‘Can love be transferred’?: Tracing Albania’s history of migration and the meaning of remittances

Abstract

Since the fall of the communist regime, Albania has experienced high levels of emigration with significant impact, especially in terms of remittances. Material and sociocultural transformations in both rural and urban landscapes, such as renewal of housing stock and changes in agriculture, have been accompanied by transformed identities and a sense of place. Yet neither this migration nor its associated remittances are without precedent, as Albanians had migrated far and wide in the pre-war years, despite a rupture in this tradition during the communist decades. This chapter traces (dis)continuities through these periods of Albania’s history, thus seeking to connect these strands of spatial and temporal movement to demonstrate the contribution of migration to restoration and rebuilding in Albania—not just materially through financial remittances, but also by building dreams for secure futures and through struggles to overcome the insecurities and precarities of the present and the past.

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ORCID for Julie Vullnetari: orcid.org/0000-0003-1578-8622

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