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Grigoris comes from Albania ; he was born in 1983 at Valdes (near the city of Shkoder) and came in Greece for the first time in 1998. At the time of the interview his worked as a 'Construction worker'.
Interview date: 01/04/2006
Researcher who did the interview: Raymond Alvanos
Subfield of the interview: Historical culture
Grigoris grew up within a large patriarchal family in a village in northern Albania. He has a sister who has remained in Albania to take care of his parents. His family had many vineyards, which were expropriated by the Hoxha regime and were given back to them after 1990. He came to Greece when he was 14 years old without his parents being aware of it. He decided to leave mostly because all his friends had left and because he wanted to escape the patriarchal family´s control. The first period he worked in the fields at Lehonia, but since 2001 he has been working legally as a construction worker in Volos. In the evenings he also attends high school. He lives with his brother-in-law. His family was Catholic. Grigoris was baptized in the Catholic Church before coming to Greece and he considers faith an important part of his life. Some of the most important issues in his interview concern the canun (the common law of Northern Albania), the uprisings of 1997 in Albania, cases of racist attitudes, the incidents related to the football match between Greece and Albania in 2004 and his views on gender relations.
