How old were you when you came to America?
I was 6 at the time.
Do you remember what you thought at the time? (like your perceptions of America, why you were leaving Albania, why your family was separated)
I was excited. A whole new world to discover and I wasn’t disappointed in this regard.
Even at that age I think I was able to understand that we were leaving for economical reasons.
My parents wished for better opportunities and sought a better life and future for me.
Albania was very poor and on the brink of civil war.
Was it hard?
No, I was a child. Everything is an adventure at that age. From my point of view it was more like a vacation than anything else.
Can you describe to me what happened that caused you to go back to Albania?
My father coulnd’t make it to America. He was traveling with a fake visa and got caught. It was really hard at the time to get a visa.
We decided to give up and go back to Albania.
I’d like to fast forward a bit here and transition to your emigration to France. Can you tell me your age and what you were thinking at the time?
I was 11. Almost 12. Unlike the first time when I was just an infant, at 12 you are almost a teenager.
I had my teenager life going on. I had good friends. I had a girlfriend. I was pretty happy.
The context was different this time. My parents were having a divorce.
Anyway, I remember being enthusiastic at the idea of going to France despite the circumstances.
I didn’t realize at the time how hard it would be to leave everything behind in one day and how much of a change it would be to live in another country.
Did you already speak French or did you have to learn?
I had to learn and I did so pretty quickly.
Even though I was born in America, in some ways, I still felt I had to assimilate — definitely culturally at least. As an Albanian boy moving to another country, did you and/or your family experience this? (and was it a negative, positive, mixed or neutral experience?)
Yes we did. I would say it was a neutral experience. My stepfather is french so it helped a lot. The very first weeks at school, the other kids made fun of my accent but in a friendly way and I managed to blend in quickly. I kept my accent for a very long time (french is hard :p) but it never was a problem. I couldn’t say we experienced racism or anything similar for that matter.
How do you identify? For example, I call myself an Albanian-American, but I remember being in France and people thinking I was only American, despite all of my life in America being considered Albanian by others. It didn’t matter that I was born in the US and all of that. Maybe you don’t think about any of this because it is different for you in France or on a personal level. If so, that is also an answer.
The double ethnic identity isn’t really a thing in France so I consider myself an Albanian (the way I feel) living like a French. It just doesn’t sound right to say Albanian-French in France 🙂
But yeah, when I travel to any other country, I am considered French obviously.
I specified “the way I feel” because I don’t think people would consider me to be anything else but French in everyday life.
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