‘Gap‐fillers’ or ‘clan‐destroyers’: transnational female solidarity towards kin in the region of Fier

Abstract

Given the patrilineal and patriarchal structure of traditional Albanian society, solidarity networks between married Albanian women and their family of origin have until recently been limited. This paper presents data from a multi‐sited study of rural Albanian migrants and non‐migrants. It shows how the experience of migration has led in some cases to a loosening or renegotiation of male solidarity behaviour towards ageing parents and patrilineal kin (although the expectations of non‐migrant patrilineal kin do not seem to be changing with the same rapidity), and also to a widening of transnational and local female solidary behaviour towards their own kin (not always patrilateral). The paper discusses in what cases this solidarity is most commonly produced or expected, what form it takes, and how it is interpreted by actors of local and diaspora society. When the expectations of non‐migrant kin are not fulfilled by male migrant/non‐migrant kin solidary behaviour, can female kin solidarity ‘fill the gap’, or is it interpreted as being of another nature?

Keywords:

• gender
• migration
• remittances
• Albania
• clan

Notes

1. Similar clan housing patterns were found in later fieldwork that I carried out in small towns around the cities of Treviso and Piacenza in northern Italy. Surprisingly, this pattern was less evident amongst the Albanian migrants I studied in Greece.

2. ‘Solidary’ behaviour is broadly identified in this article in its most tangible forms: remittances, help‐in‐kind, willingness to lodge newcomers abroad or insert them in the foreign labour market.

3. This multi‐sited and longitudinal research amongst non‐migrant and migrant villagers began with a study of the sometimes conflicting feelings of community‐belonging amongst Albanian migrants in Naples (along religious, village/town of origin and national lines) and the different forms of solidarity these migrants displayed in and out of the clan. This was in response to numerous Italian sociological studies (for example Allasino and Ricucci 2003; de Bonis 2001) which posited that Albanians in Italy constituted a ‘non‐community’ showing little or no solidarity out of the clan. This research then extended into a larger project which examines how villagers interpret the extent of, and the reasons for, supposed post‐regime transformations of clan solidarity, and what effects these transformations have had on the possibilities of action and survival of those ‘stuck’ in the villages of origin.

4. An effort was made to include participants of both sexes from the different ethnic and religious groups as they are defined by the locals themselves (Muslim, Orthodox, Kosovar, Çam, Gypsy, Mallakastriotë). As was to be expected given the effort of the Hoxha regime to educate the masses, the middle‐aged generation had generally completed more schooling, whereas the elderly and the young had either not received schooling (in the case of elderly women) or in the case of many emigrants (particularly males) had abandoned education after 8–10 years.

5. Nuse means ‘daughter‐in‐law’ or ‘young wife’ and brenda ‘in the interior’ (of the house). In traditional extended households, the wife of the eldest brother became the nuse brenda, living with the parents and younger siblings of her husband, and taking care of household chores under the orders of her mother‐in‐law. As each younger brother married, his own wife became in turn the nuse brenda of the household, the elder brother and wife generally moving out.

6. In the case of a mother‐in‐law who ‘administered’ the family budget practically, it was still the father‐in‐law during his life‐time who decided how money used to ‘respect’ social links and obligations towards miq (allies) and shokë (friends) – such as weddings, visits, funerals, condolences – should be distributed.

7. As per anthropological tradition, the circles in this figure indicate women, the triangles men. The dotted lines indicate the clan to which the men belong and the women marry into. Thanks to Russell Aspland for these figures.

8. Often inappropriately sized or strikingly out‐dated coats and trousers, selected deliberately perhaps in long‐term retaliation strategies for past wrongs endured – unbeknownst to the unsuspecting husband!

9. Tellingly, in both Greece and Italy the vast majority of the migrant couples interviewed who both work pool their savings in one bank account – in the husband’s name.

10. All amounts quoted in lekë are in ‘old’ lekë. The confusion between ‘old’ and ‘new’ lek stems from 1964 when the government devalued the currency by a factor of 10. Ever since, it is common in Albania for people to refer to 1000 lek when they are talking about 100 new lek (a little less than 1 euro).

11. This is considered by many a necessity of civilized life, although in actual fact, even after it has been installed many aged parents – be it out of habit or affection – continue using the squat toilet in the back garden.

12. Even when the money comes from their daughter’s earnings the situation is still interpreted to a large extent as ‘being kept by the son‐in‐law’.