Becoming visible through commerce
Tracing over a century of Albanian migration and business in the United States.
Harvard's researchers found that first-generation Albanian-Americans who arrived after 1991 are more highly educated than comparable non-Albanian Americans, with the advantage most pronounced among Albanian-American women.
Not because Albanians carry some inherited commercial instinct, but because commerce was the one arena whose entry requirements were things we actually had.
Margarita Dimou at her restaurant, BZ Grill, in Astoria, New York. Photo: Aulonë Kadriu.
A community that spent its first century in America entering through someone else's categories, unable to be counted because their own category didn't exist, now fixes its own name, spelling and ownership online.
Valbona Demiri
Valbona Demiri is the founder and editor of ALB Connection, an editorial publication and business directory serving the Albanian diaspora. The figures cited here come from “The State of Albanian-Owned Business in America,” published in 2026, and represent verified listings as of that data rather than a complete count.