The work and commercial networks of Bulgarian and Albanian rag and bone traders in the open-air rag and bone market in Athens today
The work and commercial networks of Bulgarian and Albanian rag and bone traders in the open-air rag and bone market in Athens today

Summary/Abstract: When most people hear of rag and bone traders, they think of socially and economically marginalised individuals. However, this is a highly distorted picture owed to the media. Rag and bone men began their activities in Athens towards the end of the 1960s.In the early 1990s, they founded a professional body, Hermes, which in 2015 included some750 members. With the onset of the financial crisis of 2010, several migrants and refugees became resorted to taking up this occupation. As a means of dealing with the insecurity of employment, they turned to gather metal items they found in the streets. In this study, I will focus on the commercial networks of Bulgarian and Albanian rag and bone traders who are active in Athens’s open-air rag and bone market today. They are far from being a marginal group; migrant rag and bone traders make up what is a professional body, with extensive commercial networks in Greece and the Balkans that facilitate the transport of objects,particularly items of folk art, such as carpets, dishes or pieces of wooden furniture, to toony countries in the Balkans and eastern Europe. Most rag and bone traders are involved in collecting metal items, either iron or copper, or old furniture pieces.

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