Lone mothers and welfare policies in Albania Conditions, experiences, expectations 1944-2013 This PhD dissertation is an action research project undertaken by Arla Gruda, representing the Independent Forum for Albanian Woman, an Albanian Associa- tion lead by Diana Çuli. The financial provision of this PhD project was covered by Nuffic. Copyright © 2015 by Arla Gruda Layout and design: Skanderbeg dtp Cover design: Flutura Açka Cover photograph: © ‘Life support’ by Brooke Shaden, www.brookeshaden.com isbn 978-90-76905-36-5 All rights reserved Skanderbeg Books L. nr. 4, Rr, “H.H. Dalliu”, Pall. 184/9, Tirana, Albania Tel. +355 4 2260945 [email protected] www.skanderbegbooks.com Lone mothers and welfare policies in Albania Conditions, experiences, expectations 1944-2013 Alleenstaande moeders en sociaal beleid in Albanië Omstandigheden, ervaringen, verwachtingen 1944-2013 (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 13 november 2015 des middags te 2.30 uur door Arla Gruda geboren op 26 februari 1976 te Tirana, Albanië Promotor: Prof. Dr. M. L. Waaldijk Copromotor: Dr. S. Pino (Gjipali) Dedicated: To the widows of my family, - my grandmother Behije and my aunt Neriman 7 Table of contents Acknowledgements 11 List of abbreviations 15 Chapter 1: Introduction and methodology 17 1.1. Introduction 17 1.2. On methodology 28 Chapter 2: Gender scholarship on lone mothers 39 2.1. Introduction 39 2.2. The category of ‘lone mothers’ 41 2.3. Identities and representations ‘lone mothers’ 47 2.4. Social rights for women and lone mothers in welfare states 53 2.5. Evaluation of eu reconciliation policies for women and lone mothers 60 2.6. Lone mothers’ sources of income 65 2.7. Support for lone mothers from civil society and charity organizations 70 2.8. Gender and welfare in Eastern Europe 72 2.9. Conclusion 74 Chapter 3: The Albanian family: regulation of marriage and divorce in a time span of one century 77 3.1. Introduction 77 3.2. The development of the Albanian family until 1990 78 3.2.a. Features of the Albanian family until the end of wwii 81 3.2.b. Love and marriage organization until the first half of the twentieth century 84 3.2.c. Albanian marriage and family during communism (1945-1990) 90 3.3. Marriage and family after 1990 in Albania 109 3.4. Discussion and Conclusions 116 Chapter 4: Characteristics of lone mothers, housing arrangements and income packaging 119 4.1. Results of the survey 119 Available data on lone mothers in Albania 122 Reasons of lone motherhood 123 Age and new partnerships 123 Number and age of children 124 Geographical background 126 Education 127 Migration 127 4.2. Lone motherhood and Albanian family patterns 129 Lone mothers’ experiences with extended families during their marriage 130 The creation of marriages, age of marriage, and the reasons for dissolution of marriages or abandonment 134 8 Lone mothers and welfare policies in Albania Routes to divorce, abandonment and separation 137 The relationship between the type of marriage and the route to lone mother- hood 140 The family typology when entering lone motherhood 141 Conclusion 143 4.3. Packaging income and support by lone mothers 143 Income from employment of lone mothers during communism 145 Graph. 11 Education background and current employment status for 28 pre-1990 lone mothers 147 Income packaging by lone mothers after 1990 148 Comparing data on income packaging 159 Conclusion 161 Chapter 5 Governmental social welfare for lone mothers in Albania, 1944-2013 163 5.1. Introduction 163 5.2. The welfare policies of the communist period and lone mothers’ usage of them 165 Background to the allocation of civil, social and political rights in socialist Alba- nia 165 Social rights allocation and entitlements application for lone mothers during socialism 166 5.3. Social rights for lone mothers after 1990 in Albania 181 Background to the socio-economic and political situation after 1990 181 Reformating social protection in Albania and postion of lone mothers 183 Local governments and welfare programmes for lone mothers 189 The delivered welfare programmes for lone mothers 192 5.4. Discussion and conclusions 214 Chapter 6: npo support for lone mothers in Albania 1990-2013. Women activists, inter- national donors and religious organizations. 