It is estimated that there are around 5 000 Bosnians living in France. But finding paths leading to them wasn’t that simple. Last year I spent in Paris, as an Erasmus student. Quickly I realized that the capital of France is not the place where I can find my desirable interlocutors. (Desirable meaning young people, up to 30 years old, originated from Bosnia, who left their country as children, during or just after the war of 1992-1995.) The telephone of Association Bosniaque de France with office in Paris was awful silent.
In October 2009, also in Paris, during the first meeting of francophone associations dealing with Bosnia, I met many enthusiastic and energetic people to whom the problems of this small Balkan country were a dear and important topic. For many years, they have been working on spreading knowledge about the war in Bosnia, organizing trips and lobbying the European institutions for the abolition of the visas for Bosnian citizens. However, most of the activists were French or Swiss pensioners. When I was asking about young Bosnians in France, I was getting mainly one answer: - I don’t know anyone. It won’t be easy to find them. – Search in the South, closer to Switzerland – my French friends advised me.[1] But searching on my own, in the country of over 60 mln of inhabitants seemed to be like looking for a needle in the haystack. Where to start? I needed a guide…
Marta
[1] In Switzerland lives one of the largest Bosnian communities in Europe, estimated at 50 000 people.
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