Perceptions of ethnic Albanians in New York City and the role of stereotypes in fostering social exclusion and criminality

Abstract

If I awake to look out my window, walk out my front door and to my right, left and for as far as my eyes can see, my once tranquil city is plagued with carnage, bloodshed, strife and civil war would I not seek a safer life just over the mountains or across the sea? The idea of migration being a human right is far too often overlooked in the domains of international security organizations, as domestic governments and global policy makers attempt to fortify parts of the world to populations they have deemed undesirable. In the literature, it is suggested by sociologists that migrants tend to follow a pattern of South-North movement trajectories, abandoning a life of fear for a sense of freedom, democracy and sustained peace which is otherwise foreign to them. Once the person has transitioned from a third to first world country, often times they are the subject of unjust stigmatization and discrimination due to their ethnic origins.