Pub Date : 2005-08-01DOI: 10.1080/14613190500133284
E. Pratsinakis
The bulk of the literature in migration studies is written from a state perspective; very little research positions immigrants centre-stage. When that is the case, it is mostly in relation to the ‘natives’ or to the ‘host society’ in general. Probably this lack of research reflects the mainstream perception of migration, which is not in terms of the immigrants themselves, but is concerned with—some might say problematized by—the states involved. In that sense, although migration emblematically stems from immigrants as key actors, their motivations and dreams are commonly overlooked, and their voices silenced. Furthermore, states set goals, which they attempt to achieve through policies, but rarely are the goals of immigrants taken into consideration. Instead immigrants are depicted in abstract, general terms; they are grouped into homogenous categories, far removed from any notion of immigrants’ subjective goals and dreams. This definitely applies to the Greek context. The immigration policies of Greece are such that, not only are the aspirations of migrants ignored, but also their very real contribution to the country is not acknowledged. This perspective is also reflected in academia, where relevant literature fails to pose questions concerning migrants’ initial and current aspirations. This paper is an attempt to contribute to our understanding of migrants’ aspirations and strategies. The term aspirations refers to immigrants’ wishes and goals, whereas strategies are the practices that they undertake to realize those wishes, but also to cope with everyday hardships. My focus will be on Albanian immigrants in Thessaloniki. I seek to narrate the aspirations of Albanian migrants in Greece and the practices they pursue to materialize them, as well as to trace how these are reconsidered and negotiated through time. What were the pre-migration aspirations, initial expectations and motivations of Albanian immigrants in Greece? What strategies did they pursue, and under the influence of which factors? How did their strategies and aspirations develop through the passing of time and circumstance? How do immigrants evaluate their decision to migrate to Greece and how do they view their stay in the country? Is it conceptualized as a temporary move or as permanent residence? What are their plans for the future and an eventual return to Albania? In my analysis, I acknowledge migration as an instrumental behaviour, as a strategy towards the materialization of aspirations. In that sense immigrants are heterogeneous subjects responding to different aspirations. Yet immigration is a major change that transgresses all aspects of the life-course and therefore
{"title":"Aspirations and strategies of Albanian immigrants in Thessaloniki","authors":"E. Pratsinakis","doi":"10.1080/14613190500133284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14613190500133284","url":null,"abstract":"The bulk of the literature in migration studies is written from a state perspective; very little research positions immigrants centre-stage. When that is the case, it is mostly in relation to the ‘natives’ or to the ‘host society’ in general. Probably this lack of research reflects the mainstream perception of migration, which is not in terms of the immigrants themselves, but is concerned with—some might say problematized by—the states involved. In that sense, although migration emblematically stems from immigrants as key actors, their motivations and dreams are commonly overlooked, and their voices silenced. Furthermore, states set goals, which they attempt to achieve through policies, but rarely are the goals of immigrants taken into consideration. Instead immigrants are depicted in abstract, general terms; they are grouped into homogenous categories, far removed from any notion of immigrants’ subjective goals and dreams. This definitely applies to the Greek context. The immigration policies of Greece are such that, not only are the aspirations of migrants ignored, but also their very real contribution to the country is not acknowledged. This perspective is also reflected in academia, where relevant literature fails to pose questions concerning migrants’ initial and current aspirations. This paper is an attempt to contribute to our understanding of migrants’ aspirations and strategies. The term aspirations refers to immigrants’ wishes and goals, whereas strategies are the practices that they undertake to realize those wishes, but also to cope with everyday hardships. My focus will be on Albanian immigrants in Thessaloniki. I seek to narrate the aspirations of Albanian migrants in Greece and the practices they pursue to materialize them, as well as to trace how these are reconsidered and negotiated through time. What were the pre-migration aspirations, initial expectations and motivations of Albanian immigrants in Greece? What strategies did they pursue, and under the influence of which factors? How did their strategies and aspirations develop through the passing of time and circumstance? How do immigrants evaluate their decision to migrate to Greece and how do they view their stay in the country? Is it conceptualized as a temporary move or as permanent residence? What are their plans for the future and an eventual return to Albania? In my analysis, I acknowledge migration as an instrumental behaviour, as a strategy towards the materialization of aspirations. In that sense immigrants are heterogeneous subjects responding to different aspirations. Yet immigration is a major change that transgresses all aspects of the life-course and therefore","PeriodicalId":313717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133466292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2005-08-01DOI: 10.1080/14613190500133300
