Albanian diaspora
The largest communities of the Albanian diaspora are particularly found in Italy, Argentina, Greece, Romania, Croatia, Turkey, Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland and the United States.
Other important and increasing communities are located in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Belgium, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
The phenomenon of migration from Albania is recorded since the early Middle Ages, when numerous Albanians immigrated to southern Italy and Greece to escape various socio-political difficulties and the Ottoman conquest.
In Albania proper, religious names were not allowed during communism, and were barely given since the fall of the Communist dictatorship and the opening of the borders.
[12] Those who have come back have opened micro-enterprises, while the proximity of Greece and Italy to Albania, where more than half of immigrants are located has contributed to continuous labor mobility.
[15] In 2006, a "brain gain" program compiled by Albanian authorities and the UNDP was put into action to encourage the skilled diaspora to contribute to the country's development, though its success remains to be seen.
[22] In 1636, the Mandritsa, a typical village in Bulgaria, was found by Eastern Orthodox Albanian dairymen who supplied the Ottoman Army.
After the fall of communism throughout Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a large number of economic refugees and immigrants from Greece's neighbouring countries, Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Romania, as well as from more distant countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia, arrived in Greece, mostly as illegal immigrants, to seek employment.
[23] Albanians in Greece are by far the most integrated, legal and settled community:,most of all members of the Northern Epirus greek minority.
Though eventually assimilated in their Italian environment, Clement XI's Albanian antecedents were evident in his having commissioned, during his reign as a Pope, the famous Illyricum Sacrum.
Today it is one of the main sources of the field of Albanology, with over 5000 pages divided in several volumes written by Daniele Farlati and Dom.
There is an Albanian community in southern Italy, known as Arbëreshë, who had settled in the country in the 15th and the 16th century, displaced by the changes brought about by the expansion of the Ottoman Empire.
[28] After the breakdown of the communist regime in Albania in 1990, Italy had been the main immigration target for Albanians leaving their country.
Italy reacted to the migration pressure by introducing the "Martelli" law, stipulating that any immigrant who could prove that he or she had come into the country before the end of 1989 be granted a two-year residency permit.
[29] The Italian Government has housed significant numbers of Albanians from Kosovo in the Arbëresh settlements, most notably in the zone of Lungro in Calabria and Piana degli Albanesi in Sicily.
In that period, Islam in Yugoslavia was repressed, and both Albanians and Muslim Slavs were encouraged to declare themselves Turkish and emigrate to Turkey.
[citation needed] There are an estimated 250,000 ethnic Albanians in Switzerland, most of them from Kosovo, a sizeable minority arriving from North Macedonia.
The history of Albanians in Britain began in the 16th century with the arrival of mercenary stratioti cavalry who served the English king in his wars against the Kingdom of Scotland.
[40] As of 2022 there are an estimated 160 people of recent Albanian immigrant background living in Portugal, the majority being foreign nationals.
[43] During the last years there have been some problems dealing with drug trafficking,[44][45] illegal migration (more than 500 people travelling with forged documents detected since 2010),[46][47] Albanian mafia[48] and robberies.
Some have come to Canada, and in 1999 the Canadian government created a program to offer safe haven to 7000 Kosovar Albanian refugees.
They continue to appreciate their ethnic heritage and their Albanian national history, even though their ancestors may have left Albania several decades ago.
The Inland Empire (Riverside/San Bernardino) area of California includes Kosovars who entered the United States at the March Joint Air Reserve Base in Riverside.
[53] Albanians migrated to Australia from southern Albania during the interwar period (early 1920s-late 1930s) mainly from Korçë and its surrounding rural areas.
[54][55][56] They worked in hard labour jobs and farming, settled in northern Western Australia, Queensland and later Shepparton in Victoria were a successful community was established.
[68][69][70] A small group of Albanian refugees originating mainly from Albania and the rest from Yugoslavian Kosovo and Macedonia settled in Auckland.
The National Research survey demonstrates that a total of 133,544 Albanian immigrants aged 18 years and above are turning in Albania in 2009-2013, of which 98,414 men and 35,130 women.
