Aus der REIHE MIGRATIONSGESCHICHTEN von Birgit Stegbauer  (mehr InterviewpartnerInnen)

Viktorija Ratkovic, 31: the Croatian came as a nine-year-old in a child evacuation program from the civil war country to Salzburg. Today she researches immigration at Klagenfurt University and has found that immigrants’ experiences need to be re-assessed.

My family fled from Petrinja to Sisak in 1991 when war broke out in Croatia and our town was occupied. We lived with a cousin of my mother’s there, it was only supposed to be temporary. To start with it was good fun too, but then we realized we would all have liked to go home again. Instead my parents found a child evacuation program* to Austria for me. I went to Salzburg with other children from Sisak, to a private secondary school run by the Herz-Jesu missionary. Everybody there tried really hard, but it was still a traumatic time.

It was nearly a year before my family was re-united, and that was in Velden am Wörthersee where we lived as refugees in a bed and breakfast. With the help of a bed and breakfast manager who looked for a flat for us, we were finally able to move into our first flat of our own. We were fortunate. Other refugees who didn’t get this sort of help experienced some really, really bad living conditions, for example with no running water.

I had already learnt a bit of German in Salzburg and after 2 – 3 months in Velden I was in the fourth year of primary school. As the first Croatian, as the first civil war refugee child in the class, probably in the entire school, I was something special and everyone really looked after me. In the new school year I went straight into secondary school. I was lucky, most refugee children from this period had to repeat a year. However, I could for example only manage to do my homework in the first few years there with the help of a dictionary.

When I had been at secondary school a year or two other refugees appeared, who were really looked down on in the class. At that time I already spoke fluent German and was no longer perceived as a foreigner. But the dynamics had changed and the newcomers had it much harder. I on the other hand had only had contact with local people from the start, I was brought up completely separate from the immigrant community.

After secondary school I changed to Perau grammar school in Villach and in that class I was once more the only foreigner. But my background didn’t matter at all there either because I had already learnt perfect German. Later I studied journalism and media studies at Klagenfurt University, and now I work at the Centre for Women and Gender Studies where I’m writing a doctorate on the subject of media for immigrants and the influence this has on people’s identities.

In my experience, mastering the German language and speaking it well with no accent has been crucial regarding how someone is perceived and treated. For example, a while ago we needed to get new visas and had to go the Villach authorities. I’ve always gone with my parents to the authorities, to translate and to fill in new forms. But it’s always been associated for me with stomach ache for me, although it was obvious that our stay would be extended. I noticed then that I was treated much better than lots of other people because I speak such good German.

In the meantime we’ve had an indefinite residence permit for ages. We all still have Croatian citizenship, although I can’t really imagine living in Croatia again. I’m not at all attached to Croatian citizenship, for me personally a foreign citizenship is a memory of what it’s like for people who just don’t have Austrian citizenship and who are therefore subject to lots of disadvantages and legal uncertainties. I have the feeling, that I accepted Austrian citizenship I would be giving my approval to such a system, but at the same time I would say that lots and lots of privileges are connected to my legal status which asylum seekers for example don’t have.

What I particularly appreciate here is the welfare state, security, prosperity, medical standards of care, schools. And a lot of freedom. Rights as well. Compared to lots of other countries Austria is a safe haven. What my life experience has taught me is that security is very important and I have the desire to be prepared for anything as far as possible.

As a researcher on immigration I find that immigration is having to be assessed in a new different way to how it’s been up to now in Austria. On the one hand immigration should not be as important as it is. Society’s terms should on the whole be such that every man or woman can participate in community life, regardless of where they come from, their sex and sexual orientation – and immigrants too. This should also mean that any assistance is also paid and doesn’t just happen on a voluntary basis. With my family that would never have worked, in the first few years they had to work themselves to death and wouldn’t have been able to join a club in the evening or help out somewhere on a voluntary basis.

On the other hand there has to be a change of consciousness in the majority of the population, that is to say, conditions at the moment mean that immigrants often have lots of difficulties to struggle with. They are people like everybody else, but often obstacles are put in their way. It’s really important for me to stress that a person’s success can never actually happen just by the person achieving it on his or her own. A lot depends on the support of others, on coincidences and moments of happiness. However, I’m a great fan of solidly united communities, aid packages and the EU. If there was one European citizenship, I’d get it straight away.

04.04.2013

*Editor’s note.

This concerns the so-called “Action to Bring Peace” (Action for Croatian Children) in the period from September 1991 to March 1992, which was instigated by the Salzburg state education authority at the time and the “Salzburg News”. At that time a hundred 7 – 8 year old children were evacuated to Salzburg from the industrial Croatian town of Sisak, where it was feared the Serbs would carry out a bombing campaign. From Croatia the children were accompanied by teachers and carers and divided into small groups in Salzburg, accommodated and looked after. Twenty-one boys and girls were taken with one teacher and two carers into ‘Bondeko’ of the Herz-Jesu missionaries.