like them, to more fully attain their potential. The book ends with a call to reassess the term “second generation” as it is currently used in policy and scholarly works. Children of migrants seldom see themselves as a particular and homogeneous group with ethnicity as an intrinsic identifying quality. More importantly, they make use of all the limited resources at their disposal, and view their integration processes through broader geographies – showing sometimes a cosmopolitan orientation, but also using localized reference points, such as the school, city, or urban neighbourhood.

How do migrants express and imagine themselves through musical practice? How does music help them to construct social imaginaries and to cope with longings and belongings? In this study of migration music in postsocialist Albania, Eckehard Pistrick identifies links between sound, space, emotionality and mobility in performance, provides new insights into the controversial relationship between sound and migration, and sheds light on the cultural effects of migration processes. Central to Pistrick’s approach is the essential role of emotionality for musical creativity which is highlighted throughout the volume.

"This academic and personal journey into Albania's post-communist society examines the links between internal and international migration in one of Europe's poorest countries. The author follows rural migrants to urban destination both within Albania and in neighboring Greece. Their lives and experiences are captured in 150 interviews, alongside group discussions and the ethnographic observations. This rich empirical material is analysed with reference to an extensive body of literature. The author's own experience as migrant and reflections as a researcher studying her own communities of origin add valuable insights. The result is a demonstration of the complexity of the links between internal and international migration, especially from a development perspective."--back cover.

As Europe struggles to control immigration, the EU's southern flank is perceived as the weak flank of 'Fortress Europe'. This book examines the many facets of Southern Europe's new immigration: the diverse roles played by immigrants in the labour market, issues of social exclusion and wider strategic concerns of security and geopolitics.