History of the Albanian Americans in Metro Detroit

The organization Global Detroit stated that the largest group of ethnic Albanians not in Europe is in Metro Detroit. As of 2014, 4,800 ethnic Albanians live in Macomb County, making up the fourth-largest ethnic group in that county, and the highest concentration of Albanians in Metro Detroit.[1]

History

In 1912 Albanians began arriving in the area. They had no peak migration period.[2] At the time there were groups in east Detroit, northwest Detroit, and Grosse Point.[2]

The early settlers originated from southern Albania, but they were recorded as being from Greece, Turkey, or from the country in which they boarded their boats to the United States. Many had initially lived in New York and New England but moved to Detroit by the 1910s.[3]

Frances Trix, the author of The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb, wrote that Detroit's Albanian community was more conservative than that of New York City, and that the "cohesiveness that crossed religious lines and that manifested itself in gatherings and in unusual generosity to Albanian cultural activities" was a factor special to Albanians in Detroit.[4]

As of 1951 Metro Detroit had about 3,000 Albanians.[2]

A wave of mass immigration came in 1992 with the breakup of Yugoslavia and it continued in the 1990s.[1] Some Catholic ethnic Albanians from Montenegro entered the United States from Mexico and settled in Detroit.[5]

Geography

In the 1990s, ethnic Albanians in Sterling Heights had the nickname "Albos" and they often had conflicts with "Yugos," collectively those of ethnic Serb and Macedonian ethnicities.[6]

Economy

By 2012 many Albanians were operating Coney islands, or restaurants serving the Coney Island hot dog.[7] Albanians in general operate many restaurants.[1] Many Albanian immigrants are employees in fast food restaurants in Macomb County and Oakland County.[8]

Albanian TV of America, headquartered in Troy, transmits Albanian-language television shows.[1]

Religion

In 1929 the St. Thomas Orthodox Church was established by Albanian Christians. Albanian Muslims assisted the Christians with their mortgage.[4]

For a period of time prior to 1949, Hussein Karoub provided pastoral services to the Albanian Muslims.[9] In 1949 the first U.S. Albanian mosque opened in Detroit;[10] The Albanian Moslem Society, organized in 1947,[4] established it once it had recruited a cleric.[11] This cleric was Vehbi Ismail.[12] Ismail accused Karoub of trying to sabotage him.[9]

The First Albanian Bektashi Monastery (Tekke) opened in Taylor in 1953. Baba Rexheb, an Albanian Sufi, had established it.[9] In 1963 the Albanian Islamic Center in Harper Woods opened.[12]

In 1966 the American Albanian Catholic Charity opened to assist Catholic clergy in the home country but its mission shifted to revealing information about the anti-clergy movement after the Albanian government outlawed religion the following year. The organization moved to Santa Clara, California in 1971.[13]

The authors Abdo Elkholy, Frances Trix, and Linda Walbridge all, as paraphrased by Sally Howell, stated that "relations between Albanian Muslims and other Muslims in Detroit were limited at best."[9]

Notable residents

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 "India leads all nations in sending people to Detroit" (Archive). Crain's Detroit Business. June 1, 2014. Updated June 6, 2014. Retrieved on September 29, 2014. "Macomb has the highest current concentration of Albanian immigrants locally at 4,800, according to Global Detroit's data. That's the fourth-largest nationality of any group in the county."
  2. 1 2 3 Mayer, p. 1.
  3. ↑ McGinnis, p. 219.
  4. 1 2 3 Trix, Frances. The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb (UPCC book collections on Project MUSE). The University of Pennsylvania Press, September 5, 2011. ISBN 1934536547, 9781934536544. p. 128.
  5. ↑ Trix, Albanians in Michigan, p. 12.
  6. ↑ Murray, Dublin. "Teen-age strife in Detroit suburb reflects ethnic conflicts of Yugoslavia's civil war" (Archive). Baltimore Sun. December 22, 1991. Retrieved on September 28, 2014.
  7. ↑ Yung, Katherine and Joe Grimm. Coney Detroit. Wayne State University Press, 2012. ISBN 081433718X, 9780814337189. p. 2.
  8. ↑ Heldman, Kevin. "The big trial: An Albanian-American crime story, from 15 Mile Road to Pearl Street" (Archive). Capital New York. June 9, 2011. Retrieved on September 29, 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Howell, Sally. Old Islam in Detroit: Rediscovering the Muslim American Past. Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN 0199372004, 9780199372003. p. 147.
  10. ↑ Trix, Frances. "Bektashi Tekke and the Sunni Mosque of Albanian Muslims in America." In: Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck and Jane I. Smith. Muslim Communities in North America (Simone Weil Studies, SUNY series in Middle Eastern studies). SUNY Press, 1994. ISBN 0791420191, 9780791420195. Start: p. 359. CITED: p. 359.
  11. ↑ Trix, Frances. The Sufi Journey of Baba Rexheb (UPCC book collections on Project MUSE). The University of Pennsylvania Press, September 5, 2011. ISBN 1934536547, 9781934536544. p. 129.
  12. 1 2 "Albanian Islamic Center" (Archive). Building Islam in Detroit Website. University of Michigan. Retrieved on September 29, 2014.
  13. ↑ Jacques, Edwin E. The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present (Clinical Competence). McFarland, 1995. ISBN 0899509320, 9780899509327. p. 576.

External links

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