Albanian Diaspora

The Albanian Diaspora encompasses Albanians outside the Historical Ethnic Albania.The greatest communities are found in Turkey,Western Europe,Greece,Italy and USA. There are also smaller communities in Australia,Scandinavia ,Canada,Romania and Russia.It is estimated that there are approximately 15-16 million albanians throughout the world.The largest Albanian communities outside of the Balkans are found in Turkey 1.3-5 million, Italy 1.44 million,United States 1.14 million, Switzerland 0.35 million, and Germany 0.40-1.0 million.Approximately 3 million are dispersed throughout the rest of Europe, most of them in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and France.

Balkans
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Approximately 8,5 million Albanians are to be found within the Balkan peninsula with only about half this number residing in Albania and the other divided between Kosovo,Serbia,Montenegro, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece and to a much smaller extent Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania,and Slovenia.

Albania
An estimated 3.8 million Albanians live in Albania, amounting to 98.6% of the country's total population, making Albania one of the ethnically most homogenous states of Europe.

Kosovo
According to the 2005 Survey of the Statistical Office of Kosovo, Kosovo's total population is estimated between 1.9 and 2.2 million with the following ethnic composition: Albanians 92%, Serbs 4%, Bosniaks and Gorans 2%, Turks 1%, Roma 1%.

Serbia
According to the 2002 census, there are 61,647 Albanians in Serbia,but they number is at least 100.000.They mainly live in the municipalities of Preševo (Albanian: Preshevë), and Bujanovac (Albanian: Bujanoc), as well as in the part of the municipality of Medveđa (Albanian: Medvegjë).Also in the Sandzak region,about 30% percent of Bosniaks stem from the Catholic Albanian tribes.

Montenegro
Albanians in Montenegro constitute 5.03% of the county's total population.They mainly live in South-Eastern Montenegro, in the region commonly known as Malësia as well as in the municipality of Ulcinj and Bar.Only the Malësia has a population of about 60,000 people and is mostly inhabited by ethnic Albanians.Also is worth to mention,that most of montenegrin tribes stem from catholic albanian tribes,who were forcibly slavicized(Vasojevići,Piperi,Kuči,Bjelopavlići etc).


Bulgaria
In 1636, the Mandritsa, a typical village in Bulgaria, was found by Eastern Orthodox Albanian dairymen who supplied the Ottoman Army. They were allowed to pick a tract of land and were freed from taxes. The bulk of the local Albanians arrived in the 18th century from around Korçë and in the 19th century from the region of Souli in Epirus. The locals preserved their Souliot national dress until the 19th century, when the fustanella was substituted by Thracian breeches. However, the female dress was preserved until the mass emigration to Greece in 1913. In the 2001 census of Bulgaria, it was estimated that 10,141 Albanians live in the country.


Republic of Macedonia
The Ethnic Albanian population in the Republic of Macedonia has grown constantly since 1948. According to the official census data (held every 10 years), Albanians made up 19% of the total population in 1953. The population fell to 13% in 1961. It grew again in 1971 to 17%. They made up 19.7% in 1981 and 21% in 1991. At the last census in 2002, the Albanian population was estimated at 30.2%.Nowadays it is estimated that there are some 800,000 Albanians in Republic of Macedonia.Some Albanians have claimed to account for 40% of the population and demanded an appropriate share of power. On the other side, Ethnic Macedonians said Albanians were barely 25%. However, the widely accepted number of Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia is according to the internationally monitored 2002 census. The census data estimated that Albanians account for about a quarter of the total population.It is estimated that in 2020 the albanians will account about 46% of the total population of Macedonia.


