Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the different ways that Arbereshe communities (Italian-Albanian) have negotiated significant dilemmas of identity politics in religion and nationalism since they settled in southern Italy in the 16th century, fleeing the invasion of the Balkans by the Ottoman Empire.

Paper long abstract:

The albanian origins have been always a great and important pride of the arbereshe communities (italian-albanian) settled in southern Italy in the XVI century, after the invasion of the Ottoman empire on balkan area. This pride increased in them an ethnic counsciousness of their cultural difference, in comparison of the local people, since the XVIII century. The claim for the recognition of their different cultural identity (the traditional language and the byzantin religious cult) allowed them the preservation and the intensification of their distinct self. They do not say to be albanians, but only that their origin are albanians. This cultural strategy keeped the italian national assimilation since was founded the Italian Repubblic.

At the contrary the contemporary albanian immigrants (shqiptare) hidden their cultural and national identity, and to appropriate of the italian culture.

In this paper we want confront the different social choices about the form of identification, analysing how these are made and the political, economic and social circumstances that lead to different types of migratory career and diasporic community.