Albanians Case

Albanians are seen as the most recent group of Europeans to immigrate to the United States and their numbers have remained small. Before World War I, Albanians travelled to America due to poor economic conditions, political concerns, or to get away from military recruitment in the Turkish army. Many Albanians who fled Albania for political reasons went back to Albania between 1919 and 1925. Most of these particular Albanians re-migrated to the United States, with the aim to remain permanently in America.

As a group, those who are European born tend to be more proficient in English, and end up working in higher-level professions from which they acquire higher earnings than other generally foreign-born inhabitants. It is for this reason they are less likely to reside in poverty and experience unemployment as they have had more time to adjust to the life in the United States unlike the foreign-born inhabitants who are reluctant to change their ways and adapt the new life and cling on to their old ways. According to an interview I conducted with a Albanian born in America he stated the following " I know the difference between me and an Albanian who has immigrated here, I have higher standards, I will not settle for less or any job, I will always strive for the best" This is not due to the immigrants not wanting to strive for the best, it due to the fact that they settle for any job to be able to help their family members back home because they know how it is to have nothing. It takes the immigrant's years for them to establish themselves and go after what they want.

By tradition Albanian households are characterized with men as the head. Women were suppose to be caretakers of the family and expected to make decisions pertaining to what they would serve the husbands at large. With the current era of Albanians born in the United States the role of women is slowly changing since the women are being employed outside their homes and thus they are engaged in other businesses from which they earn a living unlike the foreign-born women whose loyalty had been pledged to their husbands. When the Albanian women came to the United States things changed. The women started working two jobs, which mostly included cleaning houses due to the fact that they didn't speak English. Besides having two jobs they are responsible for taking care of the kids and their own household. They are superheroes.

The youth and elderly Practices particularly the girl child was not given the same freedom like the boy child and she was encouraged to stay at home as they would acquire a bad name if they were seen outside their homes. However, with these generation of Albanians born in the United States have actually enrolled their children in American schools contrary to the foreign-born Albanians who were against these schools as they never viewed the education of any importance and value as in America. They have realized that education is