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EDA GEMI INTEGRATION AND TRANSNATIONALISM IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: THE CASE OF ALBANIAN IMMIGRANTS IN VIENNA AND ATHENS ISR-FORSCHUNGSBERICHTE HERAUSGEGEBEN VOM INSTITUT FÜR STADT- UND REGIONALFORSCHUNG HEFT 50 REDAKTION: JOSEF KOHLBACHER VERLAG DER ÖSTERREICHISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN WIEN 2019 EDA GEMI INTEGRATION AND TRANS- NATIONALISM IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: The case of Albanian immigrants in Vienna and Athens July 2019 VERLAG DER ÖSTERREICHISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN WIEN 2019 Umschlagbilder: Zhan TASE, Eksodi 90, oil on canvas, representation of the historical exodus of Albanians in the 1990’s. Available online: <https://www.facebook.com/pg/BoArt-76858776334/posts/>; The Hundertwasser House (Hundertwasserhaus) in Vienna, Austria. Photograph: Getty Images. Available online: <https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/housing-crisis- the-berlin-solution-and-the-vienna-model-1.3850647> Die Arbeit unterliegt ausschließlich der Verantwortung des ISR und wurde der phil.-hist. Klasse nicht vorgelegt. ISBN 978-3-7001-8627-4 DOI: 10.1553/ISR_FB050 Medieninhaber und Herausgeber: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Institut für Stadt- und Regionalforschung, Postgasse 7, A-1010 Wien Telefon +43 1 51581/3520-3532 Telefax +43 1 51581/3533 Redaktion: Josef Kohlbacher Layout: Florian Partl Druck: Novographic, A-1230 Wien 5 TABLE OF CON T EN T S PREFA C E ..................................................................................................... 7 IN T RODU cti ON ............................................................................................11 1 RA ti ONALE AND T HEORE tic AL C ONS I DERA ti ONS .........................................15 1.1 MI GRA ti ON SYS T E M S THEORY : T HE C ASE OF T HE EU-WES T ERN BALKANS mi GRA ti ON SYS T E M ..............................15 MIGRATION SY S TE ms THEORY : AN OVERVIEW ...........................................................16 IN S IGHT S FRO M THE EU-WE S TERN BALKAN S M IGRATION S Y S TE M ...............................20 1.2 CON C E pt UAL I Z I NG T HE DYNA mic I N T ERA cti ON OF I N T EGRA ti ON AND T RANSNA ti ONAL I S M ................................................................................................25 INTEGRATION VI S -À-VI S TRAN S NATIONALI sm ..............................................................25 INTEGRATION ..........................................................................................................25 TRAN S NATIONALI sm ................................................................................................27 1.3 ME T HODOLOG ic AL C ONS I DERA ti ONS ......................................................................29 2 CROSS -NA ti ONAL V I S -À-V I S C ROSS -LO C AL A pp ROA C H .....................................30 2.1 CON T EX T UAL I Z I NG T HE M UL ti -LEVEL GOVERNAN C E OF mi GRA ti ON AND I N T EGRA ti ON : AUS T R I A C O mp ARED T O GREE C E .....................................................34 2.1.1 Aus TRIA .....................................................................................................34 2.1.2 GREECE .......................................................................................................49 2.2 FRA mi NG T HE C ROSS -LO C AL C ON T EX T : AT HENS AND VI ENNA .................................57 2.2.1 VIENNA .......................................................................................................58 2.2.2 ATHEN S .......................................................................................................63 3 ALBAN I AN mi GRA ti ON I N GREE C E AND AUS T R I A : EX P LOR I NG T HE L I NKS BE tw EEN I N T EGRA ti ON AND T RANSNA ti ONAL I S M .......68 3.1 MI GRA ti ON P A tt ERNS OF ALBAN I ANS I N GREE C E AND AUS T R I A .............................68 3.1.1 AL B ANIAN M IGRATION IN GREECE .................................................................69 6 3.1.2 AL B ANIAN M IGRATION IN Aus TRIA ................................................................71 3.2 IN T EGRA ti ON .........................................................................................................74 3.2.1 LEGAL -POLITICAL DI M EN S ION .......................................................................74 3.2.2 SOCIO -ECONO M IC DI M EN S ION .......................................................................81 3.2.3 CU LT U RAL -RELIGIO us DI M EN S ION ................................................................87 3.3 TRANSNA ti ONAL I S M ...............................................................................................93 3.3.1 ECONO M IC TRAN S NATIONAL TRAN S FER S .........................................................95 3.3.2 POLITICAL TRAN S NATIONAL ACTIVITIE S ..........................................................97 3.3.3 SOCIO -C U LT U RAL TRAN S NATIONAL ACTIVITIE S ................................................99 4. CON C LUS I ON ......................................................................................................103 BI BL I OGRA P HY ...........................................................................................................107 ANNEXES I: LI S T OF IN T ERV I E W EES – VI ENNA ....................................................... 