Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...
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<strong>Psychosocial</strong> <strong>Notebook</strong>, Volume 2, October 2001<br />
month, for work within an international organization, where she made<br />
1,000 DEM per month. This salary gap between local and international<br />
establishments was not unique to Suzana’s case, but normal for most of the<br />
international organizations. In the words of Liljana:<br />
[Working with an NGO] was like you had more power because we needed<br />
money and we had to get the job. It was just after the war period so it<br />
means that everything was destroyed, you didn’t have anything to buy<br />
and everything had to be renewed.<br />
At this same time, however, most of the local staff were young, in their<br />
twenties. The many who stayed in the international organizations began to<br />
receive salaries that were more than twice as high as that of their parents.<br />
Traditional family structures were beginning to reverse. As local staff,<br />
these young employees also became a part of the local leaders of the socalled<br />
rebuilding of Kosovo. They had begun to work at a time of emergency,<br />
to help their people, and had simply continued to work through this<br />
period of reconstruction, when they needed money to help their families<br />
and to acquire professional skills for themselves. As Suzana said:<br />
… now that … the internationals [are] here, you can see with your eyes<br />
how … we [differ] from them or what we have in common, or if we want<br />
to change, or what’s bad on them… because they are not so… ideal, you<br />
know … Well you know that Western life is doing what you want, getting<br />
separated from your parents, living on your own, but here in Kosova<br />
it was difficult, you had to live together with your family and you were<br />
close to your relatives, you were more… it [fits us to get] together…<br />
that’s why I’m [saying] that tradition is to be more [on] our own, not asking<br />
or looking for another life… I’m not against new life, but still keeping<br />
what is more important for one Albanian: family and to go on with<br />
tradition … the role of the family will still be the same [as] it was before,<br />
but it will be more … I don’t know, more modern … but [on] my own, I<br />
don’t want to be exactly like Westerners are.<br />
What Suzana was describing was a balancing act, performed, in her case,<br />
on vanishing ground. Her discourse was ambiguous and oscillated<br />
between tradition and modernity. She claimed that she did not want to see<br />
a change in tradition, but the fact that she was working helped hasten these<br />
changes. She does not live with her parents anymore, but with her<br />
boyfriend, as does Liljana, and neither of the women are married. Both<br />
keep most of their salary for their own use, and can therefore buy what<br />
they wish. Even this situation, however, is vanishing ground. They know<br />
that the organizations will eventually leave, sooner rather than later. As<br />
before the war, they cannot plan their futures. There is no stable path that<br />
will lead them to security. Because of this, Suzana saves her money so that<br />
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