The Albanian case represents the most spectacular instance of East–West migration after the dismantling of the Iron Curtain. This paper examines the ways in which Albanians have been able to access employment in Greece and analyzes the processes through which the exclusion of Albanians in employment has occurred. In doing so, we acknowledge the multi-dimensionality of the concept and we look at what kind of inclusion different groups and individuals of Albanian origin achieve in the Greek society and why some migrants do better than others. We will identify three groups of migrants: those who have no contact with any networks of support, are unable to find a job and are in need of help; those who are at risk, fragile in economic terms, without access to social provisions or benefits; and finally those who after regularization have a relatively stable job, and access to social provisions and benefits.

The Albanian migration represents one of the most impressive cases of East–West population movements of the 1990s. Based on official data, 371,641 foreigners applied for a white card in Greece during the regularisation programme of 1998; out of them 241,561 (65 percent of total applicants) were Albanians (Cavounidis 2002a: 107–13). A total of 105,112 Albanian migrants legally resided in Italy in 1999 (Cavounidis 2002b: 57). Ever since, Albanians have been the main migrant group in Greece, and the second largest migrant community in Italy, after Moroccans. In Greece, the government response to the ‘Albanian crisis’, as the Albanian inflow was dubbed by the local media, has been fragmentary and often contradictory (Lazaridis 1996; Baldwin-Edwards and Fakiolas 1999; Lazaridis and Poyago-Theotoky 1999).

From the Albanian side, since the early 1990s, emigration has been the single most important means of survival for Albanian families. But the welcome of the West, which for Albanians largely meant Greece and Italy, was short-lived; Albanian migrants came to be subjected to dramatically negative racialised images and stereotypes (see Lazaridis and Wickens 1999; Lazaridis and Koumandraki 2001). Today, Albanians are the most stigmatised migrant group (Lazaridis and Wickens 1999; Lazaridis 2001), persistently associated with criminal activities of many kinds, ranging from violent murders, Mafia gangs and drug-smuggling to prostitution and petty theft. The term ‘Albanophobia’ has been coined to describe this extremely negative reaction amongst Greeks to the Albanian migrants in their midst (Lazaridis 1996: 345).

Our aim in this paper is to examine the ways in which Albanians have been able to access employment in Greece. To what extent are they excluded from some types of job and confined to others; and to what extent are they engaged in semi-legal and illegal activities. We will thus analyse the processes through which the exclusion of Albanians from some types of work and their inclusion in others have occurred and we will look at what kind of inclusion different groups and individuals of Albanian origin have achieved in the Greek context and explore why some migrants do better than others. In this paper we will concentrate on exclusion from jobs in the formal economy and associated social rights which depend upon a person's employment status, that rests in turn upon the ethnicity of the migrant (ethnic Greek Albanians versus ‘other’ Albanians)2 and their legal status (based on ethnicity). This is an important aspect of exclusion with respect to the Albanian migrants under study. We will show how this kind of legal and welfare exclusion leads in turn to a ‘progressive cycle of marginalisation’ in the labour market. The concept of ‘social exclusion’ will provide us with a useful paradigm for understanding the differential exclusion Albanian migrants are faced with in the Greek labour market. Our paper aims to contribute to the further refinement of social exclusion typologies and arguments.

We propose a new categorization of three distinct areas of inclusion-exclusion (high exclusion/risk area, relative exclusion/relative risk area, and inclusion area), which are useful in understanding migrants’ labour inclusion/exclusion in the labour market context. As we will show in the Greek case, namely the ethnicity and differential legal status have resulted in differential exclusion. However, there are other factors, such as age and gender which affect whether one will fall in the areas of exclusion identified above. The data analysis shows that Albanian women are confined largely in the domestic and service sectors in which formal employment requirements do not apply; furthermore, those above 40 years old are particularly vulnerable and encounter difficulties to transfer professional and educational skills in the Greek labour market.

The concept of social exclusion is being increasingly applied in the study of social inequalities and disadvantage, especially in Europe. Whereas the concept's origins are found in the French social discourse, from the 1970s onwards (Silver 1994, 1995; Yepez de Castillo 1994; Martin 1996; Spicker 1997) the term has been popularised because of its use in EU social policies and programmes. Social exclusion replaced the term poverty in the EU's documentation (European Commission 1992, 1993) and its tackling has become one of the major goals of the EU and national governments. Hence, social exclusion has emerged as a useful paradigm for the understanding of the multiple disadvantages and inequalities that a variety of groups, including migrants and ethnic minority groups, face in contemporary societies as well as for the identification of exclusionary mechanisms and processes.

There is no agreement on what social exclusion is. There are many paradigms of social exclusion embedded in different scientific and national discourses (Room 1995; Silver 1994; Cousins 1998). Each paradigm is based on a different notion of social integration, citizenship and relationship between the individual and society. For the purpose of this paper, we will concentrate on the ‘solidarity’ paradigm.

