“Adrenaline makes you fall but also climbs a mountain of dreams in a short time. “Only by falling does you learn what it means to own a profession.” This is what the Albanian lawyer in Bari Kristina Blushi says for “Albanian Diaspora”.
An Albanian success story in Bari, positive and full of passion for her work as she tells us the journey as an advocate for immigrants’ rights and her courage to walk alone on this path.
“Under someone else’s protection you will be able to go at the end of the month but you will never understand who you really are,” Kristina continues.
She says that everyone feels fulfilled when they feel that giving a solution becomes useful, and there is no better field than immigration for this.
In this interview av. Kristina Blushi also talks about the problems that emigrants still face in the neighboring country, the issue of pensions, etc.
Kristina you are a well-known lawyer in Bari, and you mainly deal with immigrant rights. This is your choice given by the fact that you also left Albania?
Immigration law is a field, let’s say, it chose me and I adapted to it with a lot of passion. It is a 360-degree direction that includes the criminal, civil, administrative and minor side.
It gives you the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and adventure in different laws and traditions that represent every part of the world.
My favourite subject during university has been public and private international law.
Often a lawyer dealing with immigrant rights is in a crossroads of norms and asked to apply the most appropriate one.
These situations are inadvertently a key to understanding what the legislative system of different countries is.
After finishing my legal practice for several years I worked in the law firm of law professor Ignazio Lagrottes the diploma thesis rapporteur with whom we are still in very good relations and still pursue various issues.
However while practicing I felt there was something I was missing.
I was not fulfilled and ready to lay the groundwork for the studio where I worked and saw it necessary to create a personal reality in a separate studio.
I have always enjoyed freedom and taking responsibility for myself regardless of the consequences.
Adrenaline makes you crash but also climbs a mountain of dreams in no time. Only by falling does you learn what it means to own a profession.
Under someone else’s protection you will be able to go at the end of the month but you will never understand who you really are.
I believe that every person at the moment he feels that he gives a solution and becomes useful feels realized and there is no sector more satisfactory in this regard than that of immigration.
With a residence permit, the person has the freedom to live, work and study wherever he wants.
It is a feeling I have experienced myself during my university years and every emotion remains the eternal legacy of the soul.
This helps me gain empathy with clients when they come to the studio.
When you decide to live abroad you realize that coming to life in one country or another is just a lottery of course at different prices.
And in the Albanians we paid a little expensive the ticket compared to the victory.
What are the challenges you face in your work? What can we say about Albanians and their rights? How easy is integration in Italian society?
The challenges I face are many but the legal profession itself is based on solving problematic situations so coping with difficulties becomes inevitable and moreover necessary.
It often happens that due to the difficult norms to settle with a residence permit, immigrants face various discriminations while working illegally and facing the ego of the people they work for. According to users when there is no contract there are no rules to claim the rights. But this is not entirely true. It is simply one of the many challenges we face.
As for the Albanians regarding their rights, I can confirm that over time they have become more conscious to ask for them. A large part of the Albanians have obtained Italian citizenship and their legal rights have managed to be equal to those of the locals.
This is confirmed by the fact that they are participating in the political side as not only passive part but also as active part by running in the elections. Most of our patriots are already fully integrated. Let us say that Albanians do not need to integrate but to be promoted.
For Albanians in Italy, the biggest problem remains the recognition of pension contributions. Where do you think the “stick” lies that neither of the governments of the two countries in these 30 years have managed to do anything?
It is imperative that Italy and Albania manage to sign the bilateral agreement to recognize those who have worked the contribution periods in both countries.
It is a very serious problem for immigrants who often find themselves at a cruel crossroads ending up without any kind of pension entitlement and being forced to work for many years.
I believe that the problem lies in the fact that not enough resistance and efforts have been made to reach an agreement.
Those affected by the problem can not do it alone, and various associations and organizations do not insist enough.
The issue is not only economic but also ethical because it is deeply unfair that these people who have paid contributions in both countries cannot retire.
They are always put on a backup plan, very controversial but for years asleep.
A sleep that probably benefits both countries that do not issue well-deserved pensions.
I wish we wake up from this situation as soon as possible and have an agreement signed as soon as possible.
