Debunking the myth of ‘the enemy’: the case of Kosovar students in Greece
Originally published in Greek by Huffington Post Greece.
When I said that I got a scholarship to study in Greece, my grandfather told me: ‘They don’t like us over there, Greeks are like Serbs. Greece is our enemy’. It is usually the elderly in a community who speak against Greeks. I said: ‘I don’t think about Greece, all I think about is the college’. When I came to Thessaloniki, however, it was a different story. Everyone was helpful. I felt at home.
Naim, 25, who graduated two years ago from a college based in Greece.
As soon as Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, the newly formed government signed an agreement with educational institutions based in Greece and started providing scholarships for young Kosovars to study in the nearby country. Today, there are dozens of young Kosovars studying in Greece, the majority of whom are in Thessaloniki, due to its geographic proximity to Kosovo. The distance between Thessaloniki and Prishtina is approximately 330km, meaning a four-hour drive by car, or a five-hour journey by coach via Skopje. Despite the short distance between Kosovo and Greece, bilateral relations between the two countries are minimal. In the mind of many Greeks, Kosovo is a ‘mysterious’ or even dangerous place, associated with the war in the former Yugoslavia.
I don’t want to be associated anymore with sad things. When people ask me where I am from, I reply that I am from Kosovo and I continue by saying: I come from the youngest country in Europe!
Ardian, 22-year old student in Thessaloniki
That is the answer I got from a Kosovar Albanian student, when, for the purposes of my research I asked him how he introduces himself to Greeks. The word ‘anymore’ stabbed me in the heart like a knife; decisive and angry, it felt to me like this ‘anymore’ contained years of suppressed emotions. ‘I don’t want to be associated anymore with the trauma of war’, he said. For the young generation of Kosovars, the Yugoslav tragedy was a reality that they experienced in the cruelest way; years later, this narrative keeps following them like a shadow, even when they are traveling away from their homeland.
Greeks know nothing about Kosovo. And when they know something, it is negative. They associate Kosovo either with war or with crime. I guess this is the information they get from the media.
Arta, 19-year old self-identified Bosniak student of rural background
Negative stereotypes between Greeks and Kosovars run both ways. On the one hand, Greeks identify Kosovo - and the Western Balkans in general - with instability, poverty, criminality and corruption; on the other hand, Kosovars also express skepticism toward Greeks, whom they regard as nationalists and detached from the Balkan reality. These are opinions shared by both Kosovar and Greek students who were interviewed in the context of my research. But what about Kosovar alumni?
Research findings show that Kosovar alumni from higher-education institutions in Greece currently hold key positions in Kosovar society and, more specifically, in the sectors of politics, education and banking. Some have also started their own businesses, either in Kosovo or abroad. At this point, it should be emphasized that Kosovar students in Greece constitute a special category. First of all, they cannot be labeled as ‘migrants’ in the conventional sense; Kosovars’ migration to Greece has a transitory character. Unlike migrants who enter Greece seeking employment as unskilled laborers with an average-to-low educational profile, Kosovar students are usually well-educated, with a strong command of English and other foreign languages. Sometimes they come from affluent and socially elite Kosovar families who have the economic capacity to send their children to study abroad. Some of them even left jobs at home, in order to pursue what they hope will be a better education.
For those who are on a quest for more promising professional or academic opportunities, Greece might just serve as a transitory country on the way to Europe or America, a country that according to the interviewees’ words, teaches them values such as ‘tolerance’ and ‘respect for difference’, values that are indispensable to the citizens of a young state that aspires to become part of the European family by entering the EU and other international organizations.
On the other hand, Greeks’ contact with the young people of Kosovo is an awakening. The unknown Balkans, which have historically been treated by Greece as "the poor relative", are a historical and cultural treasure and a real-life lesson for the young generation of Greeks. As we speak, history is being made in the Western Balkans.
Visiting one another’s respective settings and having a personal experience of the other culture is the only way for Greeks and Kosovars to understand one another and change existing stereotypes. Evidence shows that Kosovar students transmit a positive image of our country back to their homeland, refuting many of the misconceptions prevailing in various Balkan areas about Greece and the Greeks. On the other hand, Greece should invest more consciously and systematically in its dynamic perspective as a center of education, research and innovation in Southeastern Europe; in this way, it could consolidate its position in the wider region and contribute pragmatically to the European effort to promote stability and reconciliation in the Western Balkans.
