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Paul comes from Albania ; he was born in 1957 at Bushat (near Shkoder) and came in Greece for the first time in 1997. At the time of the interview his worked as a 'Construction worker'.
Interview date: 12/01/2006
Researcher who did the interview: Raymond Alvanos
Subfield of the interview: Historical culture
Paul was born in Bushat, near the city of Shkoder. His ancestors arrived there from Montenegro 400 years ago and created this village. He grew up in a large patriarchal and Catholic family, comprised of 60 persons. The communist regime confiscated their property, abolished the churches, and Paul´s family began in a sense "breaking up". In 1982 Paul got married through matchmaking. He has three children; one daughter who is married and lives in Italy, and two boys, 16 and 19 years old respectively, who live here with him. He describes in detail life during the communist period, the education system and the jobs he did at that time. He explains how in education Albanian nationalism was used in order to mend the tensions between Catholics and Muslims in northern Albania. He talks in detail about the political situation under the Hoxha regime. He considers Canun as a main mechanism to settle conflicts in northern Albania. In southern Albania, though, he explained Canun was not used. He describes the chaos in northern Albania after the death of Hoxha and the difficult circumstances under which people had to live. He came to Greece for the first time in 1992 in order to have more freedom and a better life. He changed several jobs and was deported twice. Since March 1997 he has been living with his family in Greece and works in construction. He dreams of making some money, building a house in his village back home and of returning to his country.