Greece
Albanians in Greece form the country's largest population group after the ethnic Greek majority. Due to different waves of migration, they are divided into distinct communities. Alongside these two indigenous groups, about 10 percent of the population of Albania has entered Greece after the fall of Communism, forming the third community of Albanian origin in Greece.The first group of Northwestern Greece is mainly composed of Cham Albanians. Muslim Chams were expelled from the region of Epirus during World War II,in large while Orthodox Albanians remained in Greece. This population forms part of the modern Albanian nation, alongside with communities in Ioannina Prefecture and West Macedonia periphery, mainly concentrated in Konitsa and Florina, respectively.Another group of Albanian origin, which speak a dialect of Albanian, but which does not identify anymore with the modern Albanian nation is that of Arvanites,Suliotes and Albanian-speakers of Western Thrace, who retain a distinct ethnic identity, but self-identify nationally as Greeks.Others have estimated that, when the Ottomans conquered the whole Greek territory in the XV century, some 45% of it was populated by Albanians.Albanian immigrants, who have entered Greece in large numbers since the fall of the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, form the largest single expatriate group in the country today.According to the 2004 census, there are 483,550 holders of Albanian citizenship in Greece around 200,000 of orthodox cham albanian descent and more than 350,000 of arvanite albanian descent. There are also a lot of illegal albanian immigrants in Greece. In total there are more than a million people of albanian descent in greece.


Italy
Arbëreshë are an ethnic Albanian community living in Italy, especially the regions of Calabria,Apulia and Sicily. The Arbëreshë arrived in Southern Italy in several waves of migrations, from the 15th to 18th century AD. The Arbëreshë have their own distinct culture and have been able to keep their Albanian identity over the centuries.The Arbëreshë originally lived in Albania. Between the 11th and 14th centuries, they moved in small groups towards the south of Greece (Thessaly, Corinth, Peloponnesus, Attica) where they founded colonies. Their military skill made them favourite mercenaries of the Franks, Catalans, Italians and Byzantines.
The invasion of Balkan by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century forced many Arbëreshë to emigrate to the south of Italy.The Arbëreshë community were estimated at numbering a quarter million people in the 1970s.Today they number at least 350,000.After the breakdown of the communist regime in Albania in 1990, Italy had been the main immigration target for Albanians leaving their country. This was because Italy had been a symbol of the West for many Albanians during the communist period, because of its geographic proximity.The number of albanians in Italy,is estimated to be at least 600,000.


Turkey
Many Albanians were forced to flee to Turkey by Greco-Slav reprisal, during the 19th and 20th century.According to a 2008 report prepared for the National Security Council of Turkey by academics of three Turkish universities in eastern Anatolia, there were approximately 5,000,000 Albanians living in Turkey.Most of these people are assimilated into Turkish nation, and consider themselves more Turkish rather than Albanian.


Albanians in Germany
There are 550,000- 800,000 ethnic Albanians living in Germany. 350,000-450,000 albanians came from Kosovo, 100,000-200,000 from Albania and 100,000-150,000 from Macedonia. They mostly migrated to Germany during the 1990s.

Albanians in Switzerland
Ethnic Albanians in Switzerland numbered at about 370,000 as of 2006.Albanians have migrated to Switzerland since 1960s. Many of theme migrated from Kosovo.About 45 000 albanians migrated to Switzerland from Macedonia.But as in other host countries, the bulk of immigrants arrived during the 1990s.Albanians account for more than 6% of Swiss population, the largest Albanian minority outside of the Albanian homeland after Greece (10% Albanian population). The Albanian language is the largest immigrant language spoken in Switzerland.

Overseas
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Canada
It is estimated that about 220,395 Albanians live in Canada. The first Albanians arrived in Canada at the beginning of the 20th century, following internal pre-war revolutionary upheavals. Few immigrated to Canada after WWII. Most of the post-war Albanian immigrants settled in either Montréal or Toronto. Some found jobs in Calgary and a few in small communities in Ontario (eg, Peterborough). After the inter-ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia between ethnic Albanians and Serbian military and police forces, many Albanians left Kosovo as refugees. Some have come to Canada, and in 1999 the Canadian government created a program to offer safe haven to 7000 Kosovar Albanian refugees.

United States
Albanians began to settle in the USA in the early 1920s from Greece, Southern Italy and Kosovo, and in the 1990s from Albania, Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia. The Albanian-American population is currently 1,513,661, 0.7 of the US population.

Asia and Oceania
In Australia and New Zealand there are 22,000 albanians in total. Albanians are also known to reside in China, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore, but the numbers are generally small. Albanians have been present in Arab countries such as Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria for about 5 centuries as a legacy of Ottoman Turkish rule.

Africa
In Egypt there are 18,000 Albanians, mostly Tosk speakers. Many are descendants of the soldiers of Mehmet Ali. A large part of the former nobility of Egypt was Albanian in origin. A small community also resides in South Africa.