The notion of solidarity is associated with Catholicism, which suggests that people live in society, are interdependent and have obligations to each other (Spicker 1997, 2000). Thus they are bound in a complex, interlocking web of relationships, some being constant (like family), whereas others change relatively rapidly (like friendships, neighbourhoods, the workplace) during a person's lifetime. People who are in these networks are able to support and be supported by others around them. But not everyone is part of a social network of relationships. Spicker (2000: 50–1) distinguishes two groups of excluded: first, those ‘who fall outside the borders of social groups, people who are stigmatized and socially rejected’ and secondly, those ‘who are not part of solidaristic networks’. As we shall show in the following sections, stigmatization (i.e., various negative stereotypes perceiving them as cunning, primitive, untrustworthy, criminals, thieves; see Lazaridis 1999) is an important element of exclusion in Greece, especially with regard to ‘other’ Albanians. ‘There are degrees of exclusion however; as the number and strength of the relationships diminish, it is difficult to define any single point at which a person can be said to be “excluded”’ (Spicker 2000: 51).

There are many bonds tying individuals to society (Yepez de Castillio 1994: 615). Therefore, exclusion can have many facets and expressions. In the French tradition, for some these ties refer to employment and its integrating capacity (ibid.), others point to the role of social and family relationships and welfare provision and yet others stress the role of both employment and family networks (Martin 1996). Not having access to an informal network of relationships can be a real handicap for migrants, as such network can provide the migrant with information which could facilitate access to employment or housing, protection, support and mutual help. The migrants from Albania relied heavily on networks of relatives and friends for support upon arrival in the host country in terms of finding a job, housing etc. Lack of legal status (the first regularization took place in 1988) in the Albanian case had been a decisive factor in excluding them from formal employment and access to social rights. According to Room (1995: 7) ‘one needs to examine the ways in which inadequate resources and the denial of access to social rights may, if they persist long-term, separate a subgroup of the population from the normal living patterns of the mainstream society’. For example, lack of citizenship rights (in particular political rights, rights to organization and mobilization – something which applies in the case of migrant groups) deprive a person or a group from fighting to improve its position in the labour market – claim equal remuneration and treatment with the native workers – and wider society.

Although the fact that the concept can be applied to a variety of groups entails the danger of obscuring and hiding the forms and the processes of social exclusion in each case, advocates of the approach (e.g., Rodgers 1995) argue that it provides a very useful framework for identifying the mechanisms and processes that lead to various dimensions/types of exclusions at a global, national and local levels (see Rodgers 1995).

Barry (1998: 1) defines social exclusion as ‘a multi-dimensional disadvantage which severs individuals and groups from the major social processes and opportunities in society, such as housing, citizenship, employment and adequate living standards and may be manifested in various forms, at various times and within various sections of the population’. This definition puts emphasis on the interdependence of the various forms of exclusion and their potential cumulative effect. Also, it stresses the dynamic and situational character of social exclusion. Moreover, exclusion is a structural dynamic process and the role of the various social actors involved (for example in the case of migrants, the role of the state, of employers/enterprises, of the media, the role of criminal circuits, the role of anti-racist organizations, of migrants’ associations) should be taken into consideration. Migrants are not viewed as passive victims of exclusion, but also, as dynamic actors who can fight and secure ‘spaces of control’ (Phizacklea 1998). None of these particular definitions of exclusion seem very relevant to our data or to the issues tackled by this paper.

The concept of social exclusion is being adopted in this paper because: It is multi-faceted: (I) in terms of affected victims (that is, it can cover every group or person that for one reason or another faces discrimination and disadvantage; see Spicker 1997: 6–7); (ii) it manifests itself through various forms/types; these forms are interrelated; they may feed upon one another. For example, exclusion from political rights (in particular, rights to organization and mobilization) deprive a person or a group from any chance to improve their legal status; exclusion from employment and welfare may lead to exclusion from livelihood (poverty); (iii) the structural processes are multiple and complex and different processes may account for the exclusion of a specific group; (for example, in the case of migrants, economic labour market structures and their role as a ‘replacement labor force’, immigration policies, racism and radicalization, amongst others lead to their exclusion). In the case of some ethnic minority groups like the Albanians, stigmatization maybe the most important exclusionary process; and (iv) it has a differential impact on individuals because it intersects with other social divisions, such as race, gender, class.

