Migrant identity on display: the xhiro in Rrëshen

Abstract

From early May to September the mayor of Rrëshen – a small town in central‐north Albania – closes the main street of the town to motorized traffic every evening. When the temperatures become bearable, the town’s citizens come out to stroll up and down the street for the xhiro. In May and June the locals still have the town for themselves. In the months that follow the Rrëshenis living elsewhere – students in Tirana and Italy as well as young men and women who live and work in the diaspora – return home, at least for a time. The situation these migrants find themselves in is described as a status paradox of migration. Whereas migrants often represent the lowest rung on the social ladder in their host countries, poorly paid, doing menial labour incommensurate with their own level of education or skill, they represent the successful elite at home. The paper offers a detailed description of both the phenomenon of the xhiro and the precarious situation of migrants responding to the demands of ‘home’.