218 6.1. Researching the work of women’s organizations in Albania after 1990 218 6.2. Albanian women’s activism after 1990 and the influence of International Donors on prioritizing local agendas 222 First decade 227 Growth 1999 to 2005 235 2005 - present 238 6.3. Services provided to lone mothers by women npos: information and advocacy 241 6.4. Individual social services for lone mothers 256 Provision of food and clothing 256 Psycho-social and legal assistance 257 Career development, vocational training and employment services 259 Shelters 261 Outreach and consciousness raising 263 Assistance with the preparation of documents 264 6.5. Services and programs provided by religious institutions and organizations to lone mothers 265 table of contents 9 Orthodox and Catholic Institutions in support of lone mothers and their chil- dren 269 Muslim organizations supporting lone mothers and their children 272 Dutch Catholic and Protestants support to lone mothers in Albania 273 6.6. Discussions and conclusions 274 Chapter 7: Voices of Lone mothers: identities, differences, needs and agency 278 Introduction 278 7.1. Identities, differences, society prejudice and family support 281 7.2. The assessment by lone mothers of the welfare policies offered by the state 298 7.3.1. The comments of lone mothers on the usage of the Economic Aid pro- gramme 300 7.3.2 Lone mothers’ voices in commenting employment service 308 7.3.3 Lone mothers’ comments on the usage of health-care service for themselves and their children 312 7.3.4 Lone mothers’ comments on the usage of disability pension for their child or themselves 314 7.3.5 Lone mothers’ comments on the family pension or child pension after the death of their husband 316 7.4. Assessment by lone mothers of services provided by local women npos and reli- gious institutions 317 7.5. Lone mothers’ expectations from the state, npos and business community 321 Lone mothers in Durrës (Western-Central Albania): 323 Elbasan city (Central Albania): 324 Fier city (Western-South Albania) 324 Shkodër city (Western-North Albania) 325 Peshkopia city (Eastern-North Albania) 325 Vlora city (Western-South Albania) 325 Conclusions 326 Chapter 8: Conclusion, discussion, recommendations 330 Appendixes 351 1 Interviews & questionnaires -lone mothers 351 1.1 Questionnaire for pre-1990 lone mothers 351 1.2 Questionnaire for lone mothers after 1990 354 1.3 List of interviews with pre-1990 lone mothers 370 1.4 List of interviews with lone mothers after 1990 371 2 Interviews with representatives of women npo’s and religious institutions 380 2.1 Questionnaire for representatives of women npo’s 380 2.2 Questionnaire for representatives of religious institutions 384 2.3 List of interviews with representatives of local women organizations 386 2.4 List of questionnaires filled in by representatives of women npo’s 386 2.5 List of interviews with representatives of religious institutions 386 3 Interviews with representatives of local governments 387 10 Lone mothers and welfare policies in Albania 3.1 Questionnaire for representatives of local governments 387 3.2 Questionnaire for representatives of the Social State Service 390 3.3 List of interviews with representatives of local government and the National Social State Ser- vice 393 4 Preparations for fieldwork 394 4.1 Message sent to representatives of local women npo’s to invite them to cooperate and offer an explanation on the tasks they needed to perform 394 4.2 Pre-selection number of interviewees based on the Women and Men 2011 instat 399 4.3 The list of the local women npo’s with which I collaborated to conduct the survey and get ac- cess to lone mothers. 400 5 Graphs and tables with data from the surveys with 268 lone mothers in Albania 401 Table 1 Routes to lone motherhood of 240 lone mothers after 1990 401 Table 2 Distribution of 28 lone mothers from before 1990 based on the route to lone mother- hood 402 Table 3 The age division for 28 lone mothers from before 1990 402 Table 4 The age division of 240 lone mothers after 1990 402 Table 5 Remarriage and re-partnering among 240 lone mothers after 1990 403 Table 6 The age of children of 240 lone mothers after 1990 403 Graph 1 The age of children of 28 lone mothers before 1990 404 Table 7 Correlation between age of mothers and number of children for 240 lone mothers after 1990 405 Graph 2 Education and qualification of 240 lone mothers after 1990 405 Graph 3 Emigration countries and years in emigration for 240 lone mothers related to the region of origin in Albania 406 Graph 4 Emigration countries of ex-partners of 240 lone mothers after 1990 related to their route to lone motherhood 407 Table 8 Patterns of internal migration by 240 lone mothers after 1990 408 Table 9 The distribution of the region of the origin of the man versus the origin of the woman of 240 lone mothers after 1990 409 Graph 5 The distribution of the place of origin of the former partner of 240 lone mothers after 1990 410 Graph 6 The distribution of the place of origin of the woman for the same sample 411 Table