Albanian and Polish Undocumented Workers in Greece: a Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The paper deals with the migration of undocumented workers from Albania and Poland to Greece. The underlying assumption of this paper is that migration from the former post-communist countries to Greece is not a homogeneous phenomenon, thus allowing for a distinction and comparison between the migration waves from Poland and Albania to Greece. The paper shows that economic migration from both countries is primarily an economically triggered phenomenon which results from individual rational choices and social structural settings, and which verifies general tendency of mass flows, characteristic for the era of so called `dis-organised' capitalism. In addition to the general theoretical perspectives related to migration the paper explores the idea of `underclass' in connection with the phenomenon of undocumented economic immigrants. It ends with the comparison between the two migration flows into Greece displaying similarities and differences found between the Polish and Albanian undocumented in this country.