Sanela

Sanela, Bosniak and a Muslim, born in 1980 joined her father, who was working on Slovene coastline, in 1990. Due to the wars of Yugoslav dissolution the working immigration became permanent one. Now she lives in Ljubljana, graduated sociology, works in advertising.

How did you arrive in your new home country?

Those were, so called, economic reasons. My father worked in Slovenia for 14-15 years already, while mum, my elder brother and I lived in Bosnia. It was typical story: father worked in the port of Koper as a physical worker and occasionally visited family. It was still the time when the companies were giving flats, so father was twice offered a flat, and both times he refused it. When he was offered for the third time, mum said “enough!”, so finally we got the apartment, which was about the last give away of the flats before the practice ended. Probably if we wouldn’t take the apartment then, we would never attain it, and we would never move, we would have remained in Bosnia and father would have stayed in Slovenia. Therefore we came after him, he was working and we came after him.