Early Albanian immigration In 1885, Naum Konxha settled in Brisbane, Queensland, becoming the first-recorded Albanian to settle in Australia.
Early–to–mid 20th century: Immigration from Albania Arrival of young male Kurbetxhi (migrants) , Queensland (1928) After the First World War, concerns rural labour shortages and the readiness of Australia's small population to resist possible invasion made authorities accept European non–British migrants. Due to the White Australia Policy, during the interwar period, many Muslims were restricted from migrating whereas Albanians were accepted in Australia because they were considered Europeans and had a lighter European complexion. The Australian government's position was they were "required white settlers who were willing to dwell in remote and solitary surroundings and who have the experience in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, such as the Albanian possessed". Albanian migrants (), originating from a rural background, In October 1924, the first five Albanian migrants Bejxhet Emini, Bektash Muharem, Musa Ibrahimi, Rexhep Mustafa and Riza Ali arrived from Korçë region. and others who followed, embarked on a seven–week voyage and arrived at Fremantle; they often became casual labourers, mainly working in the grain–growing industry. Albanians arriving in the 1920s left urban centres
The Great Depression, discrimination and wider settlement The
Great Depression (1929) impacted the majority of Albanians in Australia. Albanians became labourers on tobacco and cotton farms in Queensland. In Western Australia, early centres of Albanian settlement were
Northam and
York, where Albanians worked as wheat and sheep farmers, and other migrants settled in
Moora. Migrants chose farm work and other agricultural employment because the work required little skill in English and resembled work they did in Korçë. The community grew through
chain migration from Albania; migrants sponsored relatives to move to Australia. By pooling resources, migrants bought businesses and established farms, and some families from the community were the first to set up orchards in the region, assisting Shepparton to establish a reputation as "the fruit–bowl of Victoria". Tensions arose over the purchase of land in the Shepparton area by southern Europeans; Other depictions in the metropolitan Sydney press said a quarter of Shepparton's inhabitants were "aliens" and the town was becoming a "second Albania", whereas local media said that was an exaggeration. For some single men, isolation became a problem and some violent incidents occurred between Albanians; these incidents later decreased as families outnumbered singletons. Local press stereotyped Albanians as prone to lawlessness and violence. Most of the Shepparton population, however, welcomed and accepted Albanians and other migrants into the community. Albanian songs were included in concerts held by primary schools, the
Country Women's Association held functions for Albanian migrants, and Shepparton inhabitants held English classes that were attended by some Albanians. As Shepparton went from being a town to a significant regional city, Albanians became an important part of its expanding population, and were involved in its economy and growth of the urban centre.
Other settlement in Australia Other Albanian migrants settled in Melbourne because of its manufacturing industry. During this time, some Albanians who had sufficient finances sponsored family members, including brides for single men, in Albania to move to Australia. Most Albanian migrants were Muslims; an academic estimate placed the number of Orthodox Christians at around 40 percent. Some rural media circulated rumours and reports stating the Italian consul was pressurring Albanians to declare themselves citizens of Italy. Many Albanians concerned over their status in Shepparton applied for naturalisation, In that year, there were 1,086 Albanians in Australia, and the federal government designated the Albanian community "
enemy aliens" due to the Italian–controlled Albanian government's war declaration against the Allies. These actions were seen as essential for security. Queensland had the largest concentration of Albanians in the country, numbering 434 in 1941, only 55 of whom naturalised as British subjects. In 1942, 415 Albanians in Queensland were unnaturalised and only 43 were British subjects. for possessing letters in a foreign language and for having an allegiance to a foreign country—Albania or Italy—and not being naturalised. Muslim Albanians in Australia felt they were victims of government internment policies and a small number of Catholics were also interned. Families of interned Albanians experienced psychological trauma and humiliation. Albanian men felt they were allies of Australia because Albania was occupied by Italy. Part of the wider Australian community viewed naturalised Albanians as a "potential threat". Some interned Albanians whom the federal government considered physically able were placed in the Civil Alien Corps, part of the
Allied Works Council; others with medical conditions came under the control of the Manpower authorities, which oversaw what work they did. Albanian sentiment about the situation ranged from reluctant cooperation to acceptance, and some considered their internment conditions good while others performed poorly in tasks assigned to them by the Civil Aliens Corps. Wartime treatment in Queensland made many Albanians in a post–war environment leave the state for other parts of Australia. Some Albanians without citizenship were not interned and sought to become naturalised. During the war, the federal government placed restrictions on enemy aliens and their naturalisation. By 1943, immigration restrictions were eased for certain Albanians who had proven to be "pro–British" and some were naturalised. In 1944, communist partisans took control of Albania from Axis German forces and Australia redesignated its Albanian community from "enemy aliens" to "friendly aliens". Unlike the
Germans or
Italians, who were considered a major wartime threat in Australia, government authorities treated Albanians in a fair and mainly even-handed manner regarding internment and later naturalisation.
