Language Loyalty and Identity Transformation: A Longitudinal Study of Albanian Communities in Italy

Resumen

This study examines linguistic dynamics among Albanian communities in Italy, the second-largest first-generation migrant population. Despite socioeconomic success, high citizenship rates and employment, Albanian migrants maintain complex relationships with Italy, marked by stigmatization memories while viewing Albania as temporary, not permanent return destination. Using comparative diachronic analysis of Arbëresh descendants (fifteenth-century arrivals) and post-1990s migrants, our longitudinal survey of 275 immigrant families (2019, 2024) reveals significant generational shifts in linguistic attitudes and heritage language maintenance. Findings document evolution from language loyalty toward Italian accommodation, driven by children’s educational integration, perceived mobility benefits, and changing return perceptions. This análisis illuminates broader questions about language shift temporality, tensions between socioeconomic integration and cultural preservation, and how communities negotiate linguistic identity when permanente settlement replaces return myths. Results demonstrate that even successful economic integration doesn’t resolve belonging questions, as linguistic choices become sites where migrants articulate complex, contradictory relationships with both homeland and host society.