Aus der REIHE MIGRATIONSGESCHICHTEN von Birgit Stegbauer  (mehr InterviewpartnerInnen)

Murat SELIMAGIC, 39: The native Bosnian is already making things happen and has a number of plans for the future. He has only experienced racism in Austria within the ex-Yugoslav immigrant community, where the war – which nobody wanted – has forged new allegiances among the ethnic groups. The association VIVO which he founded campaigns for integrated cooperation.

When I left Bosnia in 1991 I was 17 and was attending a military academy in Zagreb. The Slovenian war had just finished and I visited my father who was working as an immigrant worker in Villach. The Croatian war had started around the end of the summer holidays, the borders were suddenly closed and I couldn’t get back. I really wanted to return and defend my home country – I’d been programmed through my military training in the school. With being so young I couldn’t appreciate what really happened in the Croatian and Bosnian wars. Only afterwards, when it was all over, were we able to see how pointless it all was.

But on the way back my father suddenly lashed out at me. He insisted that I leave the military academy and stay in Austria. Then he got his employer to send me somewhere as a labourer. I was immediately sent to a building site in the Gail valley. The first 14 days were hard, I could hardly speak any German, and my colleagues wrote down what I had to fetch: axe, crate, etc. But the colleagues were good, they helped me a lot, and by talking I gradually learnt German.

Later on I did a carpenter’s apprenticeship in the same company. I had got quite far with the training and still hadn’t had any full-time weeks of teaching at the technical college. So my training company called the school and asked why I hadn’t been contacted. And their answer was: we’re waiting till he can speak German, then he can visit the school. When it finally happened, I had the chance to show everybody what I could do and graduated with distinction.

After that I got trained as a carpenter’s foreman, that was rather unusual, because normally you have to pay for the training. So the firm had offered it to me and paid the fees, I just had to promise to stay at the company for a few more years. Also, I got married and by this time had a son and we built a house in Bosnia.

Eventually I wanted a change of career. I resigned and for the next seven years worked for a different construction management office, mostly on building sites in Slovenia and the former Yugoslavia. Then the time was right for the next step, to work for myself and that’s what I’m doing now, and have been doing for the last five years, as a construction manager. My employers are generally Austrian, but I like to focus on the former Yugoslav countries.

My experiences here have definitely been good, I’ve been made really welcome here. Maybe that’s down to my merit and my honesty? But what’s been bad or negative: us former Yugoslavs! We’ve totally gone our separate ways! Serbs – Croatians - Bosnians. Before the war my father led an association, he was the president, the Yugoslavia Club, all the countries got together there then suddenly it completely folded. Since then everyone’s done their own thing, and has got their own club, their own premises, their own little events.

Now I’m trying to pick up again where my father left off. In February I founded an association called VIVO, Villach Integration Association, that embraces everyone, and gets joint activities up and running with different associations. Everything’s still at an early stage. We want to reach people through events to make sure they can meet each other. Because a stranger is still a stranger if I haven’t got to know him yet.

At a local government level with the integration principle there are already the first signs of a peaceful coexistence between nations and cultures. Now it’s up to us to carve cooperation out of coexistence. On an economic plane as well as on a social one. We don’t need to invent anything new: there are already means, ideas, projects. So much is happening in Vienna. Here on the other hand it’s the implementation that’s lacking. Because of lack of funds or reluctance or party influence. There’s just this hurdle to overcome. Let’s get on with it and sort it out.

I’ve only had Austrian citizenship for four years. I was homesick for a long time. I had to first finish one thing to be able to start again with a new one. Finally the time was right. I love Villach town, my family’s settled here, we’re staying here now. This isn’t just about a fresh start on paper, but about living life to the full, I’d like to be actively involved in Villach’s future. Therefore I’m going to try to go into politics, I’ve officially joined a party and would like to stand as a candidate for the town council in 2015.

20.06.2013