Albanian contribution to the Australian war effort The Albanian community were concerned they may be viewed in Australia as having dual loyalties and often made contributions to show their support for the war effort. During the war, Albanians in Australia were able to maintain contact with family in Albania, mainly through the Red Cross.
Post–war immigration Influx of refugees and the Cold War In the early decades of their migration to Australia, the lives of migrant Albanians were based on hard work in isolated conditions with simple living standards. Returnees numbered 268, the majority departed in the late 1940s and others continued to leave until 1963. Most men remained in Australia and naturalisation became a goal to prevent any recurrence of their wartime experience. At the war's conclusion, the
communist takeover of Albania was positively received by the Albanian community but that stance changed with the onset of the
Cold War. Some Albanian men with Australian citizenship initially persuaded their spouses or fiancés to migrate from Albania to Australia , Melbourne (late 1940s) By 1947, the number of Albanian migrants in Australia had doubled from that of 1933, and Victoria became the state with the largest Albanian population. and from south–western Macedonia's Prespa region. Albanians from Prespa settled in Melbourne and Perth, and travel to Albania only became possible with the conclusion of the Cold War decades later. In the immediate post–war period, political differences of royalists and democrats among the Albanian community reflected political divisions of inter–war Albania and were at times expressed as separate gatherings and cultural events of the two groups. Community members felt such actions were needed so the state would accept them as loyal Australian citizens.
Transition from "White Australia" to multiculturalism Prior to the 1960s, most of the Albanian population in Australia had been born in Albania. As a result of the influx of Albanian refugees, Australia's Albanian-born population increased until 1976. Other Albanians in Australia married partners from different Muslim communities or non–Muslims. this shift was due to the arrival of post–war migrants of non–Anglo–Celtic origins. In the Australian context of notions about race and ethnicity, the settlement of Muslim Albanians during the White Australia policy period made them straddle classifications of
White due to skin colour, and they were considered as "Other". Islam was not an impediment for Albanians migrating to Australia and undergoing the naturalisation process. Albanians built Mosques during the White Australia era. Later, with the official implementation of multiculturalism, the term "ethnic" was used to describe groups like Muslim Albanians as being "non–Anglo" or "other" in discourses about the policy by the majority Anglo–Australian population. Some in the Albanian community see their light–coloured skin and European heritage as factors that allowed them to integrate. In Australian scholarship, reasons are given for the allowance of Albanians and their gradual acceptance in Anglo–Celtic Australia while still considered somewhat different or as "ethnics".
Communities in Victoria The Australian census of 1947 recorded 227 Shepparton Muslims, most of whom were from an Albanian background. In local media, negativity toward post–war Shepparton Albanians sharply decreased and they were depicted as hard–working people with civic participation in the town. In the early 1950s, Shepparton Albanians established their own Albanian Muslim Society and fund-raised in their community, and built Victoria's first mosque in the late 1950s. The Islamic Society of Victoria (ISV) was established in the late 1950s; its first head was an Albanian and during the early 1960s Albanians comprised most of its membership. The multicultural organisation laid foundations for Muslim groups like the Albanians to individually create Muslim facilities and infrastructure for their growing communities. Albanians based in Melbourne established their own Albanian Muslim Society and constructed the city's first mosque in the late 1960s. In the same decade, a multicultural Muslim women's association was established in
Carlton North; its membership included Albanian women. Albanian radio was established in Melbourne by Bahri Bregu and Luk Çuni. In 1974, an Albanian Catholic Society was established and in 1993, the Australian Albanian Women's Association was created. sponsored their work visas, and gave them support through social networks and often employment. Some of the new Albanian arrivals were able to gain Australian citizenship through descent from earlier migrant forebears with Australian citizenship who had been unable to leave Albania following the Second World War. The Albanian presence in Shepparton is "well known and well regarded". Some history books about Shepparton document the importance of the Albanian contribution to its growth and development. These are Feshti Street for Golë Feshti, Asim Drive for Ismet Asim—a young Albanian migrant who later owned orchards and a dairy farm—and others such as Sabri Drive, Sam Crescent and Sali Drive. In Mareeba, the older community was joined by post–war Albanian refugees, and other Albanians settled in Brisbane and sugar-cane-growing areas such as
Cairns and
Babinda. Apart from individual Albanians, work on tobacco and sugar cane farms often involved whole families. As such, the wider Mareeba Albanian community established their own local
Muslim Society and built a
mosque dedicated to Australian soldiers who had died in wars. From their arrival, the Albanian Mareeba community has maintained good relations with the local Anglo–Celtic Australian population, even during the Second World War, as both groups share a similar rural lifestyle and interests. In 1976, there were 98 adult Muslims with an Albanian origin in Mareeba. A few local Albanians have risen to leadership roles such as becoming directors of North Queensland Tobacco Growers' Co–operative Association, which campaigned for tobacco growers' interests. Among Albanian communities within Australia, reverence is maintained for its financial contribution to the World War Two effort and its Australian war veterans.
