Being Serbian in Switzerland
About Milan Culibrk
If you ever need to find Milan look for a buff man in a waistcoat with a tie, sitting on the balcony watching the view. Milan has a passion for sports and helping his two girls with school. He is ready to talk about life and wine. He has a friendly, welcoming smile, and a caring personality. That's my dad.
What does being Serbian mean to you?
“Well, Serbia is our homeland country , with a lot of great traditions, and great history...In a way I am of course proud of where I come from. To be Serbian is not much different to being Swiss in general. You have your family. You have your culture. You have your country you love. It doesn't matter where you are, you always know where you are coming from.”
“What was it like growing up in Serbia in older times?”
“The time I grew up is much much different than today. We used to play more outside, we used to ride bicycles around, go fishing on the river, preparing the fish on the barbecue later if we catch something, play cowboy & indians, in general we spend much more time outside without mobile phones and we were just trying to run away from the parents not to be supervised.”
What was your favorite food-that's from Serbia?
“Well everything that's made by my grandma and mum, so a lot of home-made stuff, a lot of things grown up in the garden, barbeque...so very old style food”
Do you think, if you were raised differently in a different country, would you be better off?
“To be raised in a different country I assume if all your family is around you and sets you family values and the way they would like you to behave as an adult later on, I think it is the same, it's most important that your family is with you, doesn't matter where you are.”
Do you like your job more in Serbia or here (Switzerland)?
“The jobs were similar and different, I like both of them. Job in Serbia was more related to Serbian things and also the countries surrounding Serbia-so the scope was much smaller, and then of course i was doing things well and then they-the company decided to move it [Milans Job] in Switzerland, together with my family and to start much broader job, broader scope so yes, both of the jobs are interesting but different, and they're belonging in different stages in my life and my career…
“ Stories and experiences shape the identities of people..Identity is built in many different ways and those ways help you build relationships with people.”
“I assume if all your family is around you and sets you the family values...it's most important that your family is with you. It doesn't matter where you are.”
- Milan Culibrk
Do you think culture in general is important?
“Culture-yes of course. Culture is important, i don't know what you exactly mean, but the culture of one country of course creates specifics for the people living there…to go around and see and take the best from different cultures thats, thats i think the best one person can do”
Is there any discramantion being from Serbia but living and working in Switzerland? Are there any target identities?
“So here we are, since 2016, and I really could say that we are accepted really well-starting from the neighborhood, from my company, from all the people around the street. I really dont see discrimination. And i think it's very important actually how you behave and how you treat other people. Then that's the reason why you expect people to also treat you back in the same way.
