Albanian Americans are immigrants or descendants of people from a small but ethnically distinct corner of the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe. The Republic of Albania is bordered on the west by the Adriatic and Ionian seas, on the north by Montenegro and Kosovo, on the east by Macedonia, and on the south and southeast by Greece. Albania is a mountainous and hilly country located on the Strait of Otranto, which joins the Adriatic and Ionian seas. The country's total land area is 11,100 square miles (28,748 square kilometers), making it slightly larger than the state of Maryland.

According to Albania's 2011 census, the country's population was 2,831,741 (a 7 percent decrease from 2001). Regarding religious practices, 59 percent of citizens declared themselves Muslim, 10 percent Roman Catholic, 7 percent Albanian Orthodox, and 14 percent preferred not to answer. Ethnically and culturally, 83 percent declared themselves Albanian, 14 percent preferred not to answer, and the rest were Greek, Aromanian, Roma, Macedonian, Egyptian, or something other. The country has been undergoing an economic transition from a closed, centrally planned state to an open-market economy, yet it suffers from a low foreign direct investment (FDI) rate and high public debt. One of the poorest European countries, Albania relies on remittances from Albanian migrants in other countries (particularly Italy and Greece) as well as a large number of small family and subsistence farms.

Albanians first came to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s, settling around the Boston area and other parts of New England to work in factories, mills, and hotels. While some of these Albanians remained permanently in the United States, many moved from the United States back to southeastern Europe as Albania gained independence and underwent experiments in national sovereignty. Beginning in the 1970s significant numbers of Albanians began to migrate to the United States as Albania endured a communist government, economic transitions, and political turmoil. The Albanian American population increased as many Albanians immigrated to the United States in search of employment opportunities that were unavailable in their home country.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey estimates for 2009–2011, the number of people of Albanian descent in the United States was 185,623. Originally, the majority of Albanian Americans lived in Massachusetts with smaller groups located along the Atlantic coast and in Chicago. Due to the wave of immigration resulting from the political and ethnic violence of the Kosovo War in 1999, Albanian American settlements can now also be found in Michigan, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Louisiana, and California.

Early History Albanians live in territories that were inhabited by the ancient Illyrians. Conquered by the Romans in the third century CE, they were later incorporated into the Byzantine Empire (395 CE) and were subjected to foreign invasions by Goths, Huns, Avars, Serbs, Croats, and Bulgarians. In 1468 Albania became part of the Ottoman Empire despite strong resistance by Gjergj Kastrioti Skenderbeu (the two most prevalent transliterations of this name are George Castrioti Scanderbeg and George Kastrioti Skanderbeg; 1405–1468), who is a figure of historical reverence for leading Albania's fight against foreign subjugation. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, that fight for independence intensified under the leadership of Naim Frasheri (1846–1900), Sami Frasheri (1850–1904), and Andon Zako Cajupi (1866–1930). This era was marked by an escalating sense of Albanian nationalism.

Two years before the onset of World War I, in 1912, Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire. After a short period as a protectorate of the European Great Powers, Albania received full independence in 1920, first as a republic and then as a monarchy under King Zog I (1895–1961) from 1928 to 1939. In World War II, Italy invaded and occupied Albania. By 1944 a communist regime led by Enver Hoxha (1908–1985) had risen to power.

Modern Era The Albanian communist model was a particularly strict exemplar of the single-party revolutionary socialist state. Hoxha ruled with a firm grip, repressing individual rights, outlawing religious organizations, and closing the country's borders. Under Hoxha, Albania also pursued a draconian

CENGAGE LEARNING, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED U.S. Census Bureau, 2006–2010 American Community Survey

isolationist foreign policy. Travel outside the borders was extremely restricted, and its foreign allies were few. Among them was neighboring Yugoslavia, with which Hoxha broke off relations after claims of Yugoslavia's intent to annex. Albania then looked toward the Soviet Union for military support and trade, but Hoxha cut those ties in the 1960s, turning instead to China. That, too, ended over ideological differences. When Hoxha's regime abolished all religious organizations in the late 1960s, small numbers of Albanian Orthodox and Muslim clerics and adherents managed to defect and seek political asylum in the United States on grounds of religious persecution. Other dissident and anticommunist Albanians often fled to neighboring countries, including Greece and Yugoslavia. The Socialist Republic of Serbia, which was part of Yugoslavia from 1946 to 1990, included the Autonomous Province of Kosovo on the border with Albania and was inhabited largely by ethnic Albanians. Kosovo received the largest number of Albanian refugees fleeing Hoxha's regime.

In Albania industrialization and state-guided economic development remained sluggish throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Furthermore, religious and political activists faced severe suppression, especially in the 1980s. The collapse of Communist Eastern Europe in 1989 sparked rapid transformations across the Balkan Peninsula, especially in Yugoslavia, which splintered into independent republics. One of the newly created entities was the Republic of Serbia. Inside Serbia's Kosovo region, ethnic tensions between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians escalated in the 1990s.

