Albanian migrants’ career pathways and their responses to the challenges of the economic crisis in Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the career pathways and work practices of Albanian labour migrants in Italy during the economic crisis. It shows how long-term migrants utilise resources accumulated from the early experiences of their (often) informal migratory pathway to address the crisis-induced structural and economic challenges. The questions we ask are: What career pathways have Albanian migrants followed while navigating the Italian labour market? What practices have they employed to respond to the challenges of the economic crisis? Through a biographical approach, we find that rather than victimising their own position, migrants have deployed different resources accumulated from the early stages of their migratory pathways, which they have combined to produce various practices of resilience, reworking and resistance against these new crisis-related challenges. Among them, return to informality and moral contract arrangements have become common practice. We argue that even though they considered informal contractual arrangements and other practices of resilience as provisional, the impact of these crisis-induced experiences is noticeable in the aftermath of the crisis as partially informal and, therefore, precarious arrangements have become established terms of employment for migrant workers. Our findings show that even permanent or naturalised migrants remain precarious and are not immune to the crisis-induced labour market restructuring.