Mapping Old People’s Hangouts
My dad is a storyteller. One of the most passionate that I know of. I grew up listening to his stories from his child-
hood and his experiences as a young adult deciding to
leave his home country to seek a new chance for his future.
I received bits and pieces of these stories throughout my
life, always enjoying them thoroughly. It was essential to me to hear these stories and continue telling them. This
is why I decided to sit down with my dad and ask him spe-
cifically about his migration experiences. The following
text is a summary of that conversation, telling the story of
a young, determined man who set a goal of 11,000 francs
and, in different ways, surpassed it.
When asked about the reasons for his migration, my dad primarily mentions political aspects. He felt restricted in expressing his Albanian identity in Yugoslavia and was disappointed by ongoing politics of the Yugoslav regime. He describes it as feeling like the black sheep. Given the chance to leave the political situation of that time, he took it. Secondly the economic factor also played a role, as the difficulty in finding jobs and se- curing financial stability for his family led him to seek work outside his home country. Switzerland’s demand for workers in the 80s and the promise of greater free- dom made my dad decide to stay.
One of the most impactful memories of his migration experience was in 1988 during a health check-up. Every seasonal worker needed to occasionally get a check-up before starting a job. Qashif remembers being in line with a friend at the station in Buchs (St. Gallen). When it was the friend’s turn, they found that he had a prob- lem with his lungs, and without any further comment, he could not stay in Switzerland, even though he had a yearly work visa. With the small amount of German that Qashif knew, he got involved and asked the workers from the check-up to repeat the test again. After some hesitation, they did a second round, and all the analyses luckily came out okay. This experience left an uncom- fortable feeling for my dad, as he felt like the season- al workers were not treated like humans and could be thrown out of the country in the blink of an eye.
What had been a challenge, especially in a job that is very much based on communication, was the language barrier. Qashif describes it as being thrown into the cold water and being forced to learn it by confronta- tion. Over the years, it had become easier and easier to learn German, but this did not always come without difficulties. My dad describes a situation from 1982 and his boss at his first job in Switzerland. In the first-ever conversation between him and his boss, the employer had used a German insult that Qashif did not under- stand. “I thought he was greeting me. I noticed that the wife and his daughter were feeling bad, and I realized that he was not greeting me but saying something dif- ferent.” When asking coworkers what that word meant, he had found out about the strong insult. At one of his last days on the job, Qashif went to his employer and said the insult back to him but in Albanian. When the boss looked puzzled and asked about the meaning, Qa- shif responded: “The same exact thing that you told me on my first day.” Realizing the impact of his words, the employer apologized to Qashif for the incident.
Nowadays, words hurt more, my dad would say. When I asked him what he meant by that and how it connect- ed to his migration experience, he again mentioned the language barrier. When he first came to Switzerland, he did not feel like a black sheep like back in Macedo- nia. But over the years, the more he understood the language, the more he also heard the negative words. “Back then I did not understand the language so well, so the bad things went into one ear and out the other. Now it feels like I only have one ear. Now it gets stuck and it hurts.” He sometimes feels more like the black sheep now than in the beginning. My dad expresses that all the work from his time as a guest worker does not seem to be appreciated or simply gets forgotten. He feels like people do not fully accept the Albanian community as part of Swiss society. As a new Swiss citizen, he sees both sides now, Qashif says. The hardships of migrating to Switzerland even though the country relies on new workers and also the fear of Swiss society that feels like something is being taken away from them. “But there is no taking away because people work for what they get.”
Potpuri është një platformë e pavarur botuese dhe iniciativë bashkëpunuese e fokusuar në metodologjitë eksperimentale të kërkimit, gazetarisë investigative dhe prodhimit. Fokusi i procesit të punës së Potpurit është nxitja e metodologjive kolektive në praktikat e botimit për prodhimin e gazetave fizike. Kolektivi Potpuri është i bazuar ndërmjet Kosovës dhe Zvicrës, aktiviteti ynë kërkon tema dhe urgjenca të përbashkëta sociale si ringjallja e shtypit të shkruar në Kosovë, mungesa e hapësirave institucionale reflektuese për diasporën shqiptare në Zvicër, politikat dhe dukuritë sociale nën përvojat migratore, dhe më e rëndësishmja sigurimi i një hapësire mikpritëse për shprehjet e zërave të padëgjuar brenda mjediseve komerciale.
