Albanians in Italy

They mostly trace their origins to Albania, Greece and since recently to a lesser extent to Kosovo, North Macedonia and other Albanian-speaking territories in the Balkan Peninsula.

There is an Albanian community in southern Italy, known as Arbëreshë, who had settled in the country starting with the 15th and the 16th century and later, displacement expansion of the Ottoman Empire.

Their migration stemmed from severe political and social oppression and persecution of Greeks after the death of Scanderbeg and later following the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans.

This exodus was fueled mainly by social and economic instability, a looming fear of civil war and lack of confidence in the democratization process of Albania.

[10] The Italian government classified such Albanians as “illegal economic migrants” and started repatriating them after a period of detention in special camps in Southern Italy.

Italy reacted to this 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.

As a response to the Albanian political and refugee crisis in April 1997, in association with the United Nations, Italy led Operation Alba.

[9] The Italian Government has housed significant numbers of Albanians from Kosovo in the Arbëresh settlements, most notably in Piana degli Albanesi in Sicily.

They are traditionally both Christians and Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox, Bektashis and Sunnis but also to a lesser extent Evangelists, Protestants, Jews or non-religious, perhaps constituting the most religiously diverse people of Europe.