It may no longer be a part of public memory among the diaspora that Albanians used to be among the most internationally recognized – and distrusted – refugees. When Albanians from Albania fled the country in thousands, risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean and seek asylum in Italy, some Italians thought the waves of refugees would also allow “gangsters” and “criminals” to infiltrate the country. When Kosovo Albanians picked up guns and called for NATO to stop Serbia’s war on civilians, they were described as terrorists by the right and pawns of Western imperialism by the left. When Kosovo Albanians ended up in refugee camps in Macedonia, some had the gall to describe their conditions as “luxurious.” There may no longer be active wars or crises in Kosovo or Albania, but the political and economic circumstances that forced many to flee in the 90s have not disappeared but simply taken the form of corrupt nepotism and the cruelest excesses of neoliberal politics. It’s easy to forget that Albanians still die trying to reach Western Europe and in doing so take routes similar to those of Syrians, Afghans, and other displaced peoples. When do we start to consider our shared fate?

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Albanians occupy a position of relative privilege as newcomers in North America and Western Europe: being white and European means our integration and–if we so choose–assimilation is easier. This statement isn’t meant to negate the barriers of language and class, which nearly all newcomer Albanians experience. It also does not negate the xenophobia and Islamophobia directed towards visibly Muslim Albanians in the diaspora, the racism Albanians of mixed ethnicity and/or race endure, or the homophobia and transphobia experienced by LGBTQ Albanians in the diaspora and back home. That said, most Albanians, whether they choose to or recognize it, do in fact benefit from their white skin.

Albanians with color privilege sometimes position themselves on the side of white supremacy. In our chosen countries, Albanians can easily choose to distance themselves from Syrians, Mexicans, or any other “foreign” immigrant and refugee groups or even to actively otherize them. Albanian-American Emirjeta Xhelili, who was convicted of assault as a hate crime in 2017 when she attacked two Muslim women, reportedly told them they “did not belong.” Xhelili had clearly forgotten the lessons of her own people’s experiences in the Balkans. Only last month, an Albanian baker in Belgrade had pigs heads’ thrown at his bakery, intended to insult him as a Muslim.

In contrast to the archival research presented earlier, there have been examples of immense support such as in Canada where Albanian Kosovar refugees have the distinction of being among the very few refugee groups to have been airlifted into the country–welcomed with open arms after the West stood by and watched the devastation of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia a few years prior. This historical double standard is why it is especially important for us to be alert and outspoken today. The same Canada now speaks of barring anyone from making a refugee claim if they came to the country by crossing the border from the United States. Ever since Trump’s election, refugees have risked their lives to enter Canada on foot – some even losing fingers and toes in the process. The same country that housed, fed, and welcomed thousands of Kosovar Albanian refugees now speaks of “queue jumpers” and shadowy refugees “gaming” the refugee system. But when families flee the United States and come to Canada on foot, it’s because they have good reason to do so: the detention and family separation of those with precarious status and the inhumane conditions they face is real–as is the deterioration of America’s commitment to the basic principles of refugee law.

The immigration crisis in the U.S. is getting worse under Trump’s administration as they spew hateful rhetoric on a regular basis and systematically dismantle even “legal” forms of immigration, such as the diversity visa lottery program. To be clear, this crisis didn’t start with Trump. Both parties are to blame, and historically U.S. immigration laws have been unfair and racist, by design, from the start in 1790. By 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act (which stayed in effect until 1943) created a precedent of banning immigration on the basis of ethnicity. Historian Erika Lee explains how gatekeeping ideology racializes immigrants to paint them as a threat and protect the state. Bills such as the Immigration Act of 1917 were championed by the Immigration Restriction League. They tried to limit immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, a population they racialized to be inferior to Anglo-Saxons and a threat to the U.S. Further, the quota system blatantly tried to limit immigration from the region. During the Civil Rights Movement and the Cold War, the U.S explicitly developed refugee law and abolished the nation/race based framework for regulating immigration–but that doesn’t mean immigrants aren’t still painted as a threat to the state. ICE, DHS, and local police work together to detain, intimidate, and deport immigrants. This police state went from virtually non-existent in 1993 to normalizing the approval of 700 miles of a physical barrier and 2,000 miles virtually by 2006. Every attempt at comprehensive immigration reform since 1965 has failed and the Trump administration even rolled back Obama’s 2012 DACA executive order.

Some Albanians might read this and think every country has the right to police its borders and to expel whoever is “undesirable.” But we ask that you consider that every inch of land in the Americas was stolen through war and colonization. We also ask you to imagine what would have happened to Albanians expelled from Kosovo if the world accepted that Serbia had the right to police its borders the way the U.S. has. If we keep both the histories of our homelands and chosen lands in mind, then we cannot accept regimes that cage children for being brown and undocumented. We cannot accept that it was “legal” for Cile Precetaj, Sokol Vokshi, the Pukri family, Llukan Buta and others to have been detained like criminals and deported without due process. Our community didn’t organize well enough and fast enough to help them. If we don’t organize for our own and everyone else targeted by immigration enforcement because of their race, ethnicity and nationality, we will not be spared for keeping quiet. United we are stronger; divided we all lose.

Blind allegiance to our chosen countries as benefactors and saviors is not what our history and the current political moment requires from us. The Kosovo intervention was the result of the most organized and powerful efforts of Albanian diaspora organizing in recent history–not Western pity. We came together and fought like our lives depended on it. Because they did. Knowing our recent history, how can the diaspora not respond to the warning signs of bigotry and hatred in our chosen countries? How can we not stand in solidarity with fellow newcomers, immigrants, and asylum seekers with targets on their backs? Our community’s conscience depends on it.