The NYC Albanian community is one of the many communities I belong to. I was born in Albania and I moved to NYC at the age of two, so most of my life I have spent in America but I still like to stay grounded to my roots of being Albanian. The Albanian community in NYC is somewhat big compared to other states, Albanians typically move to NYC because it is the closest trip back to Albania since most go back for the summer. There are about 500,428 Albanians in NYC. Pelham Parkway which is where i live is actually called Little Albania like hoe Arthur Ave. in Fordham is called Little Italy. The NYC Council Member of the Bronx is in fact an Albanian and many re-elect him. By the end of the month it will be Albanian Independence day so expect those 500,000+ Albanians to go a bit crazy.
One issue with my community is that many people like to stereotype us as people who settle for working in construction, and being part of the mafia. The problem is that many of us actually have a degree is business or medical like doctor, nursing, dentist and psychiatrists but we cant use those degrees when we move to America and many already have families that they need to support have very little money because are moving to a different country and so they don’t have the time or money to go back to school and start all over to they resort to whatever job is possible to get here. Also many Albanians are stereotyped for being part of the mafia, especially if they have seen the movie Taken. Not all Albanians are part of the Mafia, sure some may be but what country doesn’t have a Mafia. One way i think i can help fix this issue is to be one of those Albanians who continues to strive for more and prove to others how strong and hard working Albanians are.
