Eron from Përmet

Eron (pseudonym) is from Përmet and through her narrative we can map the traces of this migration experience, including the migrants’ journey, settlement, employment and feelings of social acceptance or exclusion.  

Eron arrived in Volos in August 1993. Her husband, Leonidas, had already settled and found employment in the city. Eron was issued a two-week travel visa and Leonidas went to Albania to pick her up. She only carried one piece of luggage with everything she would need for a two-week stay. The couple left their daughter behind in the care of their relatives.

Eron talks about her journey, during which Leonidas detailed his own journey, telling her his story about how he migrated to Greece. In this roundabout way, Leonida’s account to Eron is a summary of the first period of Albanian migration: being hunted and facing violence at the border, wandering around in search of employment, experiencing extreme exploitation and suffering wage theft, but also receiving support and solidarity.

‘We travelled together and throughout the journey, he talked as if he was a tour guide. […] “Here is Katara, that’s the place where the police was onto us, that’s where they shot at us, that’s where we hid. That’s the house where they gave us bread […]”’. 

Eron goes on to talk about her decision to stay in Volos, even though she knew she would have to work as a houseworker and wouldn’t have access to better employment opportunities. She talks about the experiences of her compatriots in Volos and the optimism of youth, as she points out:  

‘I felt young, so very young. I believed I could make it.’

The audio story and the accompanying text include excerpts from interviews with Eron (pseudonym). She was born in 1964 in Përmet. She was a teacher in Albania and a house worker in Greece. The interview was conducted by Labrini Styliou, 24/7/2005. Audiovisual Archive of Testimonies, Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology (IAKA), University of Thessaly.