Hoxha died in 1985; his handpicked successor was Ramiz Alia, who became head of the country's communist party (the Albanian Labor Party, or PLA) and head of state. Albania was the last totalitarian communist nation in Europe to adopt a democratic system, spurred by University of Tirana student demonstrations in late 1990 that forced the ruling PLA to introduce some first steps of liberalization, including freedom to travel abroad and, later, to form new political parties. The Democratic Party of Albania (PD) was created as an opposition party to the PLA, which changed its name to the Socialist Party of Albania.

Albania's first multiparty elections were held in March 1991, and several reforms were enacted that same year, including the resumption of formal diplomatic ties with the United States. Alia was elected president of Albania by the newly seated Assembly of the Republic of Albania. In a symbolic act to dismantle one of the worst police states in Europe, Alia announced the dissolution of the dreaded Sigurimi, the Albanian secret police, a few months after taking office. That and other reforms failed to quell internal unrest, demonstrations, and general strikes. Alia Page 63  |  Top of Articleresigned in April 1992 after new elections in which the PD won by a solid majority.

Sali Berisha of the PD became Albania's first democratically elected president in 1992. He held that office for the next five years, but the new democracy slid further into political instability. In 1997 Albania was rocked by major unrest after revelations that the investment programs the government had tacitly endorsed were little more than Ponzi-type pyramid schemes. Thus, one of Europe's poorest nations became even more impoverished, as Albanians lost what little savings they had invested in the pyramid investment funds. Unemployment figures remained high during these years, and immigration to countries in Europe and to the United States continued apace.

Albanian voters approved a new constitution in 1998 that was aimed at stabilizing the nation. The country's economic woes continued to escalate, however, with the Kosovo War and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air strikes that began in 1999; those events prompted a half-million ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to cross the border into Albania seeking refuge. The newly implemented constitution did bring more stability to the country in the twenty-first century. Berisha's PD and the socialists jockeyed for power, and the former president became prime minister following the PD's win in the 2005 general election. The PD repeated that success in 2009, and that same year Albania became a member of NATO. Albania also submitted its formal application to become a candidate for entry into the European Union (EU) in 2009.

Nevertheless, Albania still struggles to emerge as a safe, even modestly prosperous nation guided by rule-of-law principles. Government corruption, a substandard infrastructure, organized crime, and blood feuds still trouble the country. More than a million Albanians have emigrated since 1989.

Few Albanians came to the United States before the twentieth century. The first Albanian, whose name is lost, is reported to have arrived in the United States in 1876 but soon relocated to Argentina. Kolë Kristofori (Nicholas Christopher), from the southern town of Katundi, was the first recorded Albanian to arrive in the United States, probably between 1884 and 1886. He returned to Albania and came back to the United States in 1892. In The Albanians in America, Constantine Demo records the names of sixteen other Albanians who either came with Kristofori or arrived soon after. They also emigrated from Katundi.

Albanians are the most recent group of Europeans to immigrate to the United States, and their numbers remained small until the 1990s. Prior to World War I, they came to the United States because of poor economic conditions, political concerns, or

A newly-arrived Albanian woman is photographed at Emigration Hall on Ellis Island, New York, 1905. AKG-IMAGES / NEWSCOM

to escape military conscription in the Turkish army. Neighboring Greece invaded southern Albania in 1913, and long-standing enmity between the two nationalities prompted another wave of migration. Many of these Albanians (between 20,000 and 30,000) who had fled Albania for political reasons returned to their homeland between 1919 and 1925. New immigration quotas enacted by the United States in the 1920s severely restricted the number of people from southern Europe who were permitted to enter the United States annually. Some Albanians were able to settle in the United States after Albania came under communist control in 1944; among this group were immigrants who had first sojourned in neighboring countries such as Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy. After the collapse of communism in 1990, Albanians began entering the United States in increasing numbers.

During Enver Hoxha's long reign, Albania pursued a draconian, isolationist foreign policy. Travel outside the borders was extremely restricted, and its allies were few. The most strident opponents to Hoxha's regime who survived and managed to leave took up residence in Greece, the Autonomous Province of Kosovo, or the Republic of Macedonia, another border state that also belonged to the Yugoslavian federation. Kosovar Albanians also faced intense discrimination in Serbia. One factor that spurred immigration to the United States by this group was the establishment of a university in Pristina, Kosovo's main city, in the early 1970s. That created a subset of educated Kosovar Albanians who were unable to find work in Serbia due to a hiring bias for Serb nationals. Some of them began to leave Yugoslavia when that country's political chaos Page 64  |  Top of Articleamplified in the 1980s, and they settled in major U.S. cities such as New York, Detroit, Michigan, and Chicago. Though college-educated, many were forced to accept entry-level jobs in the manual trades or the retail sector.

