Paper short abstract:

The paper illustrates a very complex nature of categorizations such as “local” and “foreigner” in Dhërmi/Drimades of Southern Albania and explores how these categorizations are used by people who present claims of owning places or belonging to them.

Paper long abstract:

The fall of communism and ensuing economic and sociocultural changes in 1990 led to massive migrations of people living throughout Albania. Similar depopulation can be observed in Dhërmi/Drimades, the village in Southern Albania where migrations were accelerated also by the growing minority and landtenure issues. In contrast to the Albanian government the Greek foreign policy considers the people of Dhërmi/Drimades to be of Greek ethnic origin. With massive migrations of local youth to Greece the village is now mainly populated by the elderly. Besides them the village is also inhabited by families of seasonal workers coming from other parts of Albania. Many of them moved to Dhërmi/Drimades after 1990, while some already lived here in the period of communism. In the past few years following the processes of the decollectivisation of property many local people, who live in emigration in Greece, started to return regularly to their natal village, where they have built weekend houses or/and their tourist facilities on the village's coastal plains. Parallel to these migrations the landtenure issues are becoming more important as the basis for the construction of social and spatial boundaries. The paper illustrates a very complex nature of categorizations such as "local" and "foreigner" and explores how they are used by people who present claims of owning places or belonging to them. The paper will question in which social contexts such categorizations and claims become salient and contested and in which they are silenced and covered within the everyday practices.