France is home to a modest but growing Albanian community, most of it arrived within the past few decades and drawn above all from Kosovo. It is a community shaped by the recent history of the Balkans, and one that became, for a time, the center of a heated debate about asylum in France. This guide covers who they are, where they live, and how the community came to be.
It is part of our Albanians Around the World series.
Quick Facts: Albanians in France
- Population: France does not record ethnicity. INSEE counted 27,200 immigrants born in Albania in 2019; there is no official figure for Kosovo Albanians, who make up most of the community.
- Where they live: Paris and the Ile-de-France, Lyon, Marseille, Mulhouse, Saint-Etienne, Annecy, and Gap.
- Main origins: Kosovo above all, with communities from North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania.
- How they came: Kosovo War refugees in the late 1990s, followed by asylum seekers and migrants in the 2000s and 2010s.
- Community body: The Confederation of Albanians in France.
On This Page
- How Many Albanians Live in France?
- A Recent Community
- France and Albanian Asylum
- Where Albanians Live
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Albanians Live in France?
Because France does not collect data on ethnicity, there is no official count of its Albanian community. The one hard number is the INSEE count of immigrants born in Albania, 27,200 in 2019, which leaves out Kosovo Albanians and everyone born in France. The great majority trace their roots to Kosovo, with smaller numbers from North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania itself. It is a younger community than those in neighboring Germany or Switzerland, built mostly in the last thirty years.
A Recent Community
Albanians have no long history in France comparable to their centuries in the Balkans or Italy. The community is a product of the 1990s and 2000s: first the refugees of the Kosovo War, who were received in France as the conflict unfolded, and then a steady flow of migrants and asylum seekers from Albania and the wider Albanian lands seeking work and stability in Western Europe. Over time these arrivals settled, learned French, and began raising a French-born generation.
France and Albanian Asylum
In the late 2010s, France became the leading destination in Europe for Albanian asylum seekers. In 2017, at the height of the trend, Albanians were the single largest group of asylum applicants in France, part of a record 100,000 claims that year. Because Albania is classed by France as a safe country of origin, very few of these applications were granted, and the issue became a prominent part of the national debate on migration. Applications dropped sharply in 2020 and partly rebounded in 2021. For the settled community, this chapter was a difficult backdrop, but most Albanians in France are long-established and law-abiding residents rather than recent arrivals.
Where Albanians Live
The community is spread across France’s cities. The largest concentrations are in the Paris region, in Lyon and Saint-Etienne, in the eastern city of Mulhouse near the German and Swiss borders, in Marseille on the Mediterranean, and in Alpine towns such as Annecy and Gap. Albanian cultural associations, coordinated in part through the Confederation of Albanians in France, anchor community life.
Featured Albanian Business Owners in France
Albanian entrepreneurs in France include Laert Bejtaj, founder of the workflow software Bricks.ai, profiled in our featured business owner series.
What INSEE Does Count: Immigrants Born in Albania
France’s national statistics office, INSEE, does not ask about ethnic background, but its census does record where immigrants were born. INSEE defines an immigrant as a person born abroad with a foreign nationality at birth. Its detailed country tables give one hard number for this community: residents of France who were born in Albania.
That number has grown quickly. INSEE counted 5,500 immigrants born in Albania in 2007 and 27,200 in 2019, close to five times as many. More than half of that growth came after 2014.
| Census year | Immigrants born in Albania | Immigrants born in Serbia | Immigrants born in North Macedonia |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 5,500 | 66,100 | 4,100 |
| 2009 | 6,200 | 68,000 | 4,200 |
| 2012 | 9,100 | 72,100 | 5,200 |
| 2014 | 12,600 | 75,400 | 5,800 |
| 2017 | 22,100 | 79,700 | 7,000 |
| 2019 | 27,200 | 85,700 | 8,000 |
Two cautions apply. First, these are people born in Albania, so the French-born children of Albanian parents are not included. Second, the INSEE tables reviewed for this guide have no separate line for Kosovo, which is where most Albanians in France trace their roots. The Serbia and North Macedonia columns are shown for context only, because they include people of every ethnic background born in those countries.
The figure of 22,100 that often appears as the low end of community estimates matches INSEE’s 2017 count of immigrants born in Albania. It was never a count of all ethnic Albanians in France.
Spring 1999: The Kosovo Evacuation to France
The clearest record of the first large arrival comes from a study by the researcher Frédérique Bourgeois, published in the French journal Economie et Humanisme. At first the French government declined to take in refugees from the Kosovo War, arguing that doing so would accept the deportations as an accomplished fact. Within days, under pressure from international bodies, French citizens and aid associations, it reversed course.
Unlike several other European countries, France set no quota. Between April 16 and June 26, 1999, a government program received about 8,000 displaced people from Kosovo. About 6,300 were flown out of camps in Macedonia on the NATO airlift, and about 2,000 reached France on their own.
The legal terms were favorable compared with the usual French asylum procedure. Evacuees received the right to stay and the right to work, and they could file a regular asylum claim at the same time. To house them, the state opened 215 reception centers in 83 departments, first in hostels with about 5,000 places and then in military buildings with about 2,000 more. That more than doubled the capacity of the national asylum reception system that existed at the time.
Lyon, the First City to Receive Evacuees
The first flights landed in Lyon. On April 18, 1999, three planes arrived at Lyon-Satolas airport carrying nearly 400 refugees from the Stankovac camp in Macedonia. About a hundred more came a month later on government flights, and 64 made their own way to the city. In total 653 people were housed in Lyon under the special program, in eleven reception centers across the metropolitan area.