The wave of Albanians who left their impoverished country once travel restrictions were lifted in the early 1990s accounted for one of the largest population shifts in post–World War II Europe. An estimated 800,000 Albanians moved abroad between 1990 and 2000, according to Kosta Barjaba and Russell King in the book The New Albanian Migration. Their research indicates that by the first years of the twenty-first century, approximately one out of every five Albanians was living outside of the country's borders. A large number migrated as laborers in search of construction or agricultural work in neighboring lands such as Greece, Italy, and Serbia. The educated elite—those with college degrees and professional credentials from the main cities of Tirana, Durres, and Elbasan—chose the United States and various countries in the European Union as their destinations.

One of the most dramatic episodes in the history of Albanian immigration came in 1999 during the Kosovo War. Thousands of ethnic Albanians fled Kosovo when the conflict with Serbian military units began, and that number increased when NATO air-strikes were launched. They went to refugee camps set up by the United Nations in Macedonia, and 20,000 of them were granted permission to immediately enter the United States under a special immigration classification as refugees of war. First Lady Hillary Clinton welcomed the first planeload of Kosovar Albanians to arrive at McGuire Air Force Base at Fort Dix, New Jersey. She spoke to them under a banner that read Mirsevini ne Amerike, or “Welcome to America.” Only some of those granted entry as war refugees had relatives in the United States; those without family ties were resettled by refugee agencies and humanitarian aid organizations that had ties to the larger Albanian American community.

Early Albanian immigrants settled around Boston and then moved to other parts of Massachusetts, where unskilled factory and textile-mill jobs were plentiful. Prior to 1920, the majority of Albanians who came to the United States originated from southern Albania. Most were young males who either migrated for economic gain or were seeking political asylum and did not intend to remain permanently in the United States. They stayed in community barracks called konaks, where they could live cheaply and send money home. The konak gradually gave way to more permanent family dwellings as growing numbers of women and children joined Albanian men in the United States. Early Massachusetts settlements were established in Worcester, Natick, Southbridge, Cambridge, and Lowell.

As Bernd J. Fischer writes in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, “Determining with any certainty the number of Albanians in the US at any given time has always been an inexact science. … There are, nevertheless, educated estimates and it is assumed that by the late 1930s there were between 35,000 and 60,000 Albanians in the United States, most of them Orthodox Christians in New England. Following the Second World War there were somewhat fewer than 200,000, a number that, according to the Albanian Catholic Bulletin, increased to about 250,000 by the 1980s. The 1990s witnessed a rapid increase to approximately 400,000 by 1998.” Fischer's article cites a rise in illegal immigration to the United States by Albanians but also the success of some who were able to enter legally through family sponsors or via the so-called green-card lottery, in which residents of nations underrepresented in the United States can apply for an entry visa. The annual event is more formally known as the Diversity Visa Lottery Program.

The Census Bureau's 2009–2011 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates indicated that there were 185,623 people of Albanian descent living in the United States, with the highest numbers in New York state (50,253) and Michigan (25,356). Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, and Connecticut have noteworthy but much smaller Albanian populations, and there are also clusters of Albanians in states such as Illinois (Chicago), California (Los Angeles), Ohio (Cleveland), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh), Louisiana (New Orleans), and Florida (Miami).

Albanian is probably part of the Illyrian branch of eastern Indo-European languages. It is a descendant of Dacian, one of the ancient languages that were among the Thraco Phrygian group once spoken in Anatolia and the Balkan Peninsula. Its closest modern relative is Armenian. Today, Albanian is spoken in two major dialects (with many subdialects) in Albania and in the adjacent territories in Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Greece—Tosk south of the river Shkumbini and Gheg in the north of the river. A third dialect (Arberesh) is spoken in southern Greece and southern Italy. Throughout the centuries, Albanians have been in contact with numerous civilizations, all of which have left their influence on the language. Despite Page 65  |  Top of Articleoutside influence, a distinct Albanian language has survived. Albanians call their language shqip.

Until the early twentieth century, Albanians used the Greek, Latin, and Turko-Arabic alphabets and mixtures of these alphabets. In 1908 the Congress of Manastir adopted a standard Latin alphabet of twenty-six letters, and it was made official in 1924. During the 1920s and 1930s, the government tried to establish a mixed Tosk and Gheg dialect from the Elbasan region as the official language. A standardized Albanian language, which is a mixture of Gheg and Tosk but with a prevailing Tosk element, was adopted in 1952. In addition to the letters of the Latin alphabet, the Albanian language adds: ç, dh, ë, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, and zh. Albanian is taught at such universities as the University of California–San Diego, University of Chicago, Arizona State University, and the Ohio State University. Libraries with Albanian-language collections include the Library of Congress, Chicago Public Library, Boston Public Library, New York Public Library (Donnell Library Center), and Queens Borough Public Library.

First and second generation Albanian Americans retain strong ties to their language of origin. The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey reported in 2011 that an estimated 72 percent of Albanian Americans said that they spoke a language other than English at home, while 28 percent described themselves as speaking only English at home, and 34 percent reported they spoke English less than “very well.”

Many ethnic Albanians who came to the United States after living in Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, or Italy are moderately fluent in both the Albanian language and either Serbian, Greek, or Italian.

