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Albanian American
	Notable Albanian Americans:; James Belushi, Eliza Dushku, Regis Philbin
Total population
	Albanian; 113,661 Americans; 0.04% of the US population
Regions with significant populations
	California, Florida, Washington, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Nebraska, Connecticut, Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Languages
	Albanian, American English
Religion
	Predominately Albanian Orthodox, the rest Roman Catholic, and Islam.

Albanian Americans are United States citizens of Albanian ancestry. According to the 2000 US census, there are 113,661 Americans of full or partial Albanian descent.

[edit] Geographic distribution

The states with large population of Albanians are New York (32,428), Michigan (15,343), Massachusetts (10,594), New Jersey (7,336) and Connecticut (7,200). Albanians began to settle in the USA in the early 1920s from Southern Italy, Greece, and Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and in the 1990s from Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia, as refugees of war. Another Albanian American (Kosovar Albanian) community in the Riverside/San Bernardino area of California includes Kosovars who entered the United States at the March Joint Air Reserve Base in Riverside.^[3]

Some Italian Americans who arrived in the U.S. during the early 20th century were descended from 15th-century Albanian refugees to southern Italy and spoke an archaic dialect of Tosk Albanian called Arbëresh. The Greater New Orleans area has a large Arbëresh community, mostly descended from 19th-century Sicilian immigrants.^[4] Similarly, some Greek American immigrants would have spoken a Tosk Albanian dialect called Arvanitika and traced their ancestry to southern Albanians settling in Greece from the 11th to the 16th centuries.

Similar shifts in ethnic identification happens today when Albanians come from many different countries other than Albania.

[edit] List of Famous Albanian-Americans

[edit] Notable academic awards

Ferid Murad - medical researcher Nobel laureate

[edit] Actors and actresses

James Belushi - actor^[5]
John Belushi - actor^[6]
James Biberi - actor
Eliza Dushku - actress^[7]
Lynn Herring - actress
Agim Kaba - actor and film producer
Marie Logoreci - actress
Masiela Lusha - actress
Peter Malota - actor
Laureta Meci - actress
John Cena - actor

[edit] Arts and entertainment

Emina Cunmulaj - model
Mark - male model/superintendent of the South Orange Towers
Kara DioGuardi - songwriter
Stan Dragoti - film director, producer, artist
Regis Philbin - television
Thomas Simaku - composer

[edit] Business and industry

Anthony Athanas - restaurateur
Ekrem Bardha - businessman and patriot
Florin Krasniqi - businessman and nationalist (patriot)

[edit] Criminals

Ismail Lika - mobster
Alex Rudaj - mobster

[edit] Media

Bill Kovach - journalist/editor^[8]
Donald Lambro - journalist^[9]
Eric Margolis, journalist, and editor to the Toronto Sun.
Gani Vila - director of Albanian TV of America in Michigan^[10]
Gjeke Marinaj - poet, writer, journalist, pedagogue^[11]
George Tames - photographer for the New York Times^[12]
Fadil Berisha - photographer

[edit] Politics

Joseph J. DioGuardi - congressman^[13]
Konstantina Lukes - Mayor of Worcester, Massachusetts
Gjon Mili - photographer
Burim Myftiu - photographer

[edit] Science and technology

William G. Gregory, Astronaut^[14]

[edit] Sports

Tony Dovolani - professional dancer, (currently Dancing with the Stars)
Lee Elia - baseball player, coach and manager
Aaron Palushaj - professional hockey player
John Cena - professional wrestler
Tie Domi - Hockey Player

[edit] See also

List of Albanian Americans

[edit] References

^ US Census Bureau, Census 2000, Table: Ancestry for People with one or more Ancestry Categories Reported
^ Albanians of the USA are either Catholics or Orthodox or Muslim
^ Fischer, Bernd J. "Albanian refugees seeking political asylum in the United States: process and problems" in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31.1 (2005)
^ Edwin E. Jacques, The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present, 1995
^ [1] "John and James Belushi are Albanian as well."
^ [2] "John Belushi, the Albanian-American actor..."
^ [3] "...she was recently invited to visit Albania, where she has become something of a national symbol, being the most famous American Albanian -- or at least half-Albanian since her mother's heritage is Danish -- actor since John Belushi." [4] "There is a joke in our family that the Dushku's and the Belushi's are the only Albanians in show business. Who knows? That might be true." [5] "One issue which hits close to home for her is the plight of the Albanian refugees, being of Albanian and Danish descent herself. "It's hard with all this war stuff. They're helping the Albanians, but you can never say you're happy about bombing. I don't know how I feel on the issue. I watch the news, I'm watching Albanian refugees piling onto trains, and they look like me and my brothers. I feel like I'm watching my family, and it's so disturbing."
^ [6] "Kovach, who was Washington bureau chief for the New York Times and for two years edited the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, uses himself as an example. "I'm Albanian-American," he says, "and things that happen in the Balkans are inherently important to me. No matter how good an editor I am, I'm not going to follow African news in the same way.""
^ Albanian Americans
^ [7]
^ [8]
^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_n2618_v125/ai_18856941
^ Untitled Document
^ Albanian American Women Organization "Motrat Qiriazi"

[edit] External links

National Albanian American Council

[census-0] US Census Bureau, Census 2000, Table: Ancestry for People with one or more Ancestry Categories Reported

[1] Albanians of the USA are either Catholics or Orthodox or Muslim

[2] Fischer, Bernd J. "Albanian refugees seeking political asylum in the United States: process and problems" in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31.1 (2005)

[3] Edwin E. Jacques, The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present, 1995

[4] [1] "John and James Belushi are Albanian as well."

[5] [2] "John Belushi, the Albanian-American actor..."

[dushku-6] [3] "...she was recently invited to visit Albania, where she has become something of a national symbol, being the most famous American Albanian -- or at least half-Albanian since her mother's heritage is Danish -- actor since John Belushi." [4] "There is a joke in our family that the Dushku's and the Belushi's are the only Albanians in show business. Who knows? That might be true." [5] "One issue which hits close to home for her is the plight of the Albanian refugees, being of Albanian and Danish descent herself. "It's hard with all this war stuff. They're helping the Albanians, but you can never say you're happy about bombing. I don't know how I feel on the issue. I watch the news, I'm watching Albanian refugees piling onto trains, and they look like me and my brothers. I feel like I'm watching my family, and it's so disturbing."

[7] [6] "Kovach, who was Washington bureau chief for the New York Times and for two years edited the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, uses himself as an example. "I'm Albanian-American," he says, "and things that happen in the Balkans are inherently important to me. No matter how good an editor I am, I'm not going to follow African news in the same way.""

[8] Albanian Americans

[9] [7]

[10] [8]

[11] ttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_n2618_v125/ai_18856941

[12] Untitled Document

[13] Albanian American Women Organization "Motrat Qiriazi"

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