Potpuri is an independent publishing platform and collaborative initiative focused on experimental methodologies of research, investigative journalism and production. The focus of the work-process of Potpuri is the fostering of collective methodologies in publishing practices for the production of physical newspapers. Potpuri collective is based between Kosovo and Switzerland, our activity seeks for common social themes and urgencies such as the revival of printed press in Kosovo, the absence of reflective institutional spaces for the Albanian diaspora in Switzerland, the politics and social phenomena under migratory experiences, and most importantly providing a welcoming space for expressions of voices unheard within commercial settings.
Potpuri ist eine unabhängige Veröffentlichungsplattform und Initiative, die sich auf experimentelle Forschungsmethoden, investigativen Journalismus und Produktion konzentriert. Der Schwerpunkt des Arbeitsprozesses von Potpuri liegt in der Förderung kollektiver Methoden der Verlagspraxis für die Produktion von Zeitungen. Das Potpuri-Kollektiv arbeitet im Kosovo und der Schweiz. Unsere Themen und Dringlichkeiten wie der Wiederbelebung der gedruckten Presse im Kosovo reichen von dem Fehlen reflektierender institutioneller Räume für die albanische Diaspora in der Schweiz und den sozialen Phänomenen der Migrationserfahrungen. Ein Raum für Ausdruck von Stimmen, die in kommerziellen Umgebungen häufig ungehört bleiben.
This edition was produced with the financial support of the European Union, Provitreff Verein and “ici. here together”. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of NGO Rritu and NAFAKË and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or any other funding body.
Potpuri është një platformë e pavarur botuese dhe iniciativë bashkëpunuese e fokusuar në metodologjitë eksperimentale të kërkimit, gazetarisë investigative dhe prodhimit. Fokusi i procesit të punës së Potpurit është nxitja e metodologjive kolektive në praktikat e botimit për prodhimin e gazetave fizike. Kolektivi Potpuri është i bazuar ndërmjet Kosovës dhe Zvicrës, aktiviteti ynë kërkon tema dhe urgjenca të përbashkëta sociale si ringjallja e shtypit të shkruar në Kosovë, mungesa e hapësirave institucionale reflektuese për diasporën shqiptare në Zvicër, politikat dhe dukuritë sociale nën përvojat migratore, dhe më e rëndësishmja sigurimi i një hapësire mikpritëse për shprehjet e zërave të padëgjuar brenda mjediseve komerciale.
Potpuri is an independent publishing platform and collaborative initiative focused on experimental methodologies of research, investigative journalism and production. The focus of the work-process of Potpuri is the fostering of collective methodologies in publishing practices for the production of physical newspapers. Potpuri collective is based between Kosovo and Switzerland, our activity seeks for common social themes and urgencies such as the revival of printed press in Kosovo, the absence of reflective institutional spaces for the Albanian diaspora in Switzerland, the politics and social phenomena under migratory experiences, and most importantly providing a welcoming space for expressions of voices unheard within commercial settings.
Potpuri ist eine unabhängige Veröffentlichungsplattform und Initiative, die sich auf experimentelle Forschungsmethoden, investigativen Journalismus und Produktion konzentriert. Der Schwerpunkt des Arbeitsprozesses von Potpuri liegt in der Förderung kollektiver Methoden der Verlagspraxis für die Produktion von Zeitungen. Das Potpuri-Kollektiv arbeitet im Kosovo und der Schweiz. Unsere Themen und Dringlichkeiten wie der Wiederbelebung der gedruckten Presse im Kosovo reichen von dem Fehlen reflektierender institutioneller Räume für die albanische Diaspora in der Schweiz und den sozialen Phänomenen der Migrationserfahrungen. Ein Raum für Ausdruck von Stimmen, die in kommerziellen Umgebungen häufig ungehört bleiben.
This edition was produced with the financial support of the European Union, Provitreff Verein and “ici. here together”.
The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of NGO Rritu and NAFAKË and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or any other funding body.
The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of NGO Rritu and NAFAKË and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or any other funding body.