Mapping Race and Belonging in the Margins of Europe : Albanian, Romani, and Egyptian Sentiments

Racialization and belonging are deeply complex and imbricated processes. Drawing from more than 28 months of ethnographic research with Albanian, Romani, and Egyptian communities, this dissertation maps sentiments, scenes, and sites of socioracial manifestations in Albania’s capital city of Tirana. Racial formations are increasingly salient in Tirana, where these negotiations are fraught with tensions that play out through inherited and newly constructed narratives of belonging and non-belonging. These processes of racialization manifest locally in varied ways, and yet, they are shaped by broader global structures. The significance of race and racialization however, has been left out of the larger discussion of identity formation and marginality in the Balkans. I use this dissertation research to think critically about the scenes and sites of racialization and identity formation, and to explore notions of racial belonging and marginality as they are uniquely manifested in the contemporary post-communist moment.