Greetings and Popular Expressions Some common expressions in the Albanian language include the following: Po (Yes); Jo (No); Falemnderit (Thank you); Po, ju lutem (Yes, please); Mirëdita (Hello or Good day); Mirëmëngjes (Good Morning); Si jeni? (How are you?); Gēzohem t'ju njoh (Pleased to meet you); Mirëmbrëma (Good evening); Natēn e mirē (Good night); Mirupafshim (Good-bye); Mē fal / Më falni (Excuse me); Nē rregull (All right, or, Okay); S'ka përse (Don't mention it); Shqiptarë (Albanians).

Albanians in the United States are primarily Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics, or Muslims. Currently, the Albanian Orthodox Church in the United States is divided into two ecclesiastical jurisdictions. The Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America (OCA) is an autocephalous church established in 1908 by Fan S. Noli, a major religious and political figure in the Albanian community. The current primate is Archbishop Nikon (born Nicholas Liolin). The headquarters of the Archdiocese, St. George Albanian

The Chying Madonna at St. Nikolas Albanian Church in Chicago, Illinois. SANTI VISALLI / GETTY IMAGES

Orthodox Cathedral, is located in South Boston. One of the oldest chapters of the St. George Cathedral was organized in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1911. This chapter became the Church of Saint Mary's Assumption in 1915. The Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America, established in 1950 by Bishop Mark Lipa, is under the jurisdiction of the ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Most Albanian Roman Catholics came to the United States in the 1960s and 1970s mainly from territories located in today's Montenegro. Albanian Roman Catholic churches in the United States include Our Lady of Shkodra, founded in the New York City borough of the Bronx in 1969 but later relocated to Hartsdale, New York; St. Paul's Albanian Catholic Church in Rochester Hills, Michigan; and Our Lady of Albanians in Southfield, Michigan. An Italo Albanian Catholic Church, which belongs to the Eastern Byzantine rite, is also active in the United States, with a membership of more than 60,000 as of 2005.

Albanian Muslims first came to the United States around 1913. There are Albanian Islamic community centers in the New York City area, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Berkeley, California, among other places. One of the oldest Albanian mosques in the United States is the Albanian Islamic Center in Harper Woods, Michigan, which dates to the late 1940s. It hosts religious services in Albanian, Arabic, and English. A small sect of Muslims of the Bektashi Order, the First Albanian Teke Bektashiane in America, is located in Taylor, Michigan, and was founded in the United States in 1954. This sect has a small library and publishes The Voice of Bektashism.

In 1999 U.S. immigration officials worked with existing religious-based charities that served the Albanian immigrant community to help resettle nearly 20,000 Kosovar Albanian refugees of war who began arriving in the United States in the spring of that year. These war refugees were predominantly Muslim but were aided by groups affiliated with the Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America and Albanian Roman Catholic churches. Albanian Islamic Centers also provided assistance.

Fiercely proud of their unique culture and customs, Albanians have tended to resist assimilation into mainstream American life in many aspects. They have, however, thoroughly embraced what their new country has to offer. Generally, they have preserved their language and social customs while seizing opportunities for economic and educational advancement.

Traditions and Customs The Kanun (Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit) is an ancient set of civil, criminal, and family laws that still exerts influence on the lives of many Albanian Americans. The Kanun is traditionally ascribed to Leke Dukagjini (1460–1481), a compatriot and contemporary of Skanderberg. It sets forth rights and obligations regarding the church, family, and marriage. The code is based on the concepts of honor (besa) and blood; the individual is obligated to guard the honor of family, clan, and tribe. The rights and obligations surrounding the concept of honor have often led to the blood feud (gjak), which frequently lasts for generations. At the time of King Zog I's rule in the 1920s, the blood feud accounted for one out four male deaths in Albania. Enver Hoxha, Albania's communist leader after 1944, was committed to eradicating the blood feud. This code was translated into English and published in a bilingual text in 1989 in the United States.

The Kanun defines the family as a “group of human beings who live under the same roof, whose aim is to increase their number by means of marriage for their establishment and the evolution of their state and for the development of their reason and intellect.” The traditional Albanian household is a patriarchy in which the head of the household is the eldest male. The principal roles of the wife are to maintain the household and raise the children. The children have a duty to honor their parents and respect their wishes.

In the late 1980s, following an influx of Albanian immigrants into the United States, gjak killings increased in communities such as the Pelham Parkway area of the Bronx, Boston, and Detroit. In 1990 a professor of Albanian studies at the University of Prishtina, Anton Cetta, came to the United States to implement his Commission for the Forgiveness of Blood, a reconciliation program that had achieved a notable degree of success in abolishing the practice of gjak killings in Kosovo.

