Doing Gender in Informal Social Protection: Migration, Return and Family Relations in the Western Balkans

2026-10-22UTC02:10:48Z /oai

opus4.bicc:15312 2026-07-21 doc-type:Journal article

2 BL.ADS https://doi.org/10.18753/2297-8224-8573 Ruth Vollmer Doing Gender in Informal Social Protection: Migration, Return and Family Relations in the Western Balkans Universität Freiburg 2026 Journal article /SystemData/Languages/English This article examines links between gender and informal social protection in return migration contexts in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. It situates informal social protection, as provided by families and transnational networks, within post-socialist welfare retrenchment, socio-economic insecurities and migration. Adopting a ‘doing gender’ approach, the article contends that informal social protection is actively negotiated and evaluated through diversified gendered norms and relations of dependency. Drawing on 321 qualitative interviews with returned migrants conducted between 2019 and 2025 it identifies the patterns of protection, adverse inclusion, and exclusion within informal social protection systems. By linking these with “doing gender”, the article deepens the understanding how social relations enact and produce gender while providing or withholding social protection. Find the full journal article here.