Claim: The term Albanian diaspora is used to designate ethnic Albanians living outside southeastern Europe.

The Albanian diaspora encompasses Albanians outside of Albania , Kosovo , Republic of Macedonia , Montenegro , and Serbia .  The greatest concentrations are found in Italy , Greece , Germany , Switzerland and Turkey . There are also growing communities in Argentina , Austria , Canada , France , Romania , Belgium , Russia , Scandinavia , Ukraine , UK , and the USA . The Albanian diaspora is present throughout the world and is large in numbers .   The Albanian exodus , caused by the collapse of the communist regime in 1991 and the ensuing economic crisis , has been the largest emigration movement in Europe since the population movements after World War II . Between 1989 and 2001 , roughly 800,000 people have migrated out of Albania , about 440,000 of them settling in Greece , where Albanians make up 60 % of immigrants . This number has grown and Greek and Albanian estimates the number of immigrants to be as high as 700,000 . 350,000 Albanians have migrated to Italy over the 1990s to 2000s , however the number has increased substantially . The situation in Kosovo is similar . More than a million Albanians have left Kosovo since the late 1980s permanently , not counting those fleeing the Kosovo War who have subsequently returned . Important destinations for emigrating Albanians from Kosovo have been Switzerland and Germany .