Critics have pointed out that despite declarations of the multi-dimensional character of social exclusion emphasis (especially at the EU level) has been put on the inclusionary ability of employment (Rodgers 1995; Levitas 1996, 1998; Atkinson 1998) thus stressing the integrationist function of work and obscuring the inequalities between paid workers and the inequalities deriving from gender and class. Unemployment is not the only form of exclusion in the labour market. As Rodgers (1995: 46) points out, there is also exclusion within the labour market. Labour market segmentation theory has shown that some groups of people are trapped in segments where jobs are insecure, part-time, ill-paid and low-skilled (secondary labour market), whereas others are in well-paid, secure, highly-skilled jobs (primary labour market) (Piore 1979; Ryan 1981). But having a job in the secondary labour market is a form of exclusion. Sub-employment, casual precarious employment, are forms of exclusion too. This is particularly important for Greece, where the majority of migrants work in the informal economy, which is estimated to constitute around 30–45 percent of the GDP (Katrougalos and Lazaridis 2003: 16). ‘Informalisation reinforces labour market segmentation ’ (ibid.: 41), which in turn involves the compartmentalisation and isolation of different groups of migrants in certain niches within the host country's labour market. Thus, as critics point out (for example, Rodgers 1995; Levitas 1996, 1998; Atkinson 1998) securing insertion into the labour market should not be equated with integration or inclusion. What we need to examine is the type of insertion that is being achieved. For example, Albanians are not excluded from the Greek labour market strictly speaking in the sense that they are unemployed, but in the sense that are excluded from good employment opportunities in the formal labour market and trapped in precarious, low-paid, unskilled jobs in the informal sector (see for example, Anthias and Lazaridis 1999; King et al.2000).

Moreover, the concept of social exclusion does not imply a dual society in the sense that some (the majority) are included, whereas others (the minority) are excluded. There are different degrees of exclusion or ‘differential exclusion’ in the sense that the excluded may be included (fully or partly) in some areas and not others. As we show in this paper, migrants from Albania are being included in certain areas of the Greek society (for example, the informal economy), but are denied any social, welfare and political rights and thus are excluded in these terms. This concept is useful for the understanding of migrants’ position in the southern European society under study and capturing the contradictory character of state policies towards migrants: on the one hand, state policies tolerate the illegal entrance of migrants – because they are needed to fill gaps in the Southern European parallel economy, but on the one other hand, the country is reluctant in introducing policies towards migrant's full inclusion into the host society (citizenship rights) (see for example Anthias and Lazaridis 1999).

In this paper, we acknowledge the multi-dimensionality of the concept and we look at what kind of inclusion different groups and individuals of Albanian nationality achieve in the Greek society and why some migrants do better than others. In particular, we will identify three areas of exclusion: a high risk, a relative risk and a non exclusion area, based on type of employment (formal/informal) and work conditions, remuneration, social insurance coverage, ethnicity and legal status. Also, the impact of age and gender will be noted in shaping exclusion patterns. Spatial distribution (whether one resided in Corfu or Athens) did not affect exclusion patterns as identified above.

The aim of this paper is to ‘tell it as it is’ from the respondents’ point of view and to achieve an understanding of the way they perceive and interpret their experiences. This necessitated ‘qualitative’ research strategy which allows some degree of ‘interpretive involvement in ongoing situations’, and thus requires a relatively small sample (Devine 1995: 138).

The ethnographic data presented here were collected during extensive fieldwork which was carried out in Greece in 2001 and 2002 in two contrasting areas (Corfu and Athens) in order to explore migrants’ experiences in different settings and research the effect of spatial distribution on exclusion patterns. Athens was chosen because of the main concentration of Albanians in Greece, where low-cost Albanian labour is much in demand in various sectors of the capital's economy. Corfu is an island near the Albanian coast and one of the main channels of entry into Greece, as well as an important setting for the employment of Albanian workers in tourism and agriculture. An even larger scale but less well documented exodus took place to Greece, across the mountainous border and via Corfu.

In order to study Albanian migration a large number of in depth, semi-structured interviews with Albanians migrants were carried out: 41 in Athens (22 of these were with ‘other’ Albanians and 19 with ethnic-Greek Albanians). From the interviews conducted in Athens, 19 were with women and 22 with men. In addition, 30 interviews were carried out in Corfu (20 with ethnic-Greek Albanians and ten with ‘other’ Albanians). From the interviews conducted in Corfu, 20 were with men and ten with women. Also, 69 interviews were carried out with migrants’ associations, anti-racist organisations, NGOs and state agencies, employers and other key informants. Given the known high level of suspicion amongst Albanian migrants, the interview subjects were selected carefully and approached with sensitivity. The role of intermediaries was critical here, combined with carefully controlled snowball techniques. Interviewees were selected by the chain-referral method. This was the only method possible due to the fact that those under study, due to their precarious position in the Greek labour market, society and polity, or lack of documents, are reluctant to give formal interviews. Although the migrant population surveyed was unknown as far as its strict demographic and social parameters are concerned and hence not subjectable to a rigorous sampling frame, we tried to achieve ‘intuitive representativeness’ by interviewing people across age groups and socio-occupational backgrounds; the male/female ratio of interviews has been kept to approximately 2:1 to reflect the gender balance of the Albanian population in Greece.

The length of the interviews varies from approximately one to four hours (on average more than two hours each). Acknowledging the ability of Albanians to quickly learn Greek, most interviews were conducted in Greek. The interviews broadly employed a life-history approach.

Prior to discussing the patterns of exclusion (high risk, relative risk and inclusion areas), we will provide a background context on the Greek labour market structure, the position of migrants in the Greek informal economy and the role of networks in accessing employment.

