Paper Short Abstract:

The paper examines how Albanian migrants’ conceptions and practices towards work insurance change over the years. These changes are related to migration policies, labor market formations as well as to migrants' gender, age and family status.

Paper Abstract:

After an initial period of undeclared and uninsured work in construction and agriculture, Albanian male migrants acquire work insurance ensuring family’s access to legal status with all the rights that this entails -notably, education, health care, pension. Albanian women did not wish to be insured both because of the labor sector in which most of them work -domestic work is a prominent case of informal and undeclared labor-, and of a family strategy according to which only one of the two spouses is expected to be insured. They claim their right to insurance, when men’s work loses its stable and systematic character, with undeclared and uninsured work prevailing again, jeopardizing thus family’s legal status. The exception among Albanian female migrants were single, divorced, and widowed women for whom work insurance has always been a priority. The issue of insurance is also linked to age, in different ways for first- and second-generation migrants. The first-generation migrants start to worry when they get older and start thinking about when and if they will be entitled to a pension and to what amount they will be entitled to. For the second-generation, adults now, getting a declared and insured job is essential to the extent that it ensures their legal stay in Greece. This is even more the case for those who do not continue their studies after high school, and therefore are not covered by family residence permit, as well as for those who have not acquired Greek citizenship.