Suddenly, you both write and see this as a way to explore and discover different worlds and feelings. Write down your feelings, what the eye perceives in everyday situations or write about phenomena and events that leave a mark on life?
I like to write about everything that impresses me in the daily but also to write on paper different stories about the past, whether it is family or acquaintances.
I am curious and try to understand what the people around me feel, because emotions do not lie but reflect the truth. No one can become their controller as is the case with thoughts.
By writing about the present we become witnesses to a future, and by writing about the past we highlight many lessons that are valuable to us in coping with life.
I see as an important act the analysis of consciousness about myself, the people around me and the universe itself, and I do this by writing.
If each of us sat down to write regularly, without fear and hesitation what he thinks I believe we would live in a less complicated world.
You are also engaged in the association “Silk Eagles” dedicated to immigrant women in Bari. How do you see your involvement in this association and subsequent goals?
I am engaged in the association “Silk Eagles” in Bari as a volunteer member and I am one of the founders.
The association was established in September 2020. The members of the association are girls and women who come from different fields but who are put in the same balancing plan by learning from each other.
The main realization is the human dignity that characterizes these girls, be they doctors, lawyers or wonderful mothers who deliver to society a precious generation with their children.
Each of them engages with sincerity and dedication and this makes me see reality with a different eye.
I would have loved for such a reality to have been born long ago but better late than never.
My involvement in this association is a very natural commitment that makes me feel fulfilled. It gives me the opportunity to dedicate myself to the Albanian community and in this way it fulfills that exposed part of the weakness that every emigrant takes with him.
The later goals of this association are related to numerous projects in the service of Albanians living in the region of Puglia in Italy, such as the opening of an Albanian language school.
Currently the association is pursuing a very interesting project that is the presentation of Albanian authors who write in Italian.
Are there other associations with which you are engaged in the Italian state?
Another association in which I feel very active is the Albanian Bar Association in Italy, whose president is av. Arjol Kondi.
I got to know this group of Albanian lawyers in Italy from a presentation with the lawyer Ermir Lushnjari, creator of the application CAJ MALI that helps many foreigners in Italy to send the application to obtain Italian citizenship.
Collaborating with the members of the association has been a very big surprise because it opened up a world to me the moment I met them.
Many of them have become inseparable friends both in everyday life and in different moments of joy or difficulty.
Creating a network of Albanian lawyers throughout the Italian territory is really an opportunity for us professionals as well as for our compatriots who can go to the law firm run by Albanians in different parts of Italy.
We have reserved the last question for your immigration history. How difficult it has been for you to emigrate to a foreign country and integrate into Italian society.
I arrived in Italy as a student after winning a competition for enrollment in the Faculty of Law. The year I came there were problems with the issuance of visas and the moment they gave me the passport with the visa, for me and my family it has been a great joy.
From the moment I spoke before the commission at the Italian embassy I felt very considered and I spoke fluently in Italian as if I had known the professors for years. But despite the love I had for the Italian state my desire was not to stay there forever and for that reason I registered as a resident almost after ten years.
After many reasons and job searches in the Albanian state I decided to continue living in Italy but always without interrupting relations with Albania.
I can not say that emigration has been very difficult because I arrived in the city of Bari with a student visa and I also had a lot of help from friends who lived and studied for several years.
The biggest difficulties I have gone through have nothing to do with immigrant status.
However life away from family is not easy. A moment arrives and you begin to realize that you have to do it yourself. It is the moment in which you grow regardless of age.
When you are far away you can feel the value of family and homeland and in those moments you think of those who do not have a family and do not know who their homeland is.
Realizes that there are families and people offering to help and welcoming states and this makes you heal in a better world by being made available to others.
Integration into Italian society has been very natural. Italians are a very hospitable people especially in the south of Italy. University colleagues have been very cooperative and some of them are still inseparable friends.
The way the professors at the university behaved made me study with passion. They explained in a way that I consider noble and were interested in the achievements I had. Letting them know that there was also a pronounced human side within them and this made me overcome the difficulties feeling valued.
Normally there were rejections and antipathies but we cannot like you all. I believe that it is important to behave with respect and gain respect for us. /Albanian Diaspora
