Balkan.Myth.final

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19. Markers of self-identity and the image of the Other in the context of labour
mobility in Western Macedonia

Petko Hristov
Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum – BAS

[email protected]

Abstract
This research is based on my fieldwork experience from 2005 and 2009 in the
Western part of today’s FYR of Macedonia, specifically in the regions of Debar and
Struga. I analyse the construction of self-identity among both the Orthodox Christian
population (in Vevchani) and the Macedonian Muslims (so-called Torbeshi in the
villages of Yanche, Broshtitsa and Labunishta). Both cases concern local
communities with traditions in gurbet (seasonal labour migration) among the male
population – as pechalbars on the Balkans during the first half of the 20th century, as
gastarbeiters in Germany and Austria during the second half of the century, and as
present-day temporary labour migrants, mainly in Northern Italy.My article is built
around the answers of questions which will focus on the need for an image of the
Other (especially for Western Macedonia in an ethnic and religious aspect) in order to
construct one’s self-identity, particularly among Macedonian Muslims (Torbeshi).
Key words: labour migration, identity, religiousness, co-existence, FYR of
Macedonia

Labour mobility in the Balkans is among the most discussed topics in recent years,
while at the same time among the least researched. The tradition of seasonal or
temporary labour mobility, particularly among the men, has existed for centuries in a
number of regions on the peninsula, and is known as гурбет/ gurbet/ kurbet/ kurbéti,
or through the South-Slavic term pechalbarstvo158 (Hristov 2008: 217). Even though
the denomination gurbet unifies a wide range of labour mobility patterns, it is what
Martin Baldwin-Edwards successfully calls “old-fashioned temporary migration”, in
which “the migrant’s identity is closely linked to the country of origin” (Baldwin-
Edwards 2002: 2), that is significant for continuous periods in the history of entire
regions, regardless of ethnic and religious affiliation. The Balkans offer a remarkable
variety of similar traditional patterns: from shepherds’, agrarian workers’ and master
builders’ seasonal mobility to craftsmen’s and merchants’ temporary absences from
home, with the goal of gaining wealth and supporting their families back home. The
villages in Western Macedonia that I researched are emblematic in this aspect: it is
not a coincidence that Michael Palairet describes one of them, Galichnik, as an
“archetypal pechalbar community.” Even though this village is currently deserted,
during the late 19th and early 20th centuries up to 90% of its men were away on
gurbet/pechalba in Thessalonica, Istanbul, Sofia, Belgrade and Bucharest, even
reaching Egypt (Palairet 1987: 44).

Migration researchers face several main difficulties, primarily in the attempt to
reveal the reasons for labour migrations of different social groups in the population of

158 The word “gurbet” in most Balkan languages comes from the Turkish-Arabic ‘gurbet’, meaning
‘abroad’ (cf. Turkish-Bulgarian Dictionary, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, 1952, p. 193), and
the word “pechalbarstvo” from the Slavic ‘pechalba’ (‘gain’), i.e. to ‘gain for a living’.

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one country to another or within the country itself, to trace the mechanisms of this
process, and to determine the ways in which these changes reflect on the everyday life
and culture of the migrants.

In a Balkan perspective, interdisciplinary research in a historical and
contemporary view is hampered by the frequent politicisation of migration movement,
most often of refugees and political emigrants. In this aspect, Balkan researchers fall
victim to the common tendency of international migrations to be a focus of political
debate, rather than analysis of their hidden dynamics and socio-cultural characteristics
(Kearney 1997: 324).
Serious difficulties also arise from the researchers’ approach often being limited to
national frames, especially when studying trans-border migrations, both in the past
and in the present. Social and cultural influence and exchange, both in the regions or
countries that “send” migrants and in those that “accept” them, is very often ignored.
Such a view is particularly inaccurate; in a historical context, labour migrations on the
Balkans were as a rule cross- and trans-border, “border” in the meaning implied by
Fredrik Barth of the [trans-] ethnic, religious, cultural, and (later) state boundaries on
the Balkans (cf. Barth 1969).

A significant challenge to researchers (historians, ethnologists, anthropologists,
sociologists, demographers) is to explain whether these traditional patterns of ‘life in
motion’ are reproduced and transformed in the conditions of globalisation and EU
expansion, which give more opportunities for labour mobility in a European
perspective. Such research has yet to happen. In this approach, Greece’s example is
indicative: from a ‘source’ of migrants it became an attractive centre for Balkan
gurbetchias.

