Oral history interview with Qendrim Mustafa

Interview: 36 minutes 35 seconds

Qendrim Mustafa is 23 years old and he was born in a village in Kosovo called Lupjan. He was seven years old when he came to Manchester. Qendrim describes long and hot summers in Kosovo as a child and remembers being an adventurous and mischievous boy on the farms in his village. The conflict in Kosovo meant that Qendrim and his family had to leave their home as they feared that Serbian paramilitaries would kill them. They moved to an uncle’s house, then to other houses in Kosovo and then to the refugee camps in Macedonia. The family were evacuated to Manchester where they were housed in a block of flats. The children started at a local school and Qendrim remembers that he struggled with this transition.

Qendrim gained a first in Business Management at Manchester Metropolitan University. He now works as an underwriter for an insurance company. He loves Manchester and wants to settle here for the rest of his life, although he says that part of his heart belongs in Kosovo.

In this interview Qendrim shares his childhood memories of Kosovo and talks about his evacuation to the UK as a result of war in Kosovo, when he was seven years old, and then growing up in Manchester.