Cuisine Albanian dishes have much in common with the foods of their neighbors. As in all Balkan countries, Albanian cuisine is influenced by what is considered today to be Turkish cuisine. Recipes have often been adapted and altered to suit American tastes. Albanians enjoy a variety of appetizers, soups, casseroles, pilaf, pies, stews, and desserts. Salads (sallatë) are made with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peppers, olives, and feta cheese. Sallatë me patate is a potato salad. Soups contain a variety of ingredients, such as beans, chicken, lentils, and fish. Paçe, a soup made with lamb's tripe, is served at Easter. Albanian pies, lakror or byrek, are cooked with a variety of gjellë (filling); these fillings may be lamb, beef, leeks, onions, squash, or spinach, combined with milk, eggs, and olive oil. A lakror known as brushtul lakror is prepared with a cottage and feta cheese filling, butter, and eggs. Domate me qepë is a lakror with an onion and tomato filling.

Stews contain beef, rabbit, lamb, veal, and chicken, which are combined with cabbage, spinach, green beans, okra, or lentils. Favorites include mish me patate (lamb with potatoes), çomlek (beef with onions), and çomlek me lepur (rabbit stew). A popular dish among Albanian Italians living in Sicily is called albanesi-siciliano (olives and beef), which features brown, salted beef cubes in a sauce of tomatoes, parsley, garlic, olives, and olive oil and is served with tac-cozzelli (rectangles of pasta and goat cheese). Dollma is a term applied to a variety of stuffed dishes that consist of cabbage, green peppers, or vine leaves and may be filled with rice, bread, onions, and garlic. An Albanian American variation of the traditionally Greek lasagna-like dish, moussaka, is made with potatoes and hamburger instead of eggplant.

Albanian cuisine features a variety of candies, cookies, custards, sweet breads, and preserves, including halva, a confection made with sugar, flour, butter, maple syrup, water, oil, and nuts; te matur, a pastry filled with butter and syrup; bakllava, a filo pastry with nuts, sugar, and cinnamon; kadaif, a pastry prepared with shredded dough, butter, and walnuts; and llokume, a Turkish paste. Popular cookies include kurabie, a butter cookie made without liquid; finiqe, a filled cookie with many variations; and kulluraqka or kullure, Albanian “tea cookies.” Të dredhura, bukëvale, and brustull are hot sweet breads. In some local traditions, family members announce the birth of a child by cooking and distributing petulla, pieces of fried dough sprinkled with sugar or dipped in syrup. Albanians enjoy Turkish coffee or Albanian coffee (kafe), Albanian whiskey (raki), and wine. Kos, the Albanian word for yogurt, is also popular.

Albanians in the United States cook traditional dishes in their homes, as daily fare and for special occasions. Boston, and Detroit, and the Bronx in New York house many restaurants featuring Albanian Page 67  |  Top of Articlecuisine. In some cases, these are humble eateries or diners centering on Mediterranean fare and offering select Albanian items.

Traditional Dress Traditional Albanian costumes share some traits with Turkish, Greek, and Slavic designs and vary depending on the region. Malësia e Madhe (a region in northern Albania and southern Montenegro), for example, is known for attire that includes close-fitting woolen trousers with black cord trim, an apron of wool with a leather belt buckled over it, and a silk jacket with long dull red sleeves with white stripes. A long sleeveless coat may be worn over the jacket along with an outer, short-sleeved jacket (dzurdin), and the head and neck may be covered with a white cloth. A style of male dress from southern Albania and northern Greece most often seen in the United States is the fustanella, a full, white pleated skirt; a black and gold jacket; a red fez with a large tassel (puskel); and shoes with black pompoms.

Women's clothing tends to be more colorful than that of men. Northern Albanian costumes are more ornamental and include a distinctive metal belt. Basic types of costume include a wide skirt (xhublete), long shirt or blouse (krahol), and a short woolen jacket (xhoke). The traditional costume of Muslim women may include a tightly pleated skirt (kanac) or large woolen trousers (brekeshe). Aprons are a pervasive feature in every type of women's costume, and there is great variety in the shape and embroidery. Albanian Americans often wear traditional costumes during independence day celebrations and other special occasions and social events.

Dances and Songs Although the musical tradition in Albania has many traits in common with neighboring countries such as Greece, much of it remains distinct. Albania has a rich heritage of musical and theatrical activities. In 1915 Albanian Americans organized the Boston Mandolin Club and the Albanian String Orchestra. They also formed amateur groups to perform plays by Albanian authors. Because a heroic sense of life has always been part of Albanian lore, ballads are often recited and sung in an epic-recitative form that celebrates fantastic heroes of the past and present. Songs may be accompanied by traditional instruments such as the çifteli, a two-stringed lute instrument, and the lahuta, a one-stringed violin.

Holidays Since Albanian Americans practice Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Islamic faiths, they observe many religious festivals and holy days. November 28 is celebrated as Albanian Independence Day, when Albanians declared their independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912. Since 2008 Kosovar Albanians have celebrated Kosovo Independence Day each February 17, which marks the Republic of Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia a decade after the Kosovo War began.

Albanian Americans tend to follow the nuclear-family model of their homeland, paired with strong kinship ties. The father or eldest male is considered the head of the household. Some shifts have occurred, however, with the dramatic influx of Albanians in the 1980s and 1990s.