3.1 Greek labour market structure and migrants’ access to employment: the role of networks

The employment opportunities available to Albanians in Athens and Corfu are largely shaped by existing socio-economic structures and especially the large informal economy – estimated to contribute in the Greek case between 30 and 45 percent of the GDP (Katrougalos and Lazaridis 2003) – and a growing service sector, where opportunities for participation of migrants in informal activities occur. The thriving informal economy together with a growing service sector – both based on labour intensive small-scale family enterprises (Mingione 1995) – created a number of opportunities for migrants. A plethora of small firms and self-employed persons (which account for almost half of the employment in the private sector) generated a demand for unskilled, (temporary or part-time) low paid, low in prestige jobs which are not filled by Greek workers whose job aspirations are much higher than they were a few generations ago, due to higher educational and living standards (Lazaridis 1996: 339). In addition, the seasonal nature of some sectors (e.g., intensive agriculture, tourism, fishing farms and construction industry) and the expansion in demand for labour in domestic and care work3 (both part- and full-time), led to a demand for flexible labour force available when needed. Moreover, labour intensive enterprises due to increasing competition in the global market can only survive and meet the challenges they are faced with by reducing labour costs; these opt for cheap family members or, if this option is not available, for cheap migrant workers and thus save in wage costs, social security costs, maintenance of health and safety standards costs (Lazaridis and Romaniszyn 1998). Hence, migrant labour has assumed a growing importance in the Greek socio-economic setting as it meets the need for flexible cheap labour force imposed by the adjustment of employment systems to changing economic conditions. This access to a skilled, flexible and relatively inexpensive labour force enables marginal firms to survive. It seems that the ‘winners’ from Albanian migration into Greece are owners of capital and the losers the legal unskilled Greek workers who cannot afford to accept the low wages available due to an abundant supply of labour hands by needy migrants who attach more importance to earnings than to considerations of job status and prestige, and who are prepared to move and take up any job, irrespective of their qualifications, as long as it pays. There is employment segregation across gender lines; men are confined in the building construction, agriculture, some service sectors, whereas women are to be found largely in the domestic and ‘caring’ sectors (Lazaridis 2000, 2003).

Given their lack of legal status (especially, during the pre-regularisation4 era) Albanians were excluded from formal networks of support, such as trade unions, party membership and widely legitimised practices followed by Greeks of appropriating resources or finding employment in the public sector by political (particularistic/clientelistic) means (see Katrougalos and Lazaridis 2003). Hence, most Albanians found employment in the host country through informal networks, i.e., kin, social and village networks (see Lazaridis and Koumandraki forthcoming). Networks with already established migrants are valuable in helping newcomers learn their way around the various labour market options while picking up the language, which enhances their chances to move on to somewhat better job opportunities.5 In all three inclusion–exclusion areas discussed above, family and ethnic connections play a crucial role in organising the arrival of the new migrants. Some have a pre-arrival employment opportunity found for them through their network connections. In the beginning many clustered in public squares and waited for prospective employers to stop by and recruit them for a job. Some found employment by asking around in the village, or neighbourhood. But the majority received help and support from relatives and friends who recommended them to employers. Only a few searched for a job through newspaper adverts. Some, especially qualified ‘ethnic-Greek Albanians’ (e.g., doctors) got jobs through public announcements which advertise jobs in the public formal sector for which Greeks and ethnic Greeks are eligible to apply.

For example, Andreas an ‘ethnic-Greek Albanian’, 46-year-old, working in building construction explained to us how he got a job.

In the beginning I went to the central public square. Migrant workers gathered in the square and some employers were passing by and asked for a worker to clean a field, or to decorate a house and so on. I stood in the square for a month. Afterwards I got to know some people here and there, people loved me and some offered me a job. That's how they helped me.

Although access to informal networks of support are helpful in finding a job, this does not necessarily imply that migrants who are well networked may fall into the ‘inclusion’ area; as it will become apparent further down, the Greek labour market structure in conjunction with legal status, ethnicity, age, gender, etc., shape the pathways leading to high or relative exclusion or inclusion areas.

3.2 Mapping of three exclusion areas

The analysis of the work histories of the migrants we interviewed, illustrate three areas of inclusion–exclusion in the labour markets of Athens and Corfu: (a) a high exclusion/high risk area; (b) an area of relative exclusion/relative risk; and (c) an inclusion area. It is to these that we now turn our attention. These areas are not sealed tight spaces of inclusion exclusion; migrants move in or out, especially in the high risk and relative risk areas. The line especially between high and relative risk areas is very thin and some people go in and out or remain between the two areas. For example, many workers in the tourist industry may experience spells of employment without social insurance and benefits coverage, thus moving from the high to the relative risk exclusion area.

