Migration, remittances and socio-cultural dynamics: the case of Albanians from the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

This article examines the patterns of contemporary labour mobility and migrations in search of better living conditions and livelihoods amongst the Albanian population in the Republic of Macedonia. Effects of migration are studied in the context of the social and cultural practices and connections which individuals and groups carry and develop, and their reflections on the places of origin. Special attention is paid to the effects of financial and social remittances upon living conditions, infrastructure and architecture in home places; the changes in local social organization and family–kin relationships; and the ways connections and relationships between migrants and non-migrants affect individuals’ roles and social status.

Keywords:

• Albanians from Macedonia
• labour migrations
• remittances
• social networks
• socio-cultural change
• status paradox of migration

Notes

1. Almost all interviews were conducted in the Macedonian language, which I am fluent in. This is also the official language of the Republic of Macedonia, which is taught at all primary schools there, hence my respondents’ fluency in this language. Only in three cases I used verbal interpretation from the local Albanian dialect to Macedonian. In addition, I conducted one interview in English with a 20-year-old man who was a third-generation migrant living in the USA. He felt more comfortable speaking in English (for similar features amongst second-generation Albanians in Europe, see Vathi 2011a).

2. The split between the Yugoslav leader Tito and Stalin in 1948 and the subsequent close ties developed between Moscow and Tirana were of great importance in influencing the negative attitudes towards Albanians within the Yugoslav federation. Most Albanian-language schools at this time were closed, and measures were taken against the Albanian intelligentsia and teachers of history and the Albanian language. The commemoration of national holidays and the display of Albanian national symbols were banned. Simultaneously, the authorities took measures to encourage expression of a Turkish identity amongst all Muslims within the federation. In accordance with an agreement signed with Turkey in 1953, Yugoslavia allowed – and even ‘encouraged’ – large-scale emigration of Yugoslav ‘Turks’ to Turkey (Babuna 2000, 69–70; Blumi 2003). However, many of them were in fact Albanians from Macedonia and Kosovo who had claimed to be Turks in order to take advantage of the agreement. Around 250,000 left for Turkey at this time, half of whom were from Macedonia (Malcolm 1998, 323).

3. Between 1971 and 1981, the number of migrants (all ethnic groups) living outside Macedonia increased, the most significant growth being women and children. In 1971, the number of migrants’ wives and children living with them was barely 2016, but in 1981 it grew to 42,958. Amongst the Albanians, women and children were around 30% in 1981; in 1994 this share rose to 49% (Janeska 2001, 201–3).

4. In the new 1991 constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, the state was pronounced as a ‘country of Macedonian nation’ without mentioning Albanian nationality, which was the case in the 1974 constitution. Consequently, Albanians were deprived of the right to use their native language in public and the use of the national flag was also banned. Thus, a struggle began between Albanian and Macedonian political elites in order to change the situation. Ethnic tensions increased leading to the armed conflict in 2001. The signing of the Ohrid Agreement was an attempt to overcome this situation, but ethnic clashes continued and Albanian and Macedonian populations remain strongly divided in their public life along ethnic lines.

5. Drawing on population censuses Janeska (2001, 202), estimates the number of Macedonian citizens of Albanian origin living abroad to have been 22,340 in 1981 and 51,685 in 1994.

6. All photographs were taken by the author during fieldwork.

7. Such strongly gendered remittance patterns continue to persist in other Albanian migratory settings. See, for example, King, Dalipaj, and Mai (2006) and Smith (2009).