Albanian migrants’ career pathways and their responses to the challenges of the economic crisis in Italy
Year of publication
2023
Authors
Çaro, Erka; Danaj, Sonila
Abstract
This article explores the career pathways and work practices of Albanian labour migrants in Italy during the economic crisis. It shows how long-term migrants utilise resources accumulated from the early experiences of their (often) informal migratory pathway to address the crisis-induced structural and economic challenges. The questions we ask are: What career pathways have Albanian migrants followed while navigating the Italian labour market? What practices have they employed to respond to the challenges of the economic crisis? Through a biographical approach, we find that rather than victimising their own position, migrants have deployed different resources accumulated from the early stages of their migratory pathways, which they have combined to produce various practices of resilience, reworking and resistance against these new crisis-related challenges. Among them, return to informality and moral contract arrangements have become common practice. We argue that even though they considered informal contractual arrangements and other practices of resilience as provisional, the impact of these crisis-induced experiences is noticeable in the aftermath of the crisis as partially informal and, therefore, precarious arrangements have become established terms of employment for migrant workers. Our findings show that even permanent or naturalised migrants remain precarious and are not immune to the crisis-induced labour market restructuring.
Show moreOrganizations and authors
University of Jyväskylä
Danaj Sonila
Publication type
Publication format
Article
Parent publication type
Journal
Article type
Original article
Audience
ScientificPeer-reviewed
Peer-ReviewedMINEDU's publication type classification code
A1 Journal article (refereed), original researchPublication channel information
Publisher
Volume
49
Issue
11
Pages
2760-2778
ISSN
Publication forum
Publication forum level
3
Open access
Open access in the publisher’s service
No
Self-archived
No
Other information
Fields of science
Sociology
Keywords
[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Publication country
United Kingdom
Internationality of the publisher
International
Language
English
International co-publication
Yes
Co-publication with a company
No
DOI
10.1080/1369183X.2022.2076660
The publication is included in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Publication data collection
Yes