Albania and Albanians in the United States
By Megan Brody, 2003
source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/europe/albania/albania.htm
Contents:
- Albania
- Albanian Immigrants in the United States
- Language
- Culture
- Classroom Materials
- Other Resources and References
Albania is located just north of Greece and is surrounded by the countries of Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This region is known as the Balkans.
Albania was a communist country from 1944 to 1990. Since 1990, the government of Albania has been democratic, but there has been a lot of political unrest in Balkans throughout the 1990’s. In Albania, the change from a dictatorship to a democracy has not always been peaceful or easy.
The majority of the Albanian population is Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Christian. From 1967 to 1990, religion was outlawed in Albania. Before religion was banned, most of the families in Albania practiced one of the above religions. Since 1990, many people in Albania resumed the religion that their family practiced before 1967.
Education is rigorous and a prized commodity. Students must work hard and maintain an A- or B+ average if they wish to be allowed to attend college. At the end of high school, seniors take final exams that cover four years worth of material in math, literature, history, and physics in order to graduate. These finals have oral and written components. Students who wish to go to college take other exams to get into college.
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An Albanian woman remembers going to school six days a week for five hours a day with only a 20-minute break for lunch. She had to maintain an A- grade point average throughout high school in order to get into college because she was female. She claims that male Albanians can still get into college with a B+ average. |
For further information on Albanian history and culture visit www.albanian.com and www.frosina.org
Albanian Immigrants in the United States
There have been several influxes of Albanian immigrants. Immigration waves happened around 1944 when Albania became a communist country and again in 1967 when religion was outlawed in Albania. The majority of the Albanian immigrants who came to the United States after 1990 from Albania came to escape the political unrest and instability of their country.
Generally, the term “Albanian” refers to someone from Albania. The term “ethnic Albanian” could refer to someone of Albanian heritage from Albania or another region in the Balkans, such as Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, or the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
In the year 2000, 113,661 people in the United States reported that they were of Albanian descent. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the five states with the highest Albanian populations are:
State |
Total Albanian Population |
|
New York |
32,428 |
|
Michigan |
15,343 |
|
Massachusetts |
10,594 |
|
New Jersey |
7,336 |
|
Connecticut |
7,200 |
It should be noted that in each of these states the Albanian population is less than 1% of the state’s total population.
Many of the Albanians who immigrated after 1990 lived the majority of their lives in a society that did not permit religion. Even so, most Albanians in the United States still affiliate themselves with either the Muslim, Roman Catholic, or Orthodox Christian religions even if they are not active practitioners.
Occupations of Albanians in the United States vary greatly. According to the 2000 Census, of the 4,756 Albanian immigrants who were admitted during the 2000 fiscal year:
· 577 work as professionals in technological or other specialty fields
· 74 work in executive, administrative or managerial positions
· 141 work in sales
· 177 work in administrative support
· 169 work in precision production, craft, and repair
· 266 are operators or laborers
· 135 work in farming, fishing, or forestry
· 632 work in service industries
· 2,585 either have no occupation or did not report one
Albanian is the official language of Albania. Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by about 6,400,000 inhabitants of the eastern Adriatic coast in Albania and also in neighboring countries, such as Kosovo, Macedonia, and Greece.
Standard Albanian is spoken in the capitol of Albania, Tirana, and in the central region of Albania. The two principal dialects, Gheg in the north and Tosk in the south, are separated roughly by the Shkumbin River. Gheg and Tosk have been diverging for at least a millennium; their less extreme forms are mutually intelligible. Other dialects exist throughout the Balkans.
School is taught in Albanian, which utilizes the New Roman alphabet as does English. However, more accents and punctuation are used. Albanian spelling is directly related to pronunciation with each symbol representing a sound.
A few Albanian words and phrases:
|
English |
Albanian |
Pronunciation |
|
Yes |
Po |
Poh |
|
No |
Jo |
Yoh |
|
How are you? |
Si jeni? |
Si yeni? |
|
Fine (good/okay) |
Mirë |
Meer |
Students begin learning English at about middle school. English is taught in Albania in much the same way that foreign languages are taught in the United States, for one class period during the school day. If students learned English in Albania, they probably studied a British dialect; therefore, American English can be difficult for Albanian students to understand at first.
