Green’s Dictionary of Slang

flip-flop n.3

[the non-protective footwear worn by Albanians on Saudi construction sites]

an Albanian.

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[UK]Guardian G2 27 Mar. 3: Plenty of Brits are guilty of the casual superiority that has them referring to Albanians as ‘flip-flops’, a term coined on the construction sites of Saudi Arabia, where local labourers worked in non-protective footwear.