Debunking the myth of ‘the enemy’: the case of Kosovar students in Greece
Originally published in Greek by Huffington Post Greece.
When I said that I got a scholarship to study in Greece, my grandfather told me: ‘They don’t like us over there, Greeks are like Serbs. Greece is our enemy’. It is usually the elderly in a community who speak against Greeks. I said: ‘I don’t think about Greece, all I think about is the college’. When I came to Thessaloniki, however, it was a different story. Everyone was helpful. I felt at home.
Naim, 25, who graduated two years ago from a college based in Greece.
As soon as Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, the newly formed government signed an agreement with educational institutions based in Greece and started providing scholarships for young Kosovars to study in the nearby country. Today, there are dozens of young Kosovars studying in Greece, the majority of whom are in Thessaloniki, due to its geographic proximity to Kosovo. The distance between Thessaloniki and Prishtina is approximately 330km, meaning a four-hour drive by car, or a five-hour journey by coach via Skopje. Despite the short distance between Kosovo and Greece, bilateral relations between the two countries are minimal. In the mind of many Greeks, Kosovo is a ‘mysterious’ or even dangerous place, associated with the war in the former Yugoslavia.
I don’t want to be associated anymore with sad things. When people ask me where I am from, I reply that I am from Kosovo and I continue by saying: I come from the youngest country in Europe!
Ardian, 22-year old student in Thessaloniki
That is the answer I got from a Kosovar Albanian student, when, for the purposes of my research I asked him how he introduces himself to Greeks. The word ‘anymore’ stabbed me in the heart like a knife; decisive and angry, it felt to me like this ‘anymore’ contained years of suppressed emotions. ‘I don’t want to be associated anymore with the trauma of war’, he said. For the young generation of Kosovars, the Yugoslav tragedy was a reality that they experienced in the cruelest way; years later, this narrative keeps following them like a shadow, even when they are traveling away from their homeland.
Greeks know nothing about Kosovo. And when they know something, it is negative. They associate Kosovo either with war or with crime. I guess this is the information they get from the media.
Arta, 19-year old self-identified Bosniak student of rural background
Negative stereotypes between Greeks and Kosovars run both ways. On the one hand, Greeks identify Kosovo - and the Western Balkans in general - with instability, poverty, criminality and corruption; on the other hand, Kosovars also express skepticism toward Greeks, whom they regard as nationalists and detached from the Balkan reality. These are opinions shared by both Kosovar and Greek students who were interviewed in the context of my research. But what about Kosovar alumni?
Research findings show that Kosovar alumni from higher-education institutions in Greece currently hold key positions in Kosovar society and, more specifically, in the sectors of politics, education and banking. Some have also started their own businesses, either in Kosovo or abroad. At this point, it should be emphasized that Kosovar students in Greece constitute a special category. First of all, they cannot be labeled as ‘migrants’ in the conventional sense; Kosovars’ migration to Greece has a transitory character. Unlike migrants who enter Greece seeking employment as unskilled laborers with an average-to-low educational profile, Kosovar students are usually well-educated, with a strong command of English and other foreign languages. Sometimes they come from affluent and socially elite Kosovar families who have the economic capacity to send their children to study abroad. Some of them even left jobs at home, in order to pursue what they hope will be a better education.
For those who are on a quest for more promising professional or academic opportunities, Greece might just serve as a transitory country on the way to Europe or America, a country that according to the interviewees’ words, teaches them values such as ‘tolerance’ and ‘respect for difference’, values that are indispensable to the citizens of a young state that aspires to become part of the European family by entering the EU and other international organizations.
On the other hand, Greeks’ contact with the young people of Kosovo is an awakening. The unknown Balkans, which have historically been treated by Greece as "the poor relative", are a historical and cultural treasure and a real-life lesson for the young generation of Greeks. As we speak, history is being made in the Western Balkans.
Visiting one another’s respective settings and having a personal experience of the other culture is the only way for Greeks and Kosovars to understand one another and change existing stereotypes. Evidence shows that Kosovar students transmit a positive image of our country back to their homeland, refuting many of the misconceptions prevailing in various Balkan areas about Greece and the Greeks. On the other hand, Greece should invest more consciously and systematically in its dynamic perspective as a center of education, research and innovation in Southeastern Europe; in this way, it could consolidate its position in the wider region and contribute pragmatically to the European effort to promote stability and reconciliation in the Western Balkans.