This section takes a distance from the logic that migrants from Albania in Greece comprise a homogeneous ethnic group. The aim is to inter alia highlight differences (wherever possible and however subtle these may be) between the experiences of inclusion–exclusion of ‘other’ Albanians as opposed to ‘ethnic-Greek-Albanians’ in the Greek labour market who enjoy differential legal status based on their ethnicity. As we shall show, favorable legal status does not always guarantee inclusion. The impact of other factors such as age, gender will be noted in the inclusion–exclusion patterns identified.

3.2.1 (a)A high exclusion/high risk area: wage workers in the informal economy

The high exclusion area is associated with high risk, vulnerability and lack of formal networks of support (e.g., legal status, access to trade union support or support from professional associations etc.) in the informal economy.

Despite the fact that migrants in this group are not strictly speaking excluded from the Greek labour market, they are not unemployed in other words, they are included in the parallel economy where there is a demand for cheap provision of services and goods. Both ‘other’ and ‘ethnic Greek Albanians’ were to be found in this exclusion area at large up till 1998 when the Greek state started to introduce regularisation policies. The main feature here is irregularity and informality. Employees, irrespective of their qualifications and skills (some of those interviewed were skilled people such as musicians, teachers, writers, journalists, the majority had finished secondary education in Albania; a few were high school dropouts and some were farmers who had no skills or work experience) work for low wages with no formal contract or regulation of any kind; the absence of legal protection leads to exploitation of the migrant who is compelled to accept almost inhumanly exploitative working conditions in order to survive, with no social insurance, no health coverage, no welfare benefits.

Highly vulnerable were migrants above the 40–45 age threshold who with great difficulty find employment as gardeners or perform various chores, mostly on a part-time basis. In general, men between 18 and 45 at most are easily recruited in agricultural and construction industries and women are confined in the caring sector and ‘entertainment’ industry (Lazaridis 2001). In some cases they are employed to do one job, but are expected to perform a different one or harder tasks than their Greek counterparts. For example women are often hired as nurses and when accepting the job they find out that the work they are expected to do is housework instead, or by en large housework with some nursing tasks (looking after an elderly parent or a person with special needs) on the side. Relationships with the employer vary: ‘it can be a little white, grey or black’ a man said; ‘it can be good, bad or just typical’, another interviewee added. The ‘just typical’ or ‘grey’ often includes cases of verbal assault at the workplace by employers and Greek colleagues, whereas the ‘bad’ or ‘black’ may entail refusal of payment of part of or the whole daily wage, or in the case of live-in domestic workers, refusal to return documents. In addition, sexual harassment against women by employers has been reported. Another problem is dismissal with no notice: as Abileka, a 56-year-old Albanian living in Athens said:

I work for the first time repairing old machinery. It was a hard job, it was a job I knew little about. He kept me for three days and at the end of the third day he said ‘I will call you’, that is ‘I do not need you any longer’. He did not show me how to do the job properly. Then, I tried to assist a plumber, emptying a toilet, but he did not keep me either; he preferred to hire a younger person. Then I worked as a decorator. Then I worked with leather in a shop. Difficult. The work was 12–14 hours long and the money too little (around 12 Euros per day). They taught me everything there and then they sacked me. Always work in the black market, with no insurance etc. I have also worked as gardener, joiner … in Greece we say, you are either human or not human, you are either Greek or a foreigner. This is how things are …

People like Abileka are trapped in a cycle of disadvantage, a revolving door from unemployment to insecure work in the informal sector, back to unemployment.

The case of Adelina, a 45-year-old ‘ethnic-Greek Albanian’ woman, is typical of many ‘other Albanian’ and ‘ethnic-Greek Albanian’ women who work clandestinely in the domestic sphere with no insurance coverage and no future prospects. She was working as a journalist and writer in Albania but doesn't have any other option but to be a domestic in Greece. Thus, educational level and even favourable legal status cannot guarantee inclusion in the privileged area. Age and gender emerge as important factors which increase the risk of exclusion.

When I came to Greece the first job I did was as I remember to look after a baby together with a Greek woman who helped me a lot with the Greek language. Then I worked for a family and looked after their daughter. I was helping her with her maths and she was helping me to learn Greek. I worked for this family for three, four years. Then I worked for two years in a small factory which belonged in the same family. I was ironing for them. Then I got a job in another factory; this was a textile factory. It was hard work and I was paid poorly. The salary was negligible (around 250 Euros per month). In the meantime I succeeded to publish some books that I wrote – I am a writer – and got some money. Then started cleaning houses, but these jobs was very hard and decided to work on a part-time basis. I am doing the ironing in three homes. I want to leave Greece, but I do not want to go back to Albania. I have no pension there. I came here when I was 35 years old – I worked only for 11 years there – so I am not entitled to a pension. I have no social insurance here; I want to go somewhere else, where there would be some insurance coverage.