Communities in other states After the end of the Second World war, some Muslim migrants from Albania went to live in Western Australia, in particular to Fremantle and in Perth, settling near the old city mosque alongside other Muslims. Other post–war Muslim Albanian migrants went to live in
Northam and
York, the state's wheat–and–sheep–farming regions, and worked as gardeners and farmers. The state had 150 Albania-born people and 300 of Albanian descent in 1993. By the 1990s, small numbers of Albanians had settled in
Darwin, Northern Territory. In New South Wales, soon after 1945, a small number of Albanians settled in Sydney. Others went to live in
Wollongong, where over 200 people are of Albanian descent.
Immigration from south–western Yugoslavia The majority of Albanian–speaking arrivals in Australia migrated from
Yugoslavia beginning in the 1950s. Many left Yugoslavia due to discrimination against the ethnic Albanian minority and Muslim population, and the deteriorating economy and rise in unemployment.
Settlement in Dandenong In 1963, Jakup Rustemi and later the brothers Tahir and Vefki Rasimi became the first Albanians to settle in the Melbourne suburb
Dandenong after migrating from Kišava. Migrating Albanians with mainly agricultural skills chose to settle in Dandenong because it had industry and farms nearby. in 1985. Albanians also live in the neighbouring small suburb Dandenong South; they comprise much of its population and supply much of the kindergarten and school populations in the Dandenong area. Two–storey houses are a common feature among many Albanian homeowners in Dandenong, and often they make up most of the population in some streets. Albanians in Dandenong consider themselves to be integrated and accepted in Australia. Dandenong Albanians are employed in The Albanian presence in Dandenong has been honoured with a street called Keshava Grove and the creation of a public park named Keshava Reserve in 2020. As a consequence of the Albanian migratory outflow from the region, the Prespa diaspora communities in Australia and the US are larger than the remaining Albanian Prespa population in Macedonia. During the
Kosovo War (1999), the Australian government conducted Operation Safe Haven and gave temporary asylum to 4,000 Kosovo Albanians by housing them in military facilities, although Albanian Australians offered to house the refugees. Some Albanian community organisations and networks in Australia were involved assisting Kosovo Albanian refugees. After the war ended, most Albanian refugees were returned to Kosovo in 2000; 500 of them were able to permanently remain in Australia after attaining refugee status, increasing the numbers of Albanian Australian community. Albanian Australians, in areas where they are concentrated, and their organisations, assisted the Kosovars with resettlement. In Queensland, Kosovo Albanians form one third of its Albanian population, and are employed as carpenters and painters or in other labour trades, while the youth pursue professions in law, health and engineering. At Shepparton, the Albanian community numbers around 3,000, the overwhelming majority of whom have origins in or around Korçë, Albania. In Dandenong, the Albanian community numbers between 4,000 and 6,000, most of whom originated from Kišava and its surrounding area in North Macedonia. In both places, some Albanians have origins in Montenegro and Kosovo, and in Dandenong some have origins in Albania. Most Albanians in Shepparton and Dandenong are Muslims. Australia-wide, the 2006 Australian census counted 2,014 residents who were born in Albania and 11,315 with Albanian ancestry. In 2011, the census counted 2,398 Albanian-born residents and 13,142 with Albanian ancestry. The 2024 census recorded 3,633 residents born in Albania with 19,686 indicating Albanian ancestry. Some Albanian Australians have found it difficult to sponsor Albanians for migration from the Balkans to Australia because they do not have the required English–language skills. Australian immigration rules tightened in the early twenty–first century and marriage has become the main option for migration to Australia by Albanians from the Balkans. In Victoria, Albanian Australians including Jim Memeti, who served as
City of Greater Dandenong mayor, For several years, Shepparton Albanians through their Islamic Society campaigned for Shepparton and Korçë to establish a
twin-town relationship, a goal achieved in 2013. During December 2019, Albanian Australians raised $255,000 through their community organisations for victims of the
2019 Albania earthquake. In Victoria in the early 2020s, the effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic were felt by Victorian Albanians as community events like Albanian festivals were cancelled. During August 2020 in Dandenong, around 100 individuals, mostly from the Albanian community, partook in the first
protests against Victoria's lockdowns that aimed at curbing the COVID-19 pandemic. In late 2021, the pandemic severely affected the Albanian community in Melbourne when around 300 people became infected with the virus. The Shepparton Albanian community produced
Australia My Home: An Albanian Migration, a documentary about Albanian migration to Australia. ==Demographics==