Aspirations, agency and well‐being of Romanian migrants in Greece

Abstract

Migration is considered a meaningful strategy whereby both migrants and nonmigrants can improve their well-being and their livelihoods. The paper emphasizes the migrants' own perspective and sheds light on movers' noneconomic drivers. The concept of aspirations is treated as a 'missing link' that allows research into migration at its intersection with social inequalities, hierarchies and diversity. The paper's main aim is therefore to elucidate Romanian migrants' aspirations and to illustrate how these aspirations are informed by their agency and reflect their well-being both during and after the economic recession in Greece. Romanian migration provides sufficient grounds to invoke a more nuanced approach to migrants' well-being, which takes their 'dreams of fantasy' into account, along with their subjective experiences of inequalities and multiple belonging. This paper frames migrants' well-being theoretically as a relational process, but also in terms of the socio-spatial arrangements of migrant mobility/immobility acts. Romanians' narratives are analysed in relation to their social trajectories, spatial movement(s) and settlement patterns during their international and internal journey(s).

‘Like every other day’: Writing temporalities of banal exploitation among precarious migrant workers

“…Borders, camps and detention centres are particularly intense and violent sites through which migrant (im)mobilities are expressed. Papadopoulos and Fratsea's (2022) analysis of the temporal controls imposed in camps situate these sites as spaces where movement is slowed down or frozen. Axelsson (2022) offers a similar analysis of borders as ‘devices which selectively contract and expand the distance between internal and external spaces and mobilise and immobilise migrants by altering the speed and rhythm of their movements’ (p. 59).…”

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“…Some useful approaches to the estimation of the attractiveness of certain territories can be found in related studies. In particular, not only touristic but also migration studies have developed a theoretical background to measure a country's attractiveness in terms of plentiful surroundings for the satisfaction of professional needs (Oliinyk et al, 2022) and other factors of ensuring well-being (Mishchuk & Grishnova, 2015;Papadopoulos & Fratsea, 2022). In all cases, the attractiveness of territories is linked with expectations of migrants or visitors and is described by a set of pull-factors.…”

Immigration, spatial inequality and place attractiveness

“…At the same time, subjectively, the perceived attractiveness of a place can change over the life course of individuals. For instance, long‐term migrants who have initially come for employment opportunities in Greece (Papadopoulos & Fratsea, 2022), opportunities which have been severely affected by the crisis, were one or two decades later staying because of place attachment, social ties and an appreciation for the Greek nature. They had come for economic reasons but were staying for noneconomic ones.…”

“…Objectively, places may change for a number of reasons, including investments in infrastructure (e.g., to increase accessibility, availability and quality of services such as healthcare, education), or as a result of the effect of climate change, economic crises, policy interventions, decreases in the availability and quality of employment, and so forth. For instance, in Greece (Papadopoulos & Fratsea, 2022), the economic crisis which has severely affected the country has made specific places significantly less attractive from an economic point of view, as they experienced high unemployment and lower wages. Similarly, the local housing policies in the three villages in the Netherlands (Ulceluse et al, 2021) and their consequences have made them less attractive places to live for the Romanian and Polish seasonal workers in the case study.…”

“…The first paper in the Special Issue, by Plotnikova and Ulceluse The importance of using a life course lens when analysing the dynamic between a place's attractiveness and migration decisions is reiterated in Papadopoulos and Fratsea (2022) article focusing on Romanian immigrants in Greece. For many Romanian respondents, the place was initially attractive for its potential to provide higher wages, better employment opportunities and living conditions, to offer better life chances for social mobility for themselves and their children or, more generally, to search for better livelihoods than in Romania.…”