Albanian-speaking migration, mid-19th century to present

In the past two decades Albania and the former Yugoslavia have become associated with some of Europe's most dramatic emigration movements. During the four decades of the communist regime, the Republic of Albania was a blind spot in the imagination of Europe and the world. It was brought back into the collective consciousness in 1991 when media all over the world showed dramatic pictures of impoverished and desperate men arriving in overcrowded ships in southern Italy: Albania had its “boat people.” In addition, Albanian populations living in the former Yugoslavia, particularly Kosovo-Albanians, gained a world audience in 1998 when tens of thousands of refugees arrived not only in Europe, but also in Albania and other neighboring countries, after the outbreak of open war in Kosovo. However, migration in this world region cannot be reduced simply to such key moments; a historical perspective reveals that migration has been a constitutional aspect of the Balkans for a long time.