Thanos Maroukis
The main argument of this paper is that Albania constitutes one of the cases where economic development needs to go hand-in-hand with the development of a stable and secure political environment. Central to this venture are the mechanisms of trust in a society. In exploring the different approaches towards how Albanians’ trust in political institutions can be restored on a grass-roots level, I consider the role of the Albanian migrant community. In this respect, I move the above argument further by linking Albanian development with the immigration management and experience in the host country. I explore the development of the Albanian labour market and its institutions from two viewpoints: the migrant returnees and the remittances sent by the migrant community. I shall assess the eventuality of return migration using data from recent fieldwork research. This study focuses on Albanian migrant households in Athens, Greek enterprises employing (amongst others) Albanian migrants, and evidence from other literature. I will identify the characteristics of the migrants who seem more likely than others to repatriate according to the above-mentioned household research. Subsequently I will explore the possible effects of return migration on both the host country in question (Greece) and the country of origin. This exploration will lead to the following two linked arguments: first, that the significant qualitative characteristics of the returnees might be devalued without stable socio-political infrastructures; secondly, that the respective functions of the Greek and Albanian labour markets are interconnected. Following that, I consider the relationship between the venture of restoring people’s trust in institutions, thus financing investment-wise the Albanian economy, and the management and experiences of the Albanian migrant community in Greece.
{"title":"Albanian migrants in Greece: transcending ‘borders’ in development","authors":"Thanos Maroukis","doi":"10.1080/14613190500133300","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14613190500133300","url":null,"abstract":"The main argument of this paper is that Albania constitutes one of the cases where economic development needs to go hand-in-hand with the development of a stable and secure political environment. Central to this venture are the mechanisms of trust in a society. In exploring the different approaches towards how Albanians’ trust in political institutions can be restored on a grass-roots level, I consider the role of the Albanian migrant community. In this respect, I move the above argument further by linking Albanian development with the immigration management and experience in the host country. I explore the development of the Albanian labour market and its institutions from two viewpoints: the migrant returnees and the remittances sent by the migrant community. I shall assess the eventuality of return migration using data from recent fieldwork research. This study focuses on Albanian migrant households in Athens, Greek enterprises employing (amongst others) Albanian migrants, and evidence from other literature. I will identify the characteristics of the migrants who seem more likely than others to repatriate according to the above-mentioned household research. Subsequently I will explore the possible effects of return migration on both the host country in question (Greece) and the country of origin. This exploration will lead to the following two linked arguments: first, that the significant qualitative characteristics of the returnees might be devalued without stable socio-political infrastructures; secondly, that the respective functions of the Greek and Albanian labour markets are interconnected. Following that, I consider the relationship between the venture of restoring people’s trust in institutions, thus financing investment-wise the Albanian economy, and the management and experiences of the Albanian migrant community in Greece.","PeriodicalId":313717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123867507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2005-08-01DOI: 10.1080/14613190500132880
Russell S. King
This paper functions both as an overview of Albanian migration and as an introduction to the special issue as a whole. The special issue is devoted to a country which lies at the very centre of the region covered by the Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, yet which has been treated only sparingly in the pages of the journal thus far. Thematically, the focus is on migration—the phenomenon which is at the heart of economic, social and cultural change in Albania over the past 15 years. No other country in Europe has been so deeply affected by migration over this period of time. But to think of migration as an agent of development in Albania is both simplistic and premature. Quite apart from the problematic nature of such label-terms as ‘development’, ‘modernization’, ‘transformation’, etc.—especially in the Albanian setting—the relationships involved in analysing what has been called ‘the migration–development nexus’ are complex indeed. Does migration, through its beneficial mechanisms which are hypothesized by economists (relief of unemployment, rising wage levels, inflow of remittances, investment-oriented return migration), stimulate development in the migrant-origin country? Or should the relationship be re-stated in a different way: for instance, that it is underdevelopment that causes migration; or that excessive outmigration leads not so much to development of the home country but to its further impoverishment because of the excessive outflow of human capital?
