WHERE DID THE VOICES OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD REMAIN?

Even though young boys and girls complete their studies or professional schools and try to adapt with living in our country, a lot of them can’t find a job. Also because of the nepotism that has left its roots in Kosovo, where if you don’t have a strong arm to support you, you’ll hardly achieve the work of your dreams. These things give young people a push and force them to leave the country and do a job that isn’t in compliance with the qualifications they have, but they are forced to leave for a better life.

Illustration: Argjira Kukaj

 “I’m going to leave for a better life” is not a new sentence, it’s even become a cliché, I’ve heard it that much that I now doubt myself on whether I should change my plans.

Immigration can be said is a “phenomenon” these days, not that it’s begun now, but in these times in our country it’s reaching its peak. With hope that things are better in a place we haven’t even seen with our eyes, our society has placed themselves in line waiting for answers from embassies, to take the passports and leave from the birthplace which is now personified as hopeless.

The factors that have brought us to the decisions have created a long list now, starting from the lack of employment and injustices that are made in our country’s offices, from the poverty that has knocked on many family’s doors. The economy which has a slow development almost as being non-functional. Politics that is swallowing the place in darkness with its dirty games. Education that has jumped into a dance of “trickery”. And above all the inequality that has distorted the meaning of the “human” notion.

In our society this desire and idea that in foreign countries there are better living conditions has been stimulated, as though you’ll be expected with open arms! There are few of those that don’t have a hope for one day leaving.

And there are a lot of those that wait for a liberalization that should have happened years before, and still drags us to an inability for it to become reality.

I was walking in my neighborhood today, alone under the heat of the sun, and the sun brought many memories in my mind. I remember these streets filled with young people, children and elders, and now the best friend of these streets is dust and the number of residents decreasing every day.

Immigration in Kosovo dates back to the 60’s, there was a visible increase in the war era of 98-99’.

And now that it’s reached such a big level, what is happening? Now that in a year thousands of citizens leave, who are we in war with? With ourselves?

According to some data for the year 2018, which have the Kosovo Agency of Statistics as a source, it’s said that in the last 5 years more than 170 thousand Kosovar citizens have left the country. If this thing continues with the same tempo, Kosovo will quickly be left with a lot of vacant homes and empty streets filled with dust.

The fact that people leave the birthplace is something present in every place, after all everyone wants the best for themselves. The fact that young people want to leave is troubling. Why in the best age, in the period which is supposed to be the best of life, they’re leaving their close ones toward an unanticipated journey. Even though young boys and girls complete their studies or professional schools and try to adapt with living in our country, a lot of them can’t find a job. Also because of the nepotism that has left its roots in Kosovo, where if you don’t have a strong arm to support you, you’ll hardly achieve the work of your dreams. These things give young people a push and force them to leave the country and do a job that isn’t in compliance with the qualifications they have, but they are forced to leave for a better life. The way this country is developing from day to day has put a fear in everyone even though some maybe don’t notice it. We fear the future here that much so we sacrifice everything we have only to not be here.

“Anywhere outside of Kosovo” I heard this once from a young person who has just finished the studies and had placed the diploma in a picture frame for decoration. They left it there even when he left the country to achieve that which wasn’t made possible here!

In order for this phenomenon to be limited, then institutions should be functioning differently. New job openings in the public and private sector should be created. The economy should be developed; businesses should find support from their municipalities in order for the job network to be expanded.

Civilians should possess health insurance and feel safe in the place they live. And a very important factor, for the stereotypes in our society to be left behind, because the impact that society has in the adaptation of a young person in a country is very large.

 

About the author: Krenare Hoxha is a student of Journalism in University of Prishtina.