Winners or Losers? The Adjustment Strategies of Rural-to-Urban Migrants in Tirana, Albania

Abstract

This paper explores the micro-level process of adjustment undergone by rural migrants to the city. Rural migrants are expected to fully adjust to the urban lifestyle, setting aside their traditions and culture. However, as the migrant population increases in an urban area, migrants create their own communities with their own lifestyles and values, and thus there is an ongoing debate about whether this process entails the ruralisation of the city or the urbanisation of migrants. While becoming urban and being part of the city is desired, the reality is that joining a migrant community and adjusting to other migrants is more important. According to the resource-based model, migrants need personal, material, social and cultural resources to satisfy their needs, goals and demands. Socio-cultural clustering constitutes the main social resource, creating a support system for migrants. The longer the rural migrants reside in the city, the better their adjustment strategies. Moreover, economic security and willingness assist the adjustment process, while the younger generation is perceived as being better adjusted.

Keywords:

• Rural-to-Urban Migrants
• Early Migrants
• Late Migrants
• Resources
• Adjustment
• Albania

Acknowledgements

This paper is drawn from my PhD at the University of Groningen and was previously presented at the European Population Conference (EPC 2010) in Vienna, Austria. I am grateful to the Faculty of Spatial Sciences and the Population Research Center for funding the PhD research and the fieldwork for this paper. I would like to thank my PhD supervisors, Prof. Leo van Wissen and Dr. Ajay Bailey, for their support and continued guidance with this paper. Thanks also to the anonymous JEMS referees for their valuable comments and insights. But, most importantly, I am thankful to all those migrants who shared their experiences and stories with me.

Notes

1. ‘Early’ and ‘late’ are terms used by the migrants to define length of residence in the area. Early migrants are considered to be those who came to Kamza between 1990–2000 and late migrants those who came after 2000.

2. Personal communication with Prof. Arqile Bërxholi, 2008; cf. also King (2005).

3. ‘Near the city, near the king’. The original Albanian saying is ‘Near the sea, near the king’.