Austrian Albanians between Cultural Integration and Cultural Defense

Abstract

This study deals with the issue of cultural integration of a migrant community, i.e. Albanian community or Diaspora in the Austrian society. First, it elaborates culture as an element that distinguishes human beings from other living beings, stating that man is not born with culture but it is rather acquired, developed, cultivated, and enriched during one’s lifetime. It also emphasizes the weight that culture has in society, noting that three forces have the greatest impact on society: the state, religion and culture. The second issue treated is cultural assimilation, as a process of social and cultural fusion of groups with different identities, cultural defense, cultural isolation and ghettoization. The second is Albanian Diaspora in Austria, the history, structure and cultural apology trends. Final and most important element of this research is empirical part, namely the survey applied in the field, i.e. in Austria, with 296 respondents, selected randomly. Among the conclusions are that Austrian Albanians tend cultural self-defense, apology of their code by creating cultural islands, meeting points, being concentrated culturally, that the first generation is more hesitant in accepting the Austrian cultural values compared with the second generation that is more cosmopolitan.

Keywords

• migrant community
• diaspora
• culture
• albanians
• austria
• integration
• cultural apology
• ghettoization