Albanians in Kosovo

The Kosovo Albanians (Albanian Kosovar / t or Shqiptare / th Kosovës ) are a regional group of the Albanian ethnic group in Kosovo. Her mother tongue is Albanian. They constitute approximately 93 percent of the population, the largest ethnic group in the state. Kosovo Albanian emigrants live in large numbers in Western Europe (especially Switzerland and Germany ) and in the United States.

Kosovo - Albanians and Albanians from Albania

There are besides many similarities ( such as the common written language ) also significant differences between Kosovo Albanians and Albanians from Albania, which are caused by the separation of state since 1912. On the one hand, the Albanians were cut off in the motherland through the insulation in the communist era of the intellectual and scientific development outside the country during the Kosovo Albanians of the older generation, due to decades of labor migration to Western Europe, are much more cosmopolitan.

On the other hand, the Kosovo Albanians had no contact with the predominantly Tosk elites southern Albania, so that their cultural achievements in Kosovo were hardly been received. In addition, patriarchal and religious traditions in Kosovo played after the Second World War is still an important role, while the Communist Albania imposed in this regard a forced modernization. Finally, the remaining in Kosovo younger generation of Albanians has under the UN protectorate large educational deficits due to the Milošević regime and the subsequent chaos. So today is part of the Kosovo Albanian population, not able to provide the Albanian high-level language to write correctly. There is even a movement to make the spoken in Kosovo gegischen dialect to written language.

Until the expulsion of the Kosovars during the Kosovo war (1999) only a few Albanians from Kosovo had ever visited the so-called mother country. The encounter of the thousands of refugees with the Albanians across the border was a culture shock. We wondered about the obvious poverty and also about the chaotic conditions in government and society. Added to this were the linguistic differences.

Gradual rapprochement between the Albanians from Kosovo and from Albania which took place in the past few years. Man marries again across the border and many Kosovars spend their holiday on the Albanian Adriatic. The linguistic differences have diminished through the direct contacts, but especially by the media. There are also more and more common economic activities.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Albania in 2012, the first joint fibula from Albanians and Kosovo Albanians was published in Kosovo Prizren. Of the four main authors are each two Albanians and Kosovo Albanians.