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One Albanian who learned English in school in Albania for about 10 years noted that the English taught in her school was British English. She said that it took her about a year in the United States to become comfortable speaking American English and to fully understand Americans when they speak. |
From 1944 through 1990, Albania was a communist country. For many years, religion was outlawed all together in order to encourage nationalism. However, both before and after the ban on religion, the majority of Albanians have been Muslim, Roman Catholic, or Orthodox Christian.
Albanian family bonds are especially strong. It is not uncommon for generations of a family to work together in a family-run business. Many extended families live together and care for each other. Often adult children live with their parents, or several generations live under the same roof.
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An Albanian high school teacher shares a house with her parents and brother and works on weekends in the family business. Her family came to the United States in the mid-1990’s to escape political unrest in Albania. |
After an Albanian wedding, the bride may live with her husband’s family or the couple may decide to live on their own.
Family events, such as engagement parties and weddings, are important social events in the Albanian community. Among Albanians living on the U.S., there is a strong preference for marriage within the Albanian community. This is particularly true among Roman Catholic and Muslim Albanians.
Preparing and sharing food are central to Albanian family life. Albanian cuisine is similar to other Mediterranean cuisines. Pilav, which is stuffed grape leaves, and baklava are common Albanian foods. Other Albanian specialties are lakror, a dinner pie filled with cheese and vegetables, and petulla, a dessert similar to fried dough. A famous Albanian restaurateur in Boston is Anthony Athanas, the head of Anthony’s Pier Four.
There is a good chance that most Albanian students in American classrooms are bilingual in both Albanian and English. This is true if they are first or second generation Albanians in the United States. Culture and heritage are very important to Albanians and many adults from Albania think that it is very important that their children learn the Albanian language.
Teachers need to be aware that Albanian social cues tend to be more physical than American cues. It is very common for Albanians to hug and kiss hello. Also, the head nods for “yes” and “no” are reversed from the American ones (i.e., a vertical nod means “no” and a horizontal nod means “yes”).
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Did you know that Mother Teresa was Albanian? Her real name is Agnes Bojaxhui. “Bojaxhi” in the Albanian language means “painter.” |
For more information on Albanian culture and for other interesting Albanian facts, visit www.albanian.com
(Sources: www.albanian.com and The Albanians in Michigan by Frances Trix.)
The website www.albanian.com has a lot of good information about the Albanian culture.
The website www.frosina.org is a good community resource for Albanians and one that a teacher may want to recommend to a newly immigrated family. This site provides information on local Albanian activities and community English courses. This site also provides articles and information that may be helpful to teachers.
The book, The Albanians in Michigan by Frances Trix, is an easy to read and informative book about the Albanian culture. Teachers and students in the class may find this book useful in learning about their fellow Albanian classmates’ background. This book would be appropriate for high school students to read.
Here are some examples of children’s literature on Albania and Albanian culture:
1) Lear, A. E. & Stotsky (2000). Albania. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers. This book is part of the Major World Nations Series and is a n introduction to the smallest country in Europe, known in ancient times as Illyria.
2) Miller, E. (1929). Pran Of Albani. New Jersey: Doubleday, Daran, & Co.). This book won a Newbery Honor in 1930.
3) Wright, D.K. (1997). Albania. New York: Children’s Press. This book is part of the Enchantment of the World: Second Series, and describes the geography, plants, animals, history, economy, language, religions, culture, sports, arts, and people of Albania.
Other Resources and References
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Track/4165/historia.html
This page has a good deal of Albanian history in an easy to read format.
http://www.frosina.org/archives/newrel1.shtml
Frosina Information Network. This is a Boston-based organization formed to help Albanian immigrants to America.
This site is loaded with information on the Albanian people and the entire Balkans region.
Trix, F. (2001). Albanians in Michigan. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press.
This book gives a nice account of the Albanian community in Michigan as well as other general information on Albanian history, culture, and food.
www.immigration.gov/graphics/index.htm
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
United
States Census Bureau
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last updated July 2003