From an Isolated State to a Migration Society - Transnationalism and Multilocality as Social Practise in Contemporary Albania

Abstract

Present Albanian society is a migrant’s society. In the Socialist era Albania was almost completely confined of international migration systems. Internal migratory movements were strictly controlled and regulated. That changed abruptly with the entry into the post-Socialist transition period. First spontaneous and hasty out-migrations have been followed by an unprecedented internal and international mass migration. Emigration, life in a foreign country and multi-local ways of life served as a kind of safety valve to overcome accumulated structural socio-economic deficits in the country and to reach individual needs. Living with all facets of migration is the social norm today. Almost half of the Albanian population has a personal international migration experience. Transnationality in the Albanian case is everyday social practise. This paper shows the two and a half decades lasting way of Albania from the Communist ‘isolated state’ to a society that is heavily influenced by different forms and effects of international and transnational migration. Different periods of migratory movement and stages of national development as well as lines of continuity and change of a highly volatile migration system will be analysed on the basis of empirical findings. In order to strengthen the spatial issue in migration studies the suggestion is to broaden the concept of transnationalism by a new transregional perspective.