A number of comparative studies have contrasted the experiences of Albanians in the Greek labour market and wider society with the ones of other migrant workers, such as the ethnic-Greek Albanians (Lazaridis 1999), the EU tourist workers (Lazaridis and Wickens 1999), the Egyptians and Filipinos (Lazaridis 2000), and the Polish migrants (Lazaridis and Romaniszyn 1998). These studies pointed out that although all these migrant workers are confined in low-paid, unskilled, manual jobs in the informal economy, the Albanians enjoy the worse position in the labour market in terms of remuneration (because of the alleged ‘risk’ of employing an Albanian as opposed to a Pole or an Egyptian or a Filipino), and job precariousness.

3.2.2 (b) An area of relative exclusion/relative risk

This area encompasses unskilled jobs in the formal sector. After the first regularisation, which took place in 1997, a large number of Albanians succeeded in getting more secure jobs with relatively good payment, and full or partial social insurance coverage.

Ethnic-Greek Albanians in many cases due to lack of fluency in Greek language and possession of legal documents, cannot prove their Greekness and are stigmatised as being ‘other’ Albanians. Thus, ethnic Greek Albanians constitute a minority in the ‘motherland’ despite their Greek origin; they can thus be subjected to the same stereotypes the ‘other’ Albanians are subjected to, such as ‘bad, dirty, illiterate, primitive’, a threat to the national and supranational (i.e., EU) identity, ‘undesirable intruders’. A piece of paper often separates the ‘we’ from the ‘they’; for an ethnic Greek Albanian, the passage from Heaven (proof of being an ethnic-Greek Albanian) to Hell (loosing the proof) or from Hell (having no proof) to Heaven (acquiring a proof) is simply a paper. As most of them have crossed the borders illegally without documents, it takes a long time to be able to satisfy the authorities of their ‘Greekness’. As a result, they find themselves in the high exclusion area. This was the story until 1998. After that, a ministerial decision (see note 2) introduced a special card. This card grants the holders equal rights in the Greek labour market to Greek citizens. Although the holders of this card do not have political rights they possess a relatively privileged legal status compared to foreign migrants (as the other Albanians) who have to renew their work and residence permits on an annual basis. As a result, ethnic Greek Albanians moved out of the high exclusion and are now found in the relative exclusion or inclusion areas or in-between. ‘Other’ Albanians, ‘bearing in mind the privileges enjoyed by ethnic-Greek Albanians, make a conscious attempt to learn and speak the Greek language and not only to learn something about the way of life and customs of the Greek people, but to adopt them. This conscious attempt made towards confirmation of self-identity as Greek includes Greek-Orthodox baptism and change of first names into Greek names … So in an attempt to lessen the cultural racism directed towards them, instead of wanting to assert their difference, they try to conceal it. This is an attempt to adopt “Greekness” in order to assimilate, or to achieve, if possible, the production of bonds, sentiments and solidarities relating to collective origin and belonging’ (Lazaridis 1999: 113).

Spells of unemployment occur in this area too, especially in the agricultural and tourist sectors where jobs are seasonal. The majority of regularised migrants ask for the same wages as their Greek counterparts, but do not always get them. In some cases the employer breaks the initial agreement and refuse to pay employers’ contributions towards social insurance or may refuse to pay the worker overtime for additional work performed. Some of the migrants we interviewed had become members of trade unions, but had no time to be actively involved.

In the area of relative risk we find those migrants who engage in informal business activities. These can be seen as a survival strategy, a ‘poor person's employment strategy’ to ensure inclusion in the host economy and relatively high earnings. These activities include people working as decorators, domestic workers, plumbers, gardeners, street-hawkers, window-cleaners, etc. in Corfu and Athens. The migrants offering these services may not be insured on a regular basis and some may rely on their spouse for insurance coverage.

An example of relative exclusion is shown in the case of Orestis, a 32-year-old ‘ethnic-Greek Albanian’ working in the Corfiot tourist industry. Many workers are promised social insurance coverage at the beginning of the summer season, but they are then cheated by their employers. Thus, people like Orestis may experience spells of formal and informal work.

To start with, I worked a bit in construction, decorator, then I found a job as a waiter. My mother, who worked as waitress taught me the skill. I was good at it. I worked since as a waiter in restaurants for tourists during the summer. This year I sing in the evenings – that's my job. In the winter I have no steady job. No one does – the locals have the same problem. During the winter I work repairing ships and yachts at the marina. This is an island, but for the locals it is easier because they do not have to pay rent. I started paying my social insurance contributions last year. I did not have any social insurance before. Some employers pay social insurance contributions, but others do not. And I was afraid that I would be out of job if I was very demanding. At the end of the day most of the employers do not pay National Insurance contributions. My current employer promised me prior to employing me that he would pay my insurance contributions. Now he says that there are not enough clients coming in and he can't afford to pay them. If I need to have access to health services and doctors I have to pay since I have no coverage.