Gender Roles The centuries-old Kanun (Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit) still exerts influence on the lives of many Albanian Americans. The strict patriarchal code enshrined in this text promotes a traditional Albanian family unit in which the head of the household is the eldest male. The wife's duties involve tending to the house and raising the children, who must strictly obey their parents. In Albanian American families, daughters generally remain at home with their parents until they marry.

Some Albanians who came of age during the communist era (1944 to 1991) felt less bound by the older traditions that required women to remain inside the home. Despite the human-rights abuses of the Hoxha regime, Albanian women enjoyed greater access to education and employment during this period. Those who left Albania in the 1980s and 1990s took with them expectations that they would fully participate in the social and economic life in their communities. Thus, Albanian American women began to organize. The Motrat Qirijazi (Sisters Qirjazi), the first Albanian American women's organization, was founded on March 27, 1993, in New York City, principally by Shqipe Baba. This organization serves all Albanian women in the United States, assisting and supporting them in the pursuit of unity, education, and advancement.

Some insights into the world of Albanian American women can be gleaned from estimates of the

New American citizens from Albania at the Logan Square Fountain in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. JOE SOHM / ALAMY

American Community Survey, published by the U.S. Census Bureau. Of the estimated 56,326 Albanian American households in 2011, 67 percent were married-couple units and just 8 percent were female-headed households with no husband but other family members present. Over 39 percent of married couples had children under the age of eighteen, and the average family size was 3.91 persons. Among Albanians over the age of fifteen living in the United States, 62 percent were married. Fewer than 5 percent listed themselves as divorced, and 27 percent reported they had never been married. Albanian American women were slightly more likely to have attained a bachelor's degree or higher education than their male counterparts (30.6 percent of women compared to 24.9 percent of men).

Aida Orgocka, an academic specializing in economic development and immigration, published “Albanian High Skilled Migrant Women in the U.S.: The Ignored Experience” in 2005 in The New Albanian Migration, a volume edited by Russell King, Nicola Mai, and Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers. The women Orgocka interviewed, who had come to the United States from Albania on their own, faced discrimination in their own immigrant community. A twenty-nine-year-old woman told Orgocka that she had assisted one fellow immigrant and his family with housing and employment, but when she attained a professional position in her field, she was openly derided. “One day, I was going past a hall and there were some Albanian men chatting,” she said. “As soon as they saw me, one of them said, ‘Look, here comes the tramp who has lovers who find her a job.’” The woman told Orgocka this was the same person she had helped. “I do not think Albanian men have reached the point of looking at a woman as someone who can achieve something better than them,” she added.

Education Most of the early Albanians who immigrated to the United States were illiterate. According to Dennis L. Nagi in The Albanian-American Odyssey, it was estimated that of the 5,000 Albanians in the United States in 1906, only 20 of them could read or write their own language. Due to the strong efforts of community leaders to make books, pamphlets, and other educational materials (especially the newspaper Kombi) available in the konaks, the rate of illiteracy declined significantly. By 1919, 15,000 of the 40,000 Albanian immigrants could read and write their own language. Albanians were initially suspicious of American ways of life and were often reluctant to send their children to U.S. schools. Gradually, however, they accepted that an education would provide them with the foundation for a more prosperous future in the United States.

More recent groups of Albanians—those who arrived after World War II, especially the Kosovo War refugees—have, by contrast, fully embraced new identities and have utilized access to public education. The 2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau indicated that 81 percent of Albanian Americans age twenty-five and older had graduated from high school (compared with 86 percent for the U.S. population in general).

Courtship and Weddings Albanian weddings were once arranged by parents or by an intermediary matchmaker. An engagement ceremony was held between the two families, and the bride was given a gold coin as a token of the engagement. In Albania a dowry is part of the tradition, but in the United States, this has been adapted to take the form of gifts of appliances or furniture for the newlyweds. Weddings were once weeklong events in Albania but have been shortened to two- or three-day parties in the United States. Whether conducted in the Orthodox Christian, Roman Catholic, or Muslim faith, an Albanian American wedding is often an elaborate affair designed to showcase the spousal couple's family standing.

The Albanians who came to the United States prior to 1920 were from rural backgrounds and labored as farmers, while immigrants from urban areas worked as small shopkeepers and tradesmen. The large population of Albanians that settled in Massachusetts found work mainly with the American Optical Company of Southbridge and the textile mills of New Bedford; other immigrants worked as cooks, waiters, and bell-hops. Albanians soon began opening their own businesses. The most successful of these were fruit stores and restaurants. “By 1925 … most Albanians of Greater Boston could claim ownership of over three hundred grocery and fruit stores,” writes Dennis Lazar Nagi in his dissertation Ethnic Continuity as It Applies to a Less Visible National Group: The Albanian Community of Boston, Massachusetts (1982). Today Albanians are employed in a variety of professional and enterprises. The Ghegs and Kosovars have been especially successful in the Bronx in New York City, selling and managing real estate in the Pelham Parkway and Belmont sections of the borough.

