Dehumanisation As a Result of Immigration Policies: Are Graduate Albanian Immigrants in Greece in Social Despair?

Our research focuses on the views held by young Albanian immigrants who have graduated from Greek Universities between 2022-2024. This specific time period is characterized by an upsurge in the “working poor youth” in Greece. This phenomenon entails flexible employment arrangements and a low income as well as significant financial instability, leading to difficulties in meeting basic needs such as housing, nutrition and health care. We centre on Albanian immigrants who constitute a unique category of graduates whose financial investment in university studies underpins their immigrations goals. The participants of the present qualitative longitudinal study comprise different categories of Albanian university graduates with their common denominator being the fact that they are employed in low social status positions unrelated to their degree. It is noteworthy that the participants of the present study have participated in previous studies undertaken by us and therefore, we have amassed a great wealth of qualitative data, including data on their hopes for a prosperous future, their trust in the Greek institutions as well as on their aspirations about the overturning of the immigrant stigma. Through semi-structured interviews we revisit their earlier ideas and attitudes and discuss them in light of their present circumstances allowing for the emergence of a multitude of political, financial and social factors, which appear to have impacted their life scenarios and aspiration for progress. One significant question arising from this study is whether this new reality is shaped by the newly-emerging challenges that they face causing them to dispute and question their previously held notions, ideas and interpretations.