Migrants initially take on any job at any wage, but later on they tend to become more selective. Some quickly learn new skills, the Greek language and move on to self-employment (see below). Some Albanian men enjoy a relatively favourable position and engage in informal business activities as decorators, plumbers, etc in the informal sector (see Lazaridis and Koumandraki 2003). As mentioned above, the older migrants are a particularly vulnerable group. Andreas is a 58-year-old ‘ethnic-Greek Albanian’ man in Athens is a street-salesman selling roasted chestnuts to survive in the winter months, but doesn't have any insurance coverage. He said:

I worked for a month and a half in a small factory, which was producing plastics. The payment was low, (less than 10 Euros) per day. I left this job. I was living from charity money given to my family and me. Then I found a job as a mechanic in Taurus for 6 months. I was paid approximately 10 Euros per day). Others doing the same job got paid two times more money than I did. I left and got a job as a mechanic in another place. I worked for him for 1.5 years until the end of 1992 that is. He started to take advantage of me; ‘no you won't get your money now’ he was saying to me. I wasn't getting paid. I started wondering what shall I do? What shall I do? A good man said to me ‘ Andrea, why don't you sell at Monastiraki [area in Athens where second hand and other cheap goods are sold] to make a living?’ I was reluctant because we, in Albania have no tradition in this – we see it as begging. He said to me, ‘you can sell chestnuts for a living’. I decided to go for it. I had to work to bring up my children. But I work 5 months per year. I have a license to do this in Neo Faliro. In the summer I started selling books from door to door. It's not easy. I have no insurance. I am not covered at all. At first, one who had a 5-year visa was entitled to free health coverage from the OGA insurance fund for one year. Then this insurance was available for 6 months and now it is only for three months. Nowadays one has to submit many documents to get this. One has to prove that one is not covered by another social insurance fund, such as IKA or TEVE. It is a nightmare to get involved in this procedure just to have insurance coverage for three months. It is not worth it. I have been through this process twice, but I am bored and tired and I am not going through it anymore. Thus, I do not have any social insurance coverage at the moment. And if something happens to family and myself I don't know what i'll do.

3.2.3 (c)An inclusion area

Jobs in this area are well paid, include social insurance coverage and employees are entitled to fringe benefits. Migrant workers in this category are members of professional associations and trade unions; more often than not they receive the same payment as their Greek co-workers, are paid extra for extra hours of work and incidents of discrimination are rare. Most have qualifications and skills. There is a difference here between ‘other’ Albanians and ‘ethnic-Greek-Albanians’ in that it is the latter in our sample who mainly found professional jobs as managers, doctors, dentists and journalists due to their favorable legal status (see note 2).

Another study shows that ethnic-Greek Albanians receive more favourable treatment compared to other Albanians (Lazaridis 1999). The same study shows that the former are welcomed and treated in a friendly manner provided of course they can demonstrate their Greekness (that is their Greek origin and identity). Once this is done they are considered to be ‘one of us’. On the contrary, the ‘other’ Albanians are xenoi, that is foreigners, with no connection to Greekness and labelled as ‘undesirable others’.

Gianna, a 52-year-old ethnic-Greek Albanian who is a microbiologist, working in a private laboratory in Athens, said:

As soon as I arrived [10 years ago] I found a job in my profession. I did not encounter any difficulties. I was lucky. I have all rights and benefits every worker in Greece is entitled to. I am very happy indeed, I respect everyone and they respect me.

Also, ‘ethnic-Greek Albanians’ who have studied in Greek universities have found professional jobs as doctors, civil engineers, managers. For example, Giorgos, a 35-year-old ‘ethnic-Greek Albanian’ man working as civil engineer in Athens after he graduated from the University of Patra, said:

It is three years now since I started working as a civil engineer after I got my degree. I am very happy. I work for a technical company. To start with I worked in Patra and then I moved to Athens.

Some ‘other’ Albanians who were qualified dancers, teachers, writers, artists, etc., did not attempt to find a job in par with their qualifications and experience, because, as they explained, they could earn more money by working in the relative risk area performing a less skilled job. They got ‘hooked’ in earning money, as they explained (meaning that they got used to earning what they described as ‘good money’).

Moreover, some ‘ethnic-Greek Albanians’ succeeded in setting up small businesses; they run coffee shops, food stores, others run building construction agencies, fish stores, fast food shops, book distribution companies, translating offices, tourist shops and the like. They worked as wage workers for some time and then decided to become ‘entrepreneurs’. For example some women and men in Corfu capitalized on their know-how while working as wage workers in the tourist sector and set up their own shop. Self-employment is an attractive option due to relative high earnings, flexible working schedule, independence and freedom. Petros a 35-year-old ‘ethnic-Greek Albanian’ man used to work as a wage worker in the Corfiot tourist industry and he now runs a tourist shop and boutique:

I now run a tourist souvenir shop and a boutique with clothes in a 5-star hotel in Corfu. I started slowly; to start with my shop was very timid, I didn't know the job. I tried. Then I attended a course, I met people who had similar experience and I benefited from their experience. For years we are in touch and we help one another.

However, as shown by Andelina's case above (section c), favourable legal status does not always guarantee inclusion. Gender emerges as an important factor which shapes Albanian migrant women's employment opportunities in the host country due to the feminisation of entire sections of the labour market. Sexism is interwoven into the fabric of everyday living in Greece, and adds as an additional constraint on these women's employment opportunities.