Newer immigrants from Albania, who arrived after the fall of communism, have tended to be professionals such as engineers or teachers or have found work in the construction trades or in food service. In cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit, the pizza monopoly once held by Italian American entrepreneurs has gradually been taken over by Albanian Americans.

Albanian Americans have always felt a strong attachment to their native country and have supported events that occur there. Both the Orthodox Church and the Albanian press have played important roles in the awakening of Albanian nationalism in the United States. The early political efforts of Albanian Americans centered on furthering the cause of Albania's independence from the Ottoman Empire by instilling a sense of pride in Albanian heritage. Early figures in the nationalist movement were Petro Nini Luarasi, who founded the first Albanian national organization

in the United States, the Malli i Mëmëdheut (“Longing for the Homeland”), and Sotir Petsi, who founded Kombi, the first-known Albanian weekly newspaper. Kombi actively supported an independent Albania within the Ottoman Empire, and the circulation of this early newspaper was instrumental in reducing the rate of illiteracy among Albanians in the United States. Fan S. Noli was one of the most influential figures in the Albanian nationalist movement in the United States. On January 6, 1907, he founded Besa-Besën (“Loyalty”), the first Albanian nationalist organization in the United States. The founding of the Albanian Orthodox Church in America in 1908 was also significant, because it gave Albanian Americans a crucial way to organize themselves, preserve their customs, and, most significantly, raise funds and awareness for the Albanian independence movement. To further Albania's freedom, Noli began publishing Dielli (“The Sun”) in 1909. A successor of Kombi, Dielli supported liberation for Albania. Faik Konitza became the first editor of Dielli. To further strengthen Page 70  |  Top of Articlethe cause, a merger of many existing Albanian organizations into the Pan-Albanian Federation of America (Vatra) occurred in April 1912. Vatra became the principal organization to instill Albanians with a sense of national purpose.

Noli was among those who returned to Albania after World War I. These activists were hopeful that international cooperation would permit Albanians to form their own government, as vanquished parts of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires had been allowed to do in southern and eastern Europe. Noli eventually returned to the United States, and he died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1965.

The established Albanian American community played a decisive role in securing U.S. support for the Kosovo independence movement in the late 1990s. Joseph DioGuardi—a Republican from New York state and, in 1984, the first Albanian American elected to Congress—set up the Albanian American Civic League in 1989 to lobby against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's discriminatory policies toward ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Albanians in the United States and elsewhere contributed generously to fundraising efforts for both Washington lobbying and aid to the Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës, or Kosovo Liberation Army.

In 2012 New York state's 80^th Assembly District, centered in the heavily Albanian section of the Bronx around Pelham Parkway and Arthur Avenue, elected an Albanian American, Democrat Mark Gjonaj. His parents, immigrants from Montenegro, had settled in the Bronx after coming to the United States, and after graduating from St. John's University in the New York borough of Queens, Gjonaj founded a real estate company.

Academia Arshi Pipa (1920–1997), born in Scutari, Albania, taught humanities, philosophy, and Italian at various colleges and universities in Albania and in the United States.

Nicholas Pano (1934–), a professor of history, has served as the dean of arts and sciences at Western Illinois University. He made contributions to scholarly journals on the subject of Albania and authored the book The People's Republic of Albania (1968).

Peter R. Prifti (1924–2001), an author and translator, made significant contributions to Albanian studies and published widely on a variety of Albanian topics. His works include the books Confrontation in Kosovo (1999) and Unfinished Portrait of a Country (2005).

Stavro Skendi (1906–1989), born in Korce, Albania, was a professor of Balkan languages and culture at Columbia University from 1972 until his death.

Activism Constantine A. Chekrezi (1892–1959), an early supporter of the nationalist movement in Albania, served as editor of Dielli in 1914 and published Illyria from March to November 1916. He authored Albania Past and Present (1919), which is considered to be the first work in English on Albania written by an Albanian; A History of Europe—Ancient, Medieval and Modern (1921); an early history of Europe written in Albanian; and an English-Albanian dictionary (1923).

Christo Dako (1878–1941), an educator and a key figure in the early nationalist movement, wrote Albania, the Master Key to the Near East (1919).

Faik Konitza (1876–1942) was one of the more influential leaders of the Albanian community in the United States in the early twentieth century. He published the magazine Albania from 1897 to 1909 and was the editor of Dielli in 1909 and 1910 and from 1921 to 1926. He also cofounded the Pan-American Federation of America in 1912, serving as its president from 1921 to 1926, and was minister plenipotentiary of Albania from 1926 to 1939.

Fan Stylian Noli (1865–1964) is one of the best-known figures in Albanian American history. A major player in the Albanian nationalist movement, Noli founded the Albanian Orthodox Church in America in 1908.

Eftalia Tsina (1870–1953), the mother of physician Dimitra Elia, was an early promoter of Albanian social and cultural issues. In the 1920s she founded Bashkimi, the first Albanian women's organization in Boston.