{"title":"Albania as a laboratory for the study of migration and development","authors":"Russell S. King","doi":"10.1080/14613190500132880","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14613190500132880","url":null,"abstract":"This paper functions both as an overview of Albanian migration and as an introduction to the special issue as a whole. The special issue is devoted to a country which lies at the very centre of the region covered by the Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, yet which has been treated only sparingly in the pages of the journal thus far. \u0000 \u0000Thematically, the focus is on migration—the phenomenon which is at the heart of economic, social and cultural change in Albania over the past 15 years. No other country in Europe has been so deeply affected by migration over this period of time. But to think of migration as an agent of development in Albania is both simplistic and premature. Quite apart from the problematic nature of such label-terms as ‘development’, ‘modernization’, ‘transformation’, etc.—especially in the Albanian setting—the relationships involved in analysing what has been called ‘the migration–development nexus’ are complex indeed. \u0000 \u0000Does migration, through its beneficial mechanisms which are hypothesized by economists (relief of unemployment, rising wage levels, inflow of remittances, investment-oriented return migration), stimulate development in the migrant-origin country? Or should the relationship be re-stated in a different way: for instance, that it is underdevelopment that causes migration; or that excessive outmigration leads not so much to development of the home country but to its further impoverishment because of the excessive outflow of human capital?","PeriodicalId":313717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128712152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2005-08-01DOI: 10.1080/14613190500133276
A. Zezza, G. Carletto, B. Davis
This paper analyses recent patterns of migration and poverty in Albania, a country that - following the collapse of the communist regime in 1990 – has been experiencing high migration rates. Using a combination of survey and census data, the paper characterises spatial patterns in the distribution of poverty and migration at a high level of geographic disaggregation. The results emphasise the importance of analysing internal and international migration as different phenomena, as the two appear to be associated in opposite ways to observed poverty and welfare levels. While poverty acts as a push factor for internal migration, it seems to be a constraining factor for the more costly international migration. The results also suggest that rural migration to urban areas contributes to the relocation of poverty in urban areas.
{"title":"Moving away from poverty: a spatial analysis of poverty and migration in Albania","authors":"A. Zezza, G. Carletto, B. Davis","doi":"10.1080/14613190500133276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14613190500133276","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyses recent patterns of migration and poverty in Albania, a country that - following the collapse of the communist regime in 1990 – has been experiencing high migration rates. Using a combination of survey and census data, the paper characterises spatial patterns in the distribution of poverty and migration at a high level of geographic disaggregation. The results emphasise the importance of analysing internal and international migration as different phenomena, as the two appear to be associated in opposite ways to observed poverty and welfare levels. While poverty acts as a push factor for internal migration, it seems to be a constraining factor for the more costly international migration. The results also suggest that rural migration to urban areas contributes to the relocation of poverty in urban areas.","PeriodicalId":313717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116191121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2005-08-01DOI: 10.1080/14613190500133334
Christos Nikas, R. King
Among the most impressive intra-European emigrations which have taken place during the last 50 years in terms of relative size and economic impact, we can identify the emigration from Greece in the...
