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There are hundreds of new marriages every year between Switzerland and Kosovo. Families want to have a say – young people fight back.
Summer in Prishtina, the Shacis are here. This is what the Kosovars from the German-speaking countries are called. Cars with Swiss license plates drive on the streets – Mercedes, Ferrari, Porsche from Baselland, Zurich, Aargau – Swiss German is spoken. The Shacis are here for the obligatory family visit in their second home, and some of them hope to find a companion for life there.
Nightlife: A bride show
In the evening the bass is booming in one of the biggest clubs in Kosovo. The light is dim, a laser light show cuts a path into the heated atmosphere. Every minute, perfectly styled young women and men strut through the nightclub and leave behind heavy clouds of perfume and deodorant.
First impressions count, you know that. After all, they could meet their great love here. It is a great see and be seen. Gabriela Tomes and Dorentina Dauti are also in the club that evening. They emphasize: just to have fun, to celebrate and dance with other Shacis.
balancing act between tradition and modernity
Gabriela Tomes and Dorentina Dauti are Swiss Kosovars from Thurgau. Like many young Kosovars from Switzerland, they try to bridge the gap between cultures. Dating is a private matter for the two of them, even though they know that some of their family members see it differently. You are 23 years old, neither engaged nor married.
The young women are aware of the conflict in which they find themselves. «On the one hand, I want to make my family happy, but at the same time I don’t want my parents to take anything away from me there. It’s my choice who I date,” says Tomes. They have turned down previous dating offers. «I have other plans, I want to go to school. I just have different ideas about life at the moment,” says Dauti. They stand for the new generation of Swiss Kosovars. A generation in upheaval trying to find the middle ground between the areas of tension.
Shacis love among themselves
But not everyone is so self-determined. The street survey shows that many young Swiss Kosovars desperately want someone with the same background. That’s what the family wants, but that’s what they want for themselves. They decided against the clinch that Tomes and Dauti are experiencing. It is more important to them that the tradition lives on, that the future wife corresponds to the ideas of the parents, is familiar with the cultural customs of Kosovo and can speak Albanian with the grandparents.
For Tomes and Dauti, on the other hand, it is clear that they will decide for themselves who they marry. Whether their parents will be happy with the choice is not important. Anyway – this question has time. At the moment other things are more important, like dancing in the club and studying after the summer.