Included in this came to Greece with her second spouse, both of them abandoning a primary matrimony and children, in order to live as the one or two regarding the parents which disapproved of the relationship
However, educated urban women who resolved a lifetime career into the Albania take a look at its are employed in Greece because a great downgrading and you can humiliating feel. They feel trapped inside the a shut labor business that will not promote her or him possibilities to practise their experience, because of the newest ethnic office regarding labor. Its narratives communicate a robust sense of low self-esteem, that is attached to the impossibility of its signing up for the Greek medical insurance system independently and you will and so acquiring an independent quarters allow. Hence, they remain lawfully determined by their husbands. Yet , for even these types of experienced people, waged labour stays a primary path in order to independence also to care about-value.
I experienced sick of being a homemaker… I thought to me, living is not just to wash within the delicacies, for cooking the meals. I experienced other welfare, on the people. I experienced involved in educational courses, that have ladies’ associations. But the majority of all the I needed to get results, getting separate. Which is what i give other people. Never search a beneficial ‘convenient’ matrimony. Look for employment very first, to be separate and after that you can choose in order to marry. (Andrina, born 1965, interviewed by the Raymond Alvanos, )
Therefore, migration 
profoundly affected the intercourse attention to one another rural and you can urban girls. They freed them from the power over the fresh lengthened home, it guaranteed him or her a certain freedom through the things they’re doing, and it instructed them some other models from gender relationships compliment of knowledge having other community.
I interviewed eight Bulgarian people born ranging from 1946 and 1977. Weighed against the new Albanian ladies, all of them grew up in an urban environment. Their loved ones situations was indeed really unlike the Albanian ladies, but quite similar compared to that of your own Bulgarian people. More often than not, damaged group were a primary reason behind migration. Singular girl stayed in Greece together spouse and you will child, and another had been solitary however, migrated to become listed on this lady mom that has separated. Another four people got separated or split using their husbands before migrating. Various other divorced woman partnered a beneficial Greek guy when you look at the Greece, a choice she considers ‘the brand new terrible error within my life’. You to had a good college or university knowledge, while the most other half dozen got finished secondary knowledge or technical school. Them got experienced an energetic elite lifetime inside Bulgaria however, shed its operate regarding the 1990’s. You to got did once the a great schoolteacher, you to definitely just like the a nursing assistant, around three was actually workplace team and two had has worked in business. Just after their arrival during the Greece, it located employment due to the fact real time-inches taking good care of elderly people.
Andrina, whom read economics in the Albania and you may wanted to wed an excellent Greek boy due to an agreed upon relationship (they met the very first time on edging), slammed her very own decision in order to wed one she failed to love so you can settle down and get a housewife:
In contrast to all of the Albanian people, the brand new narratives out-of Bulgarian ladies present all of us that have an entire reverse out of antique patriarchal intercourse relations. Regardless of the signed environment where most of them functions and you will live because migrants inside Greece, its narratives inform you a strong, motivated identity. They promote themselves since the energetic brains of the transnational homes, and additionally they will cam during the unmistakable denigratory terms in regards to the husbands it abandoned:
I’ve had a spouse I don’t like to see. He could be idle. Really the only good thing about communism was it broke new stamina of your own husband together with dad. He performs and i also works. I earn money and therefore do the guy. Therefore the guy can’t acquisition myself in the. (Elena, born 1946, questioned from the Lambrini Styliou, )