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Article published In: Language, Culture and Society
Vol. 6:2 (2024) ► pp.158–189

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Tracing trajectories of vulnerability in the biographical narratives of Albanian onward migrants from Greece in the UK

ORCiD logo with link | University of Westminster
 | University of Westminster
Published online: 14 November 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lcs.23022.kar
Abstract
We analyse how Albanian onward migrants from Greece living in the UK construct and negotiate forms of vulnerability they experienced along their migration trajectories. Focus group participants weaved life narratives in which vulnerabilities were constantly but variably imbricated. The risks to personal safety that they experienced in Albania set participants’ migratory trajectories in motion. The hostile institutional policies participants were subjected to in Greece drove them to onward migrate. The UK was constructed as a migratory destination where racism was more subtly present compared to Greece. We, therefore, conceptualise participants’ migratory experiences as constituting trajectories of vulnerability.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Theorising vulnerability in onward migration
    • Onward migration
    • Migrant vulnerability
  • The empirical context: Albanian (onward) migration
    • From Albania
    • To Greece
    • To the United Kingdom
  • Methodological framework
    • Using biographical narratives in migration research
    • Participants
    • Methods and data
  • Albanian OMs’ trajectories of vulnerability
    • Escaping vulnerability in Albania
    • In Greece, “they clip your wings.”
    • In the UK — “foreigners among foreigners”
    • Concluding discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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