Earning a Living: Experiences of Albanian Immigrants in Greece.

The collapse of communist system, along with the transition from a centrally-planned to a market economy triggered large-scale immigration from Albania to the countries of Western Europe, in particular Greece and Italy. This study examines Albanian labor market experiences in Greece. I argue that the existing theoretical perspectives on immigrants' adaptation in host societies' labor market are inadequate to explain economic adaptation of Albanian migrants in Greece. In order to fully understand Albanians' experiences in the labor market in Greece, we need to examine the economic environment of their socialist past. Albanians, like their Eastern European counterparts grew up in a system, in which having a job was a state guaranteed social right. The process of looking for a job, and the fear of losing a job, was virtually nonexistent. In capitalist Greece, however, these immigrants will, for the first time in their lives, encounter a free market economic environment, in which job insecurity, and job instability, are a reality of daily life. These new circumstances present unique challenges to Albanian immigrants. The research is based on 64 in-depth (face-to face and telephone) interviews with Albanian migrants who live and work in Greece. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]