Lone mothers and welfare policies in Albania Conditions, experiences, expectations 1944-2013

433 Pages·2015·7.31 MB·English

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. [phone]
[email protected]
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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 10 The distribution of extended family types versus the age of the interviewee for 240 lone
mothers after 1990 412
Table 11 The distribution of the type of marriage versus the region of living for 28 lone mothers of
the communism period 412
Table 12 Distribution of the types of marriages versus the region of living as for Central South
North Albania of 240 lone mothers 413
Table 13 Distribution of the type of marriage versus the age of the interviewee for 240 lone mothers
after 1990 413
Table 14 Housing accommodation when remaining alone versus route to lone motherhood after
1990 of 240 women 414
Table 18 Distribution of the employment status of the lone mother versus the region of living per
sample size 240 417
Bibliography 418
Summary of the PhD dissertation 428
Samenvatting van het proefschrift 430