{"title":"Economic growth through remittances: lessons from the Greek experience of the 1960s applicable to the Albanian case","authors":"Christos Nikas, R. King","doi":"10.1080/14613190500133334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14613190500133334","url":null,"abstract":"Among the most impressive intra-European emigrations which have taken place during the last 50 years in terms of relative size and economic impact, we can identify the emigration from Greece in the...","PeriodicalId":313717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133326321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2005-08-01DOI: 10.1080/14613190500133243
A. Castaldo, J. Litchfield, B. Reilly
The last decade of the 20th century witnessed one of the largest economic experiments of that century as former communist countries embarked on attempts to transform their economies from centrally planned to market-based systems. The transformation process influenced the direction of economic policies and shaped the nature of social policies, business practices and institutions. The collapse of the central planning system in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union also provided the erstwhile citizens of many communist regimes with opportunities to migrate abroad. The mass exodus anticipated in some of the early writings on the transition process did not materialize and over the decade migration flows to the West were generally modest in comparison to original expectations. However, Albania proved something of an exception to this general rule and the country experienced a steady increase in its number of emigrants living abroad over the first decade of its transition. By the end of the decade over one-fifth of the Albanian population were estimated to be abroad, representing the largest outflow relative to population of any transitional economy. In more recent years some progress has been made in Albania as the government, under the framework of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS), embarked on reforms designed to stimulate economic growth and improve living standards. In the early years of the current decade, Albania has registered steady economic growth, reductions in the unemployment rate and a more stable inflationary environment. Structural programmes have been introduced to tackle financial regulation, land reform and privatization. In addition, there has been a strengthening of governance systems and an anti-corruption plan is in the process of implementation. In spite of some positive economic developments, poverty remains high in Albania and per capita income is one of the lowest of all the transitional countries. The World Bank’s recent poverty assessment estimated that
{"title":"Migration and poverty in Albania: what factors are associated with an individual's predisposition to migrate?","authors":"A. Castaldo, J. Litchfield, B. Reilly","doi":"10.1080/14613190500133243","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14613190500133243","url":null,"abstract":"The last decade of the 20th century witnessed one of the largest economic experiments of that century as former communist countries embarked on attempts to transform their economies from centrally planned to market-based systems. The transformation process influenced the direction of economic policies and shaped the nature of social policies, business practices and institutions. The collapse of the central planning system in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union also provided the erstwhile citizens of many communist regimes with opportunities to migrate abroad. The mass exodus anticipated in some of the early writings on the transition process did not materialize and over the decade migration flows to the West were generally modest in comparison to original expectations. However, Albania proved something of an exception to this general rule and the country experienced a steady increase in its number of emigrants living abroad over the first decade of its transition. By the end of the decade over one-fifth of the Albanian population were estimated to be abroad, representing the largest outflow relative to population of any transitional economy. In more recent years some progress has been made in Albania as the government, under the framework of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS), embarked on reforms designed to stimulate economic growth and improve living standards. In the early years of the current decade, Albania has registered steady economic growth, reductions in the unemployment rate and a more stable inflationary environment. Structural programmes have been introduced to tackle financial regulation, land reform and privatization. In addition, there has been a strengthening of governance systems and an anti-corruption plan is in the process of implementation. In spite of some positive economic developments, poverty remains high in Albania and per capita income is one of the lowest of all the transitional countries. The World Bank’s recent poverty assessment estimated that","PeriodicalId":313717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131438028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2005-04-01DOI: 10.1080/14613190500036941
D. Anagnostou