As a basis of my research I use materials from my fieldwork and my historical
research in the Western part of Macedonia, in the border regions between Albania and
the FYR of Macedonia. These regions are famous for their ethnic and religious
diversity, especially the Miyak159 region in North-western Macedonia. Traditional
patterns of male labour mobility have existed in Western Macedonia for centuries,
and form a part of what some researchers call a Balkan “Culture of Gurbet”,
following Caroline Brettell (cf. Brettell 2003: 3).

Yanche village, located close to Galichnik in the region north of Debar, is
populated by Muslims and Christians that call themselves “Macedonians”. The
Muslim population, which is sometimes referred to as “Torbeshi”, is predominant. A
considerable part of the older generation men have worked as gastarbeiters in
Germany and Austria during the second half of the 20th century, while younger men
worked as construction workers in Northern Italy after the 1990s. During the 1960s,
70s and 80s the gastarbeiters’ families still stayed in the village, while the men
traditionally returned at least once a year during their annual leave. For the remaining
time, they were “earning abroad”. After the Yugoslav federation broke up in the early
1990s and visa limitations were imposed on its former member states, the sons of
these former gastarbeiters chose certain regions in Northern Italy as their destination.
Following the “chain migration” model, men from the younger generation took their
families with them and created entire colonies in some towns. Young men return to
their birthplaces to marry, however; villages are still endogamous.

159 The Miyaks are a specific ethnographic group, inhabiting Northwestern Macedonia. In my research I
use the geographic connotation of the name Macedonia – a territory inhabited by various ethnic and
religious groups over the centuries – instead of its contemporary political meaning.

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In Yanche, our research team witnessed the way returning gastarbeiters from
the older generations, mainly Muslims, take care of the village mosque. Both in
Yanche and in neighbour villages old mosques are renovated and new ones are built.
The new mosque with a clock tower in Debar, the closely located regional centre, has
a very modernistic look: one can see the influence of architecture in Italy, which is
where most of the builders that built the mosque work on gurbet.

The Yanche imam was born in Alexandria (Egypt) in an old pechalbar family,
did a pilgrimage to Mecca, and was particularly proud to show us the renovated
mosque in Yanche.

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Villagers told us that returning pechalbars also made donations for the old
church and for renovating an old mountain chapel. A Christian, also born in
Alexandria in a pechalbar family, showed us the St. Elijah chapel, visited by infertile
women (both Christian and Muslim) hoping for God’s help to conceive.

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Another village, Broshtisa, is located in the mountains south of Debar, and is
populated entirely by Macedonian Muslims (torbeshi). There, our research team
witnessed the marriage between a gurbetchia who returned from Italy and his local
bride.

The money these men earn abroad is mainly invested in building big houses,
which are inhabited by the gastarbeiters’ parents for most of the year while the men
are abroad with their families. In contrast with Christian women, however, Muslim
migrant women never work abroad. They stay home and raise the children, and a very
small minority of them works part-time. New architecture in the village is influenced
by the labour migrants’ destinations: it’s easy to tell who worked in Austria and who
– in Italy.

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Local women who return to Broshitsa for their annual leave keep their
traditional celebration suits, now a mixture between a traditional outfit and modern
influence, as their “own” marker.

The following examples are from two neighbour villages: Labunishta,
inhabited entirely by Macedonian Muslims, and Vevchani, inhabited entirely by
Orthodox Christians. The men in both villages have been pechalbars for several
generations, i.e. seasonal or temporary migrants in countries in former Yugoslavia
and Western Europe.

Local gastarbeiters in Labunishta proudly showed us their new multi-story
houses, built with the money they earned on gurbet. Young men take their families
with them to Italy, but, as a rule, Muslim women never work; they stay at home to

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raise the children. Children go to Italian schools, even though the school in
Labunishta is working. August was the “marriage season”: every day saw several
marriages of gastarbeiters who had returned to the village.

Labunishta is still endogamous. Young torbeshi gastarbeiters told me that
migrants from the region help each other in Italy, including Christians and Albanians.
However, the torbeshi are normally separated from them, as they differ in religion
from the Christians and in language and ethnic affiliation from the Albanians.
Christian women, migrants in Northern Italy, told me that their husbands stopped
organising common celebrations, because whereas they take their families with them,
Muslim men show up alone without their wives.

When talking about their Albanian neighbours, also fellow migrants, the
torbeshi point out that there is notable distance between them despite the shared
religion, mainly because of the Albanians’ different national identity. In the Albanian
village of Radolishta, located close to Struga, I witnessed this myself: the
gastarbeiters had restored the local mosque in a very indicative way.