Our aim in this paper was to examine the exclusion processes and patterns with regard to Albanian migrants in Greece. In particular, the ways in which two groups of Albanian migrants have been able to access employment; whether they are excluded from some types of job and confined to others; and to what extent are they engaged in irregular employment activities. We analysed the processes through which the exclusion of Albanians in employment have occurred and we looked at what kind of inclusion different groups and individuals of Albanian origin have achieved in the Greek labour market and explored why some migrants do better than others. The concept of social exclusion provided us with a useful paradigm for the understanding of the differential exclusion faced by Albanian migrants in the Greek labour market. Our study contributed to the further refinement of social exclusion typologies and arguments.

In particular, we identified three areas of exclusion: a high risk, a relative risk and a non exclusion area based on migrants’ formal/informal employment activities, work conditions, salary, social insurance coverage and legal status, ethnicity. The high exclusion/high risk area is associated with manual, unskilled jobs in the informal economy and is associated with high risk, vulnerability, irregularity and informality and lack of legal status, access to trade union support or support from professional associations. The relative exclusion/relative risk area encompasses unskilled, but more secure jobs in the formal and or informal sectors, with relatively good payment, and full or partial social insurance coverage. Some regularised migrants do not always get offered the same wages as Greek workers and some employers break the initial agreement and refuse to pay employers’ contributions towards social insurance or may refuse to pay the worker overtime for additional work performed. The inclusion area encompasses well-paid jobs with social insurance coverage, same payment as their Greek co-workers, payment for extra hours of work. ‘Ethnic-Greek Albanians’ have mainly found professional jobs in this area; Greek ethnicity and favourable legal status played an important role in being included in this privileged area, but not in all cases; also, age and gender shaped exclusion patterns. These areas are not sealed tight spaces of inclusion exclusion; migrants move in or out, especially in the high risk and relative risk areas.

In all three inclusion–exclusion areas, informal networks of support played a crucial role in supporting migrants upon their arrival and in securing access to employment. The analysis of our interviewees’ work histories illustrated that ethnicity and legal status affected to a large extent ‘other Albanian’ and ‘ethnic-Greek Albanian’ migrants’ employment trajectories in the Greek labour market and inclusion in the privileged area. In our study, it was not exclusion from informal networks of support (family and friends) as suggested in the French solidarity paradigm, which affected our interviewees’ inclusion into the relative risk or inclusion areas. We have shown that certain factors, such as, legal status, ethnicity, stigmatisation led systematically to exclusion. Also, age and gender contributed to the exclusion of Albanian migrants in the Greek labour market. Hence, dual categories of ‘included’ and ‘excluded’ simplify and cannot capture the multi-dimensionality of exclusion–inclusion patterns; many factors intersect in producing differential inclusion/exclusion patterns and exclusion expresses itself in different ways and degrees in the case of migrants in Greece.

1

This chapter is based on the findings of the project ‘Albanians in Italy and Greece: a study in migration dynamics and social exclusion’, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Grant No: F/00230/D, 2001–2003). Gabriella Lazaridis and Maria Koumandrakis have been, respectively, Director and Research Assistant on the Greek part of the project. The authors acknowledge the financial contribution of the Leverhulme Trust on this project. We would like to thank the three anonymous referees and the editor of the journal Claire Wallace, for their helpful constructive comments.

2.

Migrants from Albania are distinguished between ‘other Albanians’, that is those of Albanian ethnicity and ‘ethnic Greek Albanians’ or so-called ‘Northern Epirotes’ who are of Greek ethnicity and Albanian nationality. They are also distinguished in terms of legal status; since 1998 the ‘other’ Albanians are entitled to apply for residence and work permits as foreign workers via regularisation programmes (presidential decrees 1997, law 2910/2001); the ‘ethnic Greek Albanians’ are granted a favourable legal status, a three year residence permit (Ministerial Decision no. 4000/3/10-e FEK B 395/29.04.1998 which was replaced by the no. 4000/3/10/le, FEK B 707/6.06.2001)) which grants them equal rights to those of Greek citizens with the exception of political rights, on the basis of their Greek ethnicity.

3.

Southern Europe's welfare ‘regime’, is among other things characterised by underdeveloped social services and emphasis on the role of the family as the core unit of social care. This, in conjunction with an ageing population and changes in family structures and rising levels of women's employment have dictated an increase in demand for domestic services, childcare and care of the elderly.

4.

Regularisation programmes have been introduced in Greece since 1998. Regularisation refers to the legal process which aims to issue residence permits to irregular migrants who reside within a state territory (Apap et al.2000: 263).

5.

The effects of the inflow of undocumented migrants on the Greek labour market differ from one geographical area to another.

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G. Lazaridis is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Leicester. She has published extensively and has been involved in various research projects in the field of migration.

M. Koumandrakis is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology, University of Leicester.

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