The rise of nationalism in 19th-century Southeast Europe was thoroughly shaped by the legacy of the millet system of the Ottoman Empire that defined political organization and cultural-communal identity along religious lines. While being off-springs of a secular zeitgeist and its attendant influences, the independent states that seceded from the Ottoman Empire constructed a national identity delimited by linguistic differences but also centred upon and fused with Orthodox Christianity. A parallel legacy that the millet system bequeathed to the region is the presence of sizeable Muslim communities, despite large-scale immigration to what remained of the Ottoman Empire and subsequently to Turkey. Shaping a distinct cultural identity, the Muslim religion rendered difficult the assimilation of these communities into predominantly Christian Orthodox states such as Bulgaria and Greece, as well as in Albania and the Yugoslav lands (notably BosniaHerzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro). In so far as Islam has been a bridge facilitating their incorporation into Turkish national identity, Muslim communities have been viewed as a threat to the nationalizing states of the Balkans. A case of a Muslim community as such is that of the Pomaks, a Slavophone group professing Islam and inhabiting the highland areas of the Rhodope mountains in the south of Bulgaria, but also found in smaller numbers in the region of Western Thrace in north-eastern Greece. Numbering about 220,000 people, Bulgaria’s Pomaks are primarily a farming rural community occupied in tobacco production and animal husbandry. While remaining caught in the interstices of Bulgarian-Turkish nationalist antagonisms, a segment among Pomaks in the post-1989 period has sought to break free from the latter. Scholars argue that in this period a process of nationalization of religious identity is again under way, dramatically epitomized in the case of the Muslims of BosniaHerzegovina in the 1990s. Evidenced among Muslims elsewhere in the Balkans,
{"title":"National interpretations in Bulgarian writings on the Pomaks from the communist period through the present1","authors":"D. Anagnostou","doi":"10.1080/14613190500036941","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14613190500036941","url":null,"abstract":"The rise of nationalism in 19th-century Southeast Europe was thoroughly shaped by the legacy of the millet system of the Ottoman Empire that defined political organization and cultural-communal identity along religious lines. While being off-springs of a secular zeitgeist and its attendant influences, the independent states that seceded from the Ottoman Empire constructed a national identity delimited by linguistic differences but also centred upon and fused with Orthodox Christianity. A parallel legacy that the millet system bequeathed to the region is the presence of sizeable Muslim communities, despite large-scale immigration to what remained of the Ottoman Empire and subsequently to Turkey. Shaping a distinct cultural identity, the Muslim religion rendered difficult the assimilation of these communities into predominantly Christian Orthodox states such as Bulgaria and Greece, as well as in Albania and the Yugoslav lands (notably BosniaHerzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro). In so far as Islam has been a bridge facilitating their incorporation into Turkish national identity, Muslim communities have been viewed as a threat to the nationalizing states of the Balkans. A case of a Muslim community as such is that of the Pomaks, a Slavophone group professing Islam and inhabiting the highland areas of the Rhodope mountains in the south of Bulgaria, but also found in smaller numbers in the region of Western Thrace in north-eastern Greece. Numbering about 220,000 people, Bulgaria’s Pomaks are primarily a farming rural community occupied in tobacco production and animal husbandry. While remaining caught in the interstices of Bulgarian-Turkish nationalist antagonisms, a segment among Pomaks in the post-1989 period has sought to break free from the latter. Scholars argue that in this period a process of nationalization of religious identity is again under way, dramatically epitomized in the case of the Muslims of BosniaHerzegovina in the 1990s. Evidenced among Muslims elsewhere in the Balkans,","PeriodicalId":313717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125571231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2005-04-01DOI: 10.1080/14613190500036917
G. Flora, G. Szilagyi, Victor Roudometof
Throughout Eastern Europe, organized religion (and in particular Eastern Orthodox Christianity) has had quite a close relationship to the formation of local national identities. This relationship entered a new phase in the post-1989 period, as religious institutions had to adapt to the new realities of the postcommunist period. Religion, and Eastern Orthodoxy in particular, provided the means for a defensive response that is often an obstacle to the operation of democratic institutions and the adoption of EU norms and regulations throughout Eastern Europe. In this paper, we concentrate on the evolution of the relationship between national identity and religious institutions in post-1989 Romanian society. Under communism, in spite of all the restrictions imposed by the regime, ecclesiastical institutions maintained a level of autonomy and at least part of their credibility and continuity with their non-communist past. Consequently, after the collapse of the communist dictatorship, religion appeared to many as the only legitimate institutional and spiritual means available to fill the post-1989 ideological vacuum. Religious institutions had to define or redefine their social meaning to effectively address the changing set of contemporary social expectations.
