How is it that ethnic Albanians are now the majority in Kosovo?
Kosovo has always been an integral region of Serbia, and since the late Ottoman empire period the Albanian population has grown there. During world war two Kosovo was under Italian and Albanian occupation, and Albanian fascists carried out vast atrocities against the local Serb population. Many Serbs became refugees, and after the war the Yugoslav communists issued a law that forbade the return of these Serbs to Kosovo. This meant that in 1946 Serbs comprised 50% of Kosovo’s population. Continued influx of Albanians from Albania (as illegal immigrants from that Stalinist country) and continued pressure on local Serbs led to a continued increase in the Albanian population. This was assisted by the fact that Kosovo’s Albanians have Europe’s largest families (average 6.9 members) and highest birth rate (32 per 1000). By 1981, continued Serb exodus (an estimated 200 000 fled) meant that the balance of population became even more Albanian, reaching 77.5%. With the start of open Albanian upr
