Albanians in Greece are divided into distinct communities as a result of different waves of migration. Albanians first migrated into Greece during the late Middle Ages. The descendants of populations of Albanian origin who settled in Greece during the Middle Ages are the Arvanites, who have been fully assimilated into the Greek nation and self-identify as Greeks. Today, they still maintain their distinct subdialect of Tosk Albanian, known as Arvanitika. The Cham Albanians are a group that also migrated to Greece during the same period and formerly inhabited coastal parts of Epirus, in northwestern Greece. They were expelled from Epirus during World War II after large parts of their population collaborated with the Axis occupation forces. Greek Orthodox Albanian- or Arvanitika-speaking communities have been assimilated into the Greek nation. Alongside these two groups, a large wave of economic migrants from Albania entered Greece after the fall of Communism and forms the largest expatriate community in the country. They form the largest migrant group in Greece. A portion of these immigrants avoid declaring as Albanian in order to avoid prejudices and exclusion. These Albanian newcomers result to self-assimilation tactics such as changing their Albanian name to Greek ones and, if they are Muslim their religion from Islam to Orthodoxy: Some Albanians with Muslim background often change their names in order to avoid problems in predominately Orthodox Christian Greece. Through this, they hope to attain easier access to visas and naturalisation. After migration to Greece, most are baptized and integrated. While Greece does not record ethnicity on censuses, Albanians form the largest ethnic minority and top immigrant population in the country.
Cham Albanians
Groups of Albanians first settled in Epirus during the late Middle Ages. Some of their descendants form the Cham Albanians, which formerly inhabited the coastal regions of Epirus, largely corresponding to Thesprotia. The Chams are primarily distinguished from other Albanian groups by their distinct dialect of Tosk Albanian, the Cham dialect, which is among the most conservative of the Albanian dialects. During the rule of the Ottoman Empire in Epirus, many Chams converted to Islam, while a minority remained Greek Orthodox.
Expulsion
When Epirus joined Greece in 1913, following the Balkan Wars, Muslim Chams lost the privileged status they enjoyed during Ottoman rule and were subject to discrimination from time to time. During World War II, large parts of the Muslim Chams collaborated with the Axis occupation forces, committing atrocities against the local population. In 1944, when the Axis withdrew, many Muslim Chams fled to Albania or were forcibly expelled by the EDES resistance group.
Linguistic and cultural communities
In addition to the formerly sizeable communities in Epirus, there exist in Greece communities of Albanian origin who no longer identify as such. Although they retain a distinct Arvanitic ethnical identity, nationally they identify as Greeks. These are communities created by Albanian settlers during the Middle Ages and during the first half of 20th century.
Arvanites
The main part of these groups is composed of the Southern Albanian dialectological group of Arvanitika speakers, known as Arvanites. They are a population group in Greece who traditionally speak Arvanitika, a form of Tosk Albanian. They settled in Greece during the late Middle Ages and were the dominant population element of some regions in the south of Greece until the 19th century. Arvanites today self-identify as Greeks and have largely assimilated into mainstream Greek culture, they retain their dialect Arvanitika and cultural similarities with Albanians, but refuse any national connection with them and do not consider themselves an ethnic minority. Arvanitika is endangered due to language shift towards Greek and large-scale internal migration to the cities in recent decades.
Arvanite communities in Epirus and Western Macedonia
The small Arvanite-speaking communities in Epirus and the Florina regional unit, too are considered part of the Greek nation: A small community is located in the Ioannina regional unit, where they form a majority in two villages of the Konitsa district. This community includes the village of Plikati. Although they are sometimes called Arvanites, their dialects are part of Tosk Albanian rather than Arvanitika. This population speaks the Lab branch of the Albanian language. The city ofIoannina in the past had a substantial minority of Albanian-speakers, where a dialect intermediate between Cham and Lab was spoken. During Ottoman era the Albanian minority in the kaza of Ioannina did not consist of native families but was limited to a number of Ottoman public servants. Notable Albanian writerFaik Konica, and his brother, Mehmet Konica, former Albanian Foreign Minister were both born in Konitsa. Another small group of Albanian-speakers, speakers of a Northern Tosk Albanian dialect is to be found in the villages Drosopigi, Flampouro, Lechovo in Florina regional unit.
Another small group is to be found in northeastern Greece, in Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace along the border with Turkey, as a result of migration during the early 20th century. They speak the Northern Tosk subbranch of Tosk Albanian and are descendants of the Orthodox Albanian population of Eastern Thrace who were forced to migrate during the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s. They are known in Greece as Arvanites, a name applied to all groups of Albanian origin in Greece, but which primarily refers to the southern dialectological group of Arbëreshë. The Albanian-speakers of Western Thrace and Macedonia use the common Albanian self-appellation, Shqiptar.
Immigrants
After the fall of the communist government in Albania in late 1990 and early 1991, a large number of economic immigrants from Albania arrived in Greece, mostly illegally, and seeking employment. Recent economic migrants from Albania are estimated to account for 60-65% of the total number of immigrants in the country. According to the 2001 census, there are 443,550 holders of Albanian citizenship in Greece. Some other estimates put their number to 600,000 including also temporary migrants, seasonal workers and undocumented individuals. In this total, 189,000 Greeks of Albania, who hold Albanian nationality and are 'co-ethnics' or Vorioipirotes have also immigrated to Greece. Likewise, it is important to note that since the Greek economic crisis started in 2011, the total number of Albanians in Greece has fluctuated.
