The impact of economic recession on Albanian female immigrants in Greece

Following the initial phase of massive  immigration  Greece (1990-2000) during which Albanian women worked as domesticss, babysitters and care takers for the elderly-despite discrimination and exclusionary state policies- second generation immigrants, emerged in the years that followed (2000-2008) as small enterpreneurs, store keepers and service employees enjoying social security and health care  benefits.  Their efforts towards economic advancement coincided with claimsmaking for social and political rights and participation in migrant associations. Acting as pressure groups, these associations promoted political goals in pursuit of naturalization rights.However, the increased unemployment rates and curtlaing of welfare state benefits due to global recession and the recent Greek economic crisis, rendered their former expectations for social mobility dimmer. Overburdened by their family’s financial insecurity and their  husbands declining incomes, due to the  economic recession on the building industries in which they were mostly employed, many women - are now forced to return to  earlier forms of unskilled employment. As their struggle for survival does not allow for political pursuits, immigrant women who barely make ends meet as the principal family breadwinners, they have fallen back on the grim realities of the first years in the host country. As a follow up study of our past research on Albanian immigrant woman and migrant associations, this paper aims to offer a comparative frame for their changing position in the Greek society and their shifting expectations before and after the recession. Our study seeks to examine the consequences of economic crisis on four levels: (a) the familial web (b) the civil sphere, (c) the welfare state and (d) the individual action orientation. In addition, through this study we wish to demonstrate not only how immigrant women, cope with the current crisis but also their search for viable alternatives in an increasingly globalized world.