From an apartment building in the historic centre of Thessaloniki to central Albania: narratives of movement, labour and crisis.

Ardit comes from a city in central Albania. This interview took place in 2012 at the restaurant Ardit opened in his place of origin. He was 38 at the time and had lived in Greece for twenty consecutive years. At first, he worked in agriculture for two years, in the peach production of Edessa, and then moved to Thessaloniki where he started out working in construction. Later, he worked as a doorman at an apartment building in the historic centre of the city for twelve years. A few months before this interview was conducted, he had returned to Albania. With the money raised after twenty years of work in Greece, he opened his own business, a small restaurant where he works as manager along with other members of his family. In the extract, Ardit chronicles his decision to return to Albania and open his own business.

At the time when Ardit decided to move back to Albania, namely the period between 2009 and 2014, the Greek economic crisis was at its peak and acquiring Greek citizenship was still an extremely long and arduous process. During that time, young and middle-aged individuals of Albanian descent were faced with the difficult decision of whether to return to Albania (as there was a significant reverse migration wave in progress), stay in Greece, or study/work in another country abroad.