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Albanian Americans

Americans of Albanian birth or descent

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In 2024, there were 224,000 counted people of Albanian descent living in the United States, mostly in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region. This is a major increase since 1990, when there were only 47,710 Albanians in the U.S. The figure includes all people affiliated with the United States who claim Albanian ancestry, both those born in the country and naturalized citizens, as well as those with dual citizenship who affiliate themselves with both cultures.

People of Albanian descent are often concentrated in the Greater Philadelphia, Greater Boston, Metro Detroit, Chicagoland, New York City, and Waterbury, Connecticut areas. About three-quarters of the Albanian American population lives in the aforementioned Eastern U.S. states (52,000 in New York State, 30,000 in Michigan, 21,000 in Massachusetts, 16,000 in Florida, 15,000 in Illinois, 15,000 in New Jersey, and 12,000 in Connecticut).

There are also smaller, yet sizable communities within the Midwest such as Greater Cleveland, and Kenosha and Milwaukee, and as well as smaller East Coast communities like that of in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that encompasses Northern Virginia and Maryland. Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida also have sizeable Albanian communities. West of the Mississippi River, there are smaller ethnic Albanian communities in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix, and San Diego areas.

History

Kolë Kristofori who later on changed his name to Nicholas Christopher is the first Albanian migrant in the USA, arrived in Boston in 1876, He was born in Katundi a village of Korçë and worked as a priest, he left the US to go back to Korçë to tell everyone about this new land of endless opportunities and came back with 17 other men in 1892

To avoid service in the Turkish War during the late 19th century, due to Albania being under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Albanians would arrive in the U.S., namely to Chicago, Boston, and New York. The first Albanian documented to have emigrated to the United States was Kolë Kristofori (English: Nicholas Christopher), who landed in Boston in the early 1880s and is remembered as the pioneer of the Albanian ethnic group in the U.S. It was not until the 1900s that large numbers of Albanians reached the U.S. East Coast: most of them were young bachelors from southern Albania.

In addition to the Boston and Chicago areas, large numbers of Albanians would make their home in the N.Y.C. area, especially in the Bronx. Workers settled in New York in the early 20th century, many of whom would find work in shoe, glass, and textile factories. A second wave of Albanians arrived after World War II, and many of them were refugees from the Communist regime of Enver Hoxha. These refugees came from all regions of Albania and settled mainly in New York. Albanians would also be instrumental in the pizzeria and restaurant industry in New York, Boston, Chicago, and other metropolises.

In 1912, Albanians began arriving in the Detroit area. At the time there were groups in east Detroit, northwest Detroit, and Grosse Pointe. The early settlers originated from southern Albania, but they were recorded as being from Greece, Turkey, or from the country in which they boarded their boats to the United States. Many had initially lived in New York and New England, but moved to Detroit by the 1910s.

The majority of this first wave of emigrants, approximately 10,000, did not intend to permanently settle in the U.S., and went back to Albania after World War I. Meanwhile, the post-WWII group of emigrants from Albania reached the U.S. The second group settled and intermarried in their new country. The number of Albanians that reported the Albanian language as their mother tongue in 1920 was around 6,000.

Post-World War II

After World War II the Albanians who emigrated to the U.S. were mostly political emigrants, and by 1970 the figure rose to around 17,000.

Following the Expulsion of Cham Albanians from Greece in the aftermath of World War II, many of them migrated to the United States, asserting that the Communist government in Albania discriminated against and persecuted them. They managed to retain their traditions and language, and created in 1973 the Chameria Human Rights Association which later merged and became Albanian American Organization Chameria which aimed to protect their rights. (see Cham Albanians).

Allowing for the families that had abandoned their mother tongue, it is estimated that around 70,000 US citizens with an Albanian background lived in the US in 1980.

In the 1990s, many Albanians from Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo and the Republic of North Macedonia emigrated to the United States as refugees of war. Another Albanian American (Kosovan-Americans) community in the Riverside/San Bernardino area of California includes Kosovo Albanians who entered the United States at the March Joint Air Reserve Base in Riverside.

A wave of mass immigration came in 1992 with the breakup of Yugoslavia and it continued in the 1990s. Some ethnic Albanian Catholics from Montenegro entered the United States from Mexico and settled in Detroit.

Arbëreshë Americans

Some of the first ethnic Albanians to arrive in the United States were immigrants from Italy who descended from a group of Albanians known as the Arbëreshë. The Arbëreshë were a group of Albanians who fled to the Kingdom of Naples and to the Kingdom of Sicily in the 15th century to avoid invasion by the Ottoman Empire.

This group of Albanians is distinguishable from other Albanian Americans due to their Italianized names, as well as their Albanian Greek Catholic religion. Nevertheless, Arbëreshë have a strong sense of identity, and are unique in that they speak an archaic dialect of Tosk Albanian called Arbëresh, which does not have any Ottoman influence.

Greater New Orleans has a history of an Arbëreshë community, mostly descended from 19th century Sicilian immigrants. Oftentimes, wherever there are Italians, there are a few Arbëreshë mixed with them. Arbëreshë Americans, therefore, are often indistinguishable from Italian Americans due to being assimilated into the greater Italian American community.

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