Additionally some many years ago, some of it had been part of a larger ( greater) Albania.
The more time anyone spends in former Yugoslavia, the more than someone sees how it all goes back to WWII. Have a look at this map (wait, and move your mouse, and a button to enlarge the map will appear at lower right). You'll notice the shaded "Occupied by Albania 1941-44" corresponds to the present "Greater Albania" map. Just as in the old Nazi days, most of Kosovo, plus chunks of Macedonia and a sliver of Montenegro are included.
During the WWII occupation, Serbs and Roma were slaughtered and driven from Kosovo by Nazi-allied Albanians. Tito did not allow the Serbs to return to their homes after the war and present boundaries had been established. (I honestly don't remember, if I ever knew, about the Roma, whatever Roma were left alive in 1945.) Meanwhile, Tito looked the other way as Albanians snuck out of Enver's insane gulag into Kosovo. Illegal immigration from Albania continued, of course, in the post-Tito years.
I'll let someone else take over for the poverty/autonomy/boycott issues. Got a headache. Also hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong here, add anything that should be added. I just wrote this from memory, didn't check any sources.
The Roma population stats of Kosovo and Metohija is pretty difficult to pin down. Even in the most tolerant to times they list themseleves as anything BUT Roma (Egyptian, etc).
Evidently, there was a campaign during the last widespread census to count many Roma as Albanian.
Some Roma sources suggest something on order of 500,000 Roma lived in KosMet pre-1999.
I have noted that in the June 1999 ethnic cleansing many Roma who were attacked by the KLA had names which normally would be attributed as Albanian.
