WUNRN
Chrysanthi
ZACHOU , Sociology, American College of Greece, Athens, Greece
Evaggelia
KALERANTE ,
Education, university West Macedonia, Athens, Greece
Abstract:
Following the initial phase of massive immigration Greece
(1990-2000) during which Albanian women worked as domesticss, babysitters and
care takers for the elderly-despite discrimination and exclusionary state
policies- second generation immigrants, emerged in the years that followed
(2000-2008) as small enterpreneurs, store keepers and service employees
enjoying social security and health care benefits. Their efforts
towards economic advancement coincided with claimsmaking for social and
political rights and participation in migrant associations. Acting as pressure
groups, these associations promoted political goals in pursuit of
naturalization rights.However, the increased unemployment rates and curtlaing
of welfare state benefits due to global recession and the recent Greek economic
crisis, rendered their former expectations for social mobility dimmer.
Overburdened by their family’s financial insecurity and their husbands
declining incomes, due to the economic recession on the building
industries in which they were mostly employed, many women - are now forced to
return to earlier forms of unskilled employment. As their struggle for survival
does not allow for political pursuits, immigrant women who barely make ends
meet as the principal family breadwinners, they have fallen back on the grim
realities of the first years in the host country. As a follow up study of our
past research on Albanian immigrant woman and migrant associations, this paper
aims to offer a comparative frame for their changing position in the Greek society
and their shifting expectations before and after the recession. Our study seeks
to examine the consequences of economic crisis on four levels: (a) the familial
web (b) the civil sphere, (c) the welfare state and (d) the individual action
orientation. In addition, through this study we wish to demonstrate not only
how immigrant women, cope with the current crisis but also their search for
viable alternatives in an increasingly globalized world.