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ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the so-called 'zero generation': the parents of first-generation migrants who are initially left behind in the migrant country of origin and who may subsequently follow their children in migration or engage in transnational back-and-forth mobility. We challenge the prevailing optic on the left-behind older generation that sees them as dependent and in need of care, and stress instead their active participation both in migration and in the administration of care and support to their children and grandchildren. Drawing on interviews with mainly zero-generation Albanians, and also some first-generation migrants, in various geographical contexts - Albania, Italy, Greece, and the UK - we trace their evolving patterns of mobility, intergenerational care, well-being, and loneliness both in Albania and abroad. In telling the often-overlooked story of the zero generation, we highlight both their vulnerability and agency in different circumstances and at different times, shaped by family composition and the ageing process. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the fall of communism in the early 1990s, Albania has experienced migrations of epic proportions: 17 years later almost one in four Albanians has emigrated and lives abroad, primarily in Greece and Italy. Albanian emigration has by and large represented a typically male-dominated model, whereby men have 'led the way' and women have followed as family members. Despite the considerable participation of Albanian women in this migration, their roles and experiences remain under-researched. Based on in-depth interviews with rural migrant women and their families, as well as additional ethnographic material collected from 2004 to 2006 in Albania and Greece, this paper aims to fill this knowledge gap. The findings demonstrate the various ways in which Albanian rural women participate in the migratory process. They are often the most important pillar for supporting the family migration strategy through their productive and reproductive labour when remaining behind. They are also closely involved in decision-making about the migration of other family members. Furthermore, they have been among the pioneers of the early 1990s migration themselves, including taking the long and risky journeys across the mountains to Greece. Overall, their contribution to the migrant household is beyond their presumed reproductive role and includes a strong economic component. While some 'traditional' norms and values persist and are reinforced during migration, change does take place, albeit at a slow and gradual pace. However, for the emancipatory benefits women could accrue through migration to be enhanced, immigration policies need adjusting to address their position as fully autonomous economic and social actors, thus reducing their dependency on male 'bread-winners.' Albanian women's particular migratory experiences, combined with their increasing numbers as migrants, make a compelling case for further attention from researchers and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older people have been the main social casualties of the collapse of the Albanian communist system and the ensuing mass emigration of younger generations since 1990. Some have had to forage for survival on a near-starvation diet, making broth from grass and weeds. For others, remittances from emigrant children ensure adequate material well-being, but a loss of locally-based trans-generational care and of intimate family relations occurs. Rates of emigration have been highest in the southern uplands, where our fieldwork took place. Migration has been mainly to Greece, but also to Italy and elsewhere. Interviews with elderly ‘residual households’ - single people and couples - reveal stories of loneliness and abandonment; cross-generational rupture of hitherto tight family structures is seen as emotionally painful because of the impossibility of enjoying mutual benefits of care sustained by geographical proximity. Profoundly upsetting is the denial of the practice of grand-parenting, which the older generation see as their raison d'être. Cost of travel, visa regimes and emigrants’ irregular status conspire to prevent international visits. Finally, we examine various strategies of overcoming the ‘care drain’ produced by this situation, one of which is for older people to try to join their migrant children and grandchildren abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]