Sicily’s Arbereshe Minority Faces Threats to Its Survival
The Arbereshe, an Albanian-speaking minority in southern Italy, have lived in Sicily for about five centuries after ancestors fled Ottoman expansion in the Balkans. Their community now faces pressures from climate change, limited employment and outward migration, prompting fears that its language and traditions could disappear.
The Arbereshe descend from Albanian speakers who made sea crossings to Italy between the 15th and 18th centuries, as Ottoman power expanded in the Balkans. Many arrived in Sicily after Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg died in 1468 and the resistance he led ended.
About 100,000 Arbereshe live in Italy today, with historic settlements in Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia, Campania and Molise. Piana degli Albanesi remains a cultural hub, where bilingual road signs and farming families keep an older Albanian speech alive.
If these pressures persist, the Arbereshe could lose everyday transmission of Arbërisht and related customs, affecting elders, young people and farming communities. Piana degli Albanesi and similar settlements may face further depopulation, while Italy and Europe could lose a distinctive linguistic heritage. Whether local jobs, climate resilience and intergenerational teaching can sustain the community may determine if it adapts rather than disappears.