119 ANNEXES II: LI S T OF IN T ERV I E W EES – AT HENS .....................................................120 7 PREFA C E In a context of growing concern about the disruption of social cohesion in European cities, the debate on the future of integration models and various national and local integration strategies has earned particular attention both in academic and political terms. The policy discourse on the issue, as well as scholars themselves, tend to focus on countries’ comparison of modes of integration, emphasizing their differences in relation to social outcome. Meanwhile, adding the transnational perspective has contributed to redefining migrants’ cognitive geographies and their pathways of integration and patterns of transnational mobility. The concept of transnationalism is widely used to depict the socio-economic formation spanning national borders, which involve simultaneous overlapping affiliations of persons to geographically separate polities (BA ub ÖCK 2002, p. 5). Exactly because of this, the transnational mobility of immigrants is clearly placed in the framework of the integration discourse, where national integration policies as well as citizenship regimes are considered as systemic opportunity structures that may encourage, discourage, or shape the degrees and types of immigrants’ economic, political and social-cultural involvement in transnational activities. While transnationalism has contributed to redefining the concept of integration as a three-way process, it has hardly considered its effects on migrants’ integration and vice versa. Similarly, the literature on migrant integration has paid little attention to the theoretical developments and inter- relations in these two fields. This study seeks to bridge these areas by exploring the interrelated processes of integration and transnational practises of Albanian migrants, and by measuring outcomes. The specific aim is to identify the patterns of interaction under specific context-bound national and local conditions, and see how they shape the dynamics of the migration trajectory and mobility of Albanian migration in Austria and Greece. It is going to do so by applying a comparative cross-national and cross-local perspective, focusing on two (receiving) countries that represent different migration and integration regimes: Austria and Greece, particularly in two local metropolitan areas: Vienna and Athens. The analytical approach is based on the argument that these complex processes take place within migration systems that connect countries and regions. The migration systems approach is mainly adopted as an analytical framework for the empirical research in Austria and Greece as well as a typological paradigm of the EU – Western 8 INTEGRAT I ON AND TRANSNAT I ONAL I SM I N A COMPARAT I VE PERSPECT I VE Balkans migration system. Disregarding the approach that considers migration as linear, unidirectional, push and pull, cause-effect movements, migration is here much rather understood as transnational, inter-connected, complex and self-modifying systems in which the effect of changes in one part can be traced through the entire system (FAI S T 2010). The study distinguishes between two different migration and integration policy regimes within the European Union (EU), namely those of Austria and Greece. Austria is part of the North-Western European regime, which evolved from guest-worker policies to national integration policies that recognize migrants as permanent citizens and, more recently, to policies that promote migrants’ cultural integration. In this regard, Vienna is characterized as a promoter in terms of designing and implementing pro-active integration policies, taking advantage of its dual role as the capital of the country and as a single province under the federal system of government in Austria. Greece, on the other hand, is considered as a part of the Southern European migration and integration regime, characterized mainly by labour participation with a much lesser degree of welfare provision. The particular features of the Greek case are associated with the position of Athens within the wider national space. As a Southern European metropolis, the urban complex of Athens dominates in the