Business Anthony Athanas (1912–2005) was a community leader and restaurateur in Boston for more than fifty years. He opened his first restaurant in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1937 and others in 1957 and 1975. Athanas served as director of the National Restaurant Association and president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association and won the Horatio Alger Award from the Horatio Alger Society and the Golden Door Award of the International Institute of New England.

Journalism Gjon Mili (1904–1984), a photographer for Life and other magazines, was known for his innovative and visionary work with color and high-speed photography. Collections of his work are housed in the Museum of Modern Art and Time-Life Library in New York, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.

Donald Lambro (1940–) is a writer, political analyst, and investigative reporter with the Washington Times. His works include Conscience of a Young Conservative (1976), Fat City: How Washington Wastes Your Taxes (1980), Washington—City of Scandals: Investigating Congress and Other Big Spenders (1984), Land of Opportunity: The Entrepreneurial Spirit in America (1986), and Future Forces: Ten Trends that Will Shape American Politics and Policies in 2000 and Beyond (1999).

Literature Tom Perrotta (1961–) is an acclaimed author of literary fiction and screenplays. His best-known works are Election (1998) and Little Children (2004), both of which were made into Academy Award–nominated films.

Shqipe Malushi (1955–), a poet, essayist, media information specialist, and community leader, has published fiction, nonfiction, translations, essays, and newspapers articles. Her works of poetry, written in Albanian and in English, include Memories of '72 (1972), Exile (1981), Solitude (1985), Crossing the Bridges (1990), and For You (1993). She also published a collection of short stories, Beyond the Walls of the Forgotten Land (1992), and a book of essays, Transformation (1988). In addition, she wrote and collaborated on several plays and screenplays.

Loretta Chase (1949–), born in Worcester, Massachusetts, is a popular writer of romance novels. Her books include Don't Tempt Me (2009), Last Night's Scandal (2011), and Silk Is for Seduction (2012).

Nexhmie Zaimi (1917–2003) wrote Daughter of the Eagle: The Autobiography of an Albanian Girl (1937), which describes her immigrant experience in the United States.

Music Kara DioGuardi (1970–) served as a judge on the top-rated Fox television series American Idol for two seasons and has written hit songs for Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Kelly Clarkson.

Thomas Nassi (1892–1964), a musician and composer, graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1918. He trained choirs for the Cathedral of St. George in Boston and for churches in Natick, Worcester, and Southbridge in Massachusetts between 1916 and 1918. He also arranged Byzantine liturgical responses in Albanian for mixed choirs.

Politics Stephen Peters (1907–1990) served as a research analyst in the U.S. State Department in 1945 and the Foreign Service in 1958. He wrote “Ingredients of the Communist Takeover in Albania,” which was published in Thomas Hammond's 1975 volume The Anatomy of Communist Takeovers.

Rifat Tirana (1907–1952), an economist, was a member of the staff of the League of Nations in the 1930s. At the time of his death, he was serving as deputy chief of the U.S. Security Agency Mission to Spain. He authored The Spoil of Europe (1941).

Bardhyl Rifat Tirana (1937–) served as cochair of the Presidential Inaugural Committee (1976–1977) and director of the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency (1977–1979).

Joseph DioGuardi (1940–) served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 1989 as a Republican representing the 20^th Congressional District of New York. He went on to hold the post of president of the Albanian American Civic League.

Science and Medicine Andrew Elia (1906–1991) and Dimitra Tsina Elia (1906–1965), who were husband and wife, were early pioneers in the Albanian community in the field of medicine. Andrew graduated from Boston University Medical School in 1935 and was a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist in the Boston area. Dimitra was one of the first Albanian American women to practice general medicine in the United States.

Ferid Murad (1936–), a physician, won the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Sports Lee Constantine Elia (1937–) managed Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs (1982–1983) and Philadelphia Phillies (1987–1988). He also served as a coach for the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, and Baltimore Orioles.

Stage and Screen John Belushi (1949–1982), an actor and comedian, is best remembered for his work on the NBC network's landmark television comedy series Saturday Night Live (1975–1979). His movies include National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), Continental Divide (1981), and Neighbors (1981).

James Belushi (1954–) is an actor and comedian whose success followed his older brother John's. His best-known films are K-9 (1989) and Curly Sue (1991), and he also starred on the ABC sitcom According to Jim (2001–2009).

Stan Dragoti (1932–) was a prominent director and producer in Hollywood. His film credits as a director include Love at First Bite (1979), Mr. Mom (1983), The Man with One Red Shoe (1985), and Necessary Roughness (1991).

Regis Philbin (1931–) is one of the most widely recognized names in American television. His credits include Live! with Regis and Kelly, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and the Shrek movie series.

Eliza Dushku (1980–), an Albanian American actress, has appeared on television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Tru Calling, and Dollhouse, and had parts in the movies Bring It On (2000) and The New Guy (2002).

John Cena (1977–) is an actor and a professional wrestler with the World Wrestling Federation (WWE) whose movie credits include The Marine (2006) and 12 Rounds (2009).