Artikulli qe vijon është në Gjuhën Angleze, por mbase do të ishte në interes të fomistëve ta lexojnë dhe të diskutojnë rreth këtij artikulli.

Negative stereotype concerns Albanian-Americans

By TIMOTHY O'CONNOR, THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: January 9, 2005)

A heavy layer of cigarette smoke hung in the air in the small room. A group of men sat around a table drinking strong coffee, sipping small glasses of the Albanian aperitif raki and talking of national affairs in the country they love.

The scene could have been just about any cafe in Tirana. Albania easily could have been the nation they were talking about.

But this day, the scene was a small studio apartment off Southern Boulevard in the Belmont section of the Bronx. The country the five Albanian men were talking about was the United States.

"The proudest day of my life," Zef Balaj said, "was the day I became a citizen of this country. Because I knew this was a country of opportunity. This was a country that I was saying I would die for."

That is why, the New Castle man said, seeing the words "Albanian mob" in media reports in connection with an alleged organized-crime ring busted by the FBI, the Westchester District Attorney's Office and federal prosecutors in October stung so much.

"We are a hard-working, honest people. Everywhere you go, people will tell you, 'Albanians work hard, value their families,' " said Balaj, 62, who came to the United States in 1962 from Italy, where he arrived in 1951 after fleeing then-communist Albania. Often working two jobs at a time, Balaj eventually built a thriving real estate management company in the Bronx. "It's not right to label an entire group of people as criminals because of the actions of a few."

Albanians have been coming to the United States for at least a century. But there has been a greater influx in the past two decades than at any other time as the communist government of the small Balkan country teetered and collapsed, said Albanian-Americans interviewed in the Bronx and Westchester.

As with other groups before them, Albanian-Americans have found success in the United States building businesses, including restaurants and real estate development firms, and raising their children to love the country of their birth while staying connected to their heritage.

But as with Irish, Jewish and Italian immigrants before them, Albanians have been dogged by repeated stories about criminals and organized-crime groups within their immigrant enclaves. As with the groups before them, they say the criminal label is unfair, inaccurate and hurtful.

"Look at that group that was arrested," said Idriz Lamaj, an Albanian immigrant who came to the United States 40 years ago and lives in Manhattan. "Most of the names are not even Albanian. They are Greek, Italian, Slavic — yet, they say 'Albanian mob.' "

Lamaj worked for the federal government for 27 years, including 15 years as a producer and reporter with "Voice of America."

To the degree that there are some Albanians involved in organized crime, said Agim Karagjozi, a retired businessman from Long Island, the former communist government is to blame.

"Living under communism corrupts the mind. It corrupts the soul," he said. "We must acknowledge that some people may have been affected by this."

But he echoed the sentiments of other Albanian-Americans who said they had never encountered organized-crime elements within the Albanian community.

"For me and my family, it is very difficult to understand all this," said Karagjozi, who immigrated from Albania in 1956 and now leads the Pan-Albanian Federation of America. "We are shocked. Who are these people? Where are they?"

Sergio Bittici, an Albanian immigrant who owns the Italian restaurant Macelleria in the meatpacking district in the city, said Albanians too often were incorrectly linked with crime. He pointed to a case several years ago in the Bronx in which black children were attacked and their faces were painted white. Initial media reports pointed to Albanian assailants. But later, police determined the attackers were not Albanian.

"At first it's all over, 'They're Albanian,' " said Bittici, who lives in Manhattan. "But when that turns out to be not true, you don't see much about that."


Former U.S. Rep. Joseph DioGuardi, whose father was an ethnic Albanian who immigrated to the United States from Italy, said Albanians now were beginning to realize the potential damage of such negative stereotypes and doing something to combat them.

"As a new immigrant group, we can learn from our Jewish and Italian friends who have successfully fought against such negative associations," he said during an interview in the rectory of Our Lady of Shkodra Church in Hartsdale.

DioGuardi leads the Albanian-American Civic League, which is based in Ossining and lobbies political leaders on behalf of Albanian-American interests.

Dr. Gjon Bucaj, who lives in White Plains and works at a neighborhood health center in Mount Vernon, pointed to a picture of Mother Teresa on the cover of a book in the rectory.

"You know she's Albanian, right?" he asked. "You don't see that mentioned in the papers, though."

Nick Berisha of South Salem sat in Gurra Cafe on Arthur Avenue in the heart of the Bronx's Little Italy recently, enjoying a lunch of hot antipasto with his cousin, Milaim Lekaj, and his cousin's sons, Albert, 10, and Alban, 8. He comes back to Arthur Avenue for the comfort of enjoying lunch in an Albanian cafe, where he can talk with people about events back home in the Balkans and what's going on in their children's schools here.

Italian flags still hang from the street lamps along Arthur Avenue, pronouncing the area as Little Italy, but increasingly the shops, cafes and restaurants sport Albanian flags as more Albanian businesses open along the historic strip.

Berisha, 42, owns and operates a fence-building company in White Plains. He arrived in the United States from Kosova in 1988, owing friends and family $5,000. He said his determination and hard work are representative of the vast majority of Albanian-Americans.

"We are a really hard-working people," he said. "Every nationality has its good and bad. But that small percentage of Albanians involved in that other stuff cannot damage a whole people."

Reach Timothy O'Connor at tpoconnor@thejournalnews.com or 914-694-3523.Reach Timothy O'Connor at tpoconnor@thejournalnews.com or 914-694-3523.