The Romani people in Albania are divided mainly into two groups, the "Jevgs" (Jevgj), who speak only Albanian and are more assimilated, and the "Gabels", who are bilingual, and live more according to Roma tradition. Jevgs claim Egyptian descent. Other divide the Roma in four groups (urban/rural, assimilated/un-assimilated). According to Robert Elsie, the Romani number between 60,000 and 100,000 people. An 1994 estimation put the number at 95,000 Roma in Albania. The ERRC estimates 120,000 Roma in Albania.
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The Jevgs and Gabels share common genetic history.
The poverty rate among Roma in Albania is particularly high (78%), in relation to the majority (22%).
Origin
The Romani people originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab.
The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that roots of Romani language lie in India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a big part of the basic lexicon, for example, body parts or daily routines.
More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali.
Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India and migrated as a group. According to a genetic study in 2012, the ancestors of present scheduled tribes and scheduled caste populations of northern India, traditionally referred to collectively as the Ḍoma, are the likely ancestral populations of the modern European Roma.
In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora.
Migration to Albania
The oldest existence of Romani people in Albania is from 1635, and they may have been present since the 12th and 13th centuries.