Lyon was chosen for a reason. The local association Forum réfugiés had publicly urged the government to open its doors and offered immediate places for more than 450 people. The city also knew the community already: since the early 1990s, more than 400 Kosovars had come to Lyon to seek political asylum. The state handed day-to-day coordination of the program in the Rhône department to Forum réfugiés.
The Safe Country List, 2013 and 2014
The asylum debate of the 2010s had a legal backdrop. On December 16, 2013, the board of OFPRA, the French asylum office, added Albania, Kosovo and Georgia to its list of safe countries of origin. Applicants from listed countries still have their claims examined individually, but their cases are fast-tracked and an appeal does not let them stay in France while it is pending.
The decision was challenged in court. On October 10, 2014, the Conseil d’État, France’s highest administrative court, upheld the listing of Albania and Georgia but struck Kosovo from the list. The court pointed to political and social instability in Kosovo, institutions that still depended heavily on international organizations, and groups exposed to violence without adequate state protection.
Asylum Applications From 2019 to 2021
Figures published by INSEE from the Interior Ministry’s asylum system show how the numbers moved at the end of the decade. Albanian nationals filed 8,512 first asylum applications in 2019, second only to Afghans among the nationalities INSEE lists. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the figure fell to 1,983. Applications rebounded to 4,915 in 2021, a rise of 148 percent in one year, but still well below the level of 2019.
| Year | First asylum applications by Albanian nationals | All first asylum applications in France |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 8,512 | 138,424 |
| 2020 | 1,983 | 81,527 |
| 2021 | 4,915 | 104,381 |
In 2021 Albanian nationals accounted for 4.7 percent of all first applications in France.
Writers, Dancers and Actors: Notable Albanians in France
- Ismail Kadare (1936 to 2024): the Albanian novelist sought and received political asylum in France in October 1990, after criticizing the Albanian government. He was appointed to the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in 1996, won the Man Booker International Prize in 2005, and in 2016 became the first Albanian named a Commander of the Legion of Honour. He is one of the most famous Albanians of the modern era.
- Angelin Preljocaj: the choreographer was born in Sucy-en-Brie, France, in 1957 to Albanian parents. His father came from Vermosh and his mother from Ulcinj. He founded his dance company in December 1984, and since 1996 it has been known as Ballet Preljocaj and based in Aix-en-Provence.
- Luàna Bajrami: the actress and director was born in 2001 in Pleshinë, a village in the Ferizaj area of Kosovo, and moved with her family to Créteil, south of Paris, at the age of seven. She played Sophie in Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), earned a César nomination for Most Promising Actress in 2020, and made her directorial debut with The Hill Where Lionesses Roar in 2021.
Timeline: Albanians in France
- Early 1990s: Kosovars begin arriving in Lyon to seek political asylum.
- October 1990: Ismail Kadare receives political asylum in France.
- April 16 to June 26, 1999: France receives about 8,000 displaced people from Kosovo, including about 6,300 flown from camps in Macedonia.
- 2007: INSEE counts 5,500 immigrants born in Albania.
- December 16, 2013: OFPRA adds Albania and Kosovo to its list of safe countries of origin.
- October 10, 2014: The Conseil d’État keeps Albania on the list and removes Kosovo.
- 2019: INSEE counts 27,200 immigrants born in Albania. Albanian nationals file 8,512 first asylum applications.
- 2021: First applications by Albanian nationals stand at 4,915.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Albanians live in France?
France does not record ethnicity, so there is no exact figure. INSEE counted 27,200 immigrants born in Albania in 2019, which leaves out Kosovo Albanians and the French-born. Most are of Kosovar origin.
Where do Albanians in France live?
Mainly in the Paris region, Lyon, Marseille, Mulhouse, Saint-Etienne, and Alpine towns like Annecy and Gap.
Why were there so many Albanian asylum seekers in France?
In the late 2010s France became the top European destination for Albanian asylum seekers, who were the largest applicant group in 2017. Because Albania is considered a safe country, few claims were accepted.
When did Albanians come to France?
Mostly since the 1990s, beginning with Kosovo War refugees and continuing with migrants and asylum seekers in the 2000s and 2010s.
Sources
- OFPRA, French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, asylum statistics
- Wikipedia: Albanians in France
- INSEE: Immigrés par pays de naissance détaillé, Étrangers et immigrés en 2019
- INSEE: Immigrés par pays de naissance détaillé (2017, 2012 and 2007)
- INSEE: Premières demandes et octroi de l’asile, Immigrés et descendants d’immigrés, 2023 edition
- Economie et Humanisme, no. 359: Réfugiés du Kosovo en France, une situation exemplaire, by Frédérique Bourgeois
- Conseil d’État: Liste des pays d’origine sûrs de l’OFPRA (decision of October 10, 2014)
- Wikipedia: Ismail Kadare
- Wikipedia: Angelin Preljocaj
- Wikipedia: Luàna Bajrami
Related Reading
- Albanians Around the World: The Global Diaspora
- Albanians in the United Kingdom
- Albanians in Switzerland
- The Kosovo War: A Complete History
Author: Dardanë Halimi
Dardanë Halimi is a writer and communications professional with an M.A. in Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication from James Madison University. Her work focuses on storytelling, digital content, higher education, and strategic communication, with experience writing for academic, nonprofit, and marketing organizations in both the United States and Kosovo.
