Refugee or “local staff”?
This article addresses the individual and collective implications of a change of status from refugee to local staff, as it is experienced by Kosovo Albanians who have been hired by international institutions and NGOs during and after the war and during the massive exodus from Kosovo in the Spring of 1999. Taking the example of a specific woman, the article studies firstly the relationships between the normative and subjective dimensions of the status of refugee and local staff. It shows secondly how this shift of status leads to two phenomena. On the one hand, it allows the acquisition of socio-economic, political and familial powers, which had been reduced to a minimum by the experience of exile and refuge. On the other hand, it questions, mainly among the women in their twenties, some mentalities and values that have largely contributed to the constitution of the Kosovo Albanians’ resistance to the Yugoslavian regime during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Finally, this status, though temporary, given that it is linked to the short-lived presence of foreign organisations in Kosovo, is a factor of social change that shakes some identity bases such as the Albanian family organisation.