{"title":"Religion and national identity in post-communist Romania","authors":"G. Flora, G. Szilagyi, Victor Roudometof","doi":"10.1080/14613190500036917","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14613190500036917","url":null,"abstract":"Throughout Eastern Europe, organized religion (and in particular Eastern Orthodox Christianity) has had quite a close relationship to the formation of local national identities. This relationship entered a new phase in the post-1989 period, as religious institutions had to adapt to the new realities of the postcommunist period. Religion, and Eastern Orthodoxy in particular, provided the means for a defensive response that is often an obstacle to the operation of democratic institutions and the adoption of EU norms and regulations throughout Eastern Europe. In this paper, we concentrate on the evolution of the relationship between national identity and religious institutions in post-1989 Romanian society. Under communism, in spite of all the restrictions imposed by the regime, ecclesiastical institutions maintained a level of autonomy and at least part of their credibility and continuity with their non-communist past. Consequently, after the collapse of the communist dictatorship, religion appeared to many as the only legitimate institutional and spiritual means available to fill the post-1989 ideological vacuum. Religious institutions had to define or redefine their social meaning to effectively address the changing set of contemporary social expectations.","PeriodicalId":313717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125294193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2005-04-01DOI: 10.1080/14613190000036669
Alec Rasizade
It is now clear that the hydrocarbon reserves in the Caspian Basin are much lower than had been believed in the West in the early period since the break-up of the USSR, and that production from the area will never make a major contribution to the world’s energy security. Proceeding from their geopolitical and business considerations, the region’s prospects have been deliberately exaggerated over the past decade by international oil companies, the local and Western governments and Wall Street analysts. Now, as the production of oil and gas is entering its earnest phase, many investors are withdrawing from the region, after having found no new deposits, while the remaining companies are struggling to fill the export pipelines built during the Caspian rush with oil in commercial quantities. Conversely, another fiction forecasting a dramatic surge in Turkey’s natural gas demand has led to construction of expensive gas pipelines, which have been rendered useless as soon as this second Caspian fancy burst with confusion. Meanwhile, the ‘great game’ continues, shifting from oil to the sphere of geopolitical re-division, accompanied by the arms race on the Caspian Sea.
{"title":"The great game of Caspian energy: ambitions and realities","authors":"Alec Rasizade","doi":"10.1080/14613190000036669","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14613190000036669","url":null,"abstract":"It is now clear that the hydrocarbon reserves in the Caspian Basin are much lower than had been believed in the West in the early period since the break-up of the USSR, and that production from the area will never make a major contribution to the world’s energy security. Proceeding from their geopolitical and business considerations, the region’s prospects have been deliberately exaggerated over the past decade by international oil companies, the local and Western governments and Wall Street analysts. Now, as the production of oil and gas is entering its earnest phase, many investors are withdrawing from the region, after having found no new deposits, while the remaining companies are struggling to fill the export pipelines built during the Caspian rush with oil in commercial quantities. Conversely, another fiction forecasting a dramatic surge in Turkey’s natural gas demand has led to construction of expensive gas pipelines, which have been rendered useless as soon as this second Caspian fancy burst with confusion. Meanwhile, the ‘great game’ continues, shifting from oil to the sphere of geopolitical re-division, accompanied by the arms race on the Caspian Sea.","PeriodicalId":313717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116731528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2005-04-01DOI: 10.1080/14613190500041958
G. Arcangelis, G. Ferri, M. Galeotti, G. Giovannetti
European countries export a large portion of their manufactured goods to developing countries. Among these, the countries of the southern region of the Mediterranean Sea (MED or MED12s in Eurostat terminology), which represent a natural outlet given their geographical proximity, have always had a prominent role. From the beginning of the 1990s, however, the EU (and especially Italy) has also increased its commercial exchanges with the countries of South-Eastern Europe (SEECs) and those of Centre-Eastern Europe (CEECs). In these countries, which are also geographically close, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Comecon, an important process of internal economic liberalization has been under way. In particular, what is relevant for the present purposes is that integration and the opening toward foreign countries has increased and, in a few years, this has radically modified the structure of commercial flows. Changes in the economic structure and in the political situation, particularly in the case of the SEECs, have improved the potential for growth of these countries. Progress in political and economic areas—liberalization of the financial sector, opening of a capital market, trade liberalization—although still under way, allows a more efficient allocation of both human and financial resources and favours economic development, thereby increasing the potential for growth. At the same time, the potential for growth of the MED countries is also in principle high. GDP growth rates in recent years have consistently been larger than those of industrial countries and demographic trends and per capita
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