VOICES From Migrations | Voltisa Qesaraka's story
- Changemakers
- Dec 23, 2025
- 2 min read
“VOICES From Migrations" is a project co-funded by the European Union exploring untold migration stories. Voltisa Qesaraka is from Albania, and she moved to Greece in 1993. This is her story:
“My name is Voltisa Qesaraka, I am 52 years old, and I am from Albania. I have lived in Greece since 24 March 1993.
My sister was already in Greece, so I got a 1-month visa to come and visit her. After my visa expired, I got caught by the police and was sent back to Albania. In order to go back to Greece, I had to pay a lot of money. Because we were here illegally, my husband and I had to work irregularly in factories, while we also picked fruit. Only after six years were we able to get legal documents.
Staying in Greece was very difficult at the beginning because we expected to have a better life and more job opportunities. We did not receive any support when we arrived. The hardest thing for me was the language barrier and the bureaucracy.
Even if we had the money to rent a house, we just couldn’t get any, so at the beginning we had to sleep in barns without a bed. I even had to face racism, and was not always given my full salary by my employer.
My son is 25 years old now, and I do not want him to face the same kind of discrimination that I had to face. Even though he was born here, people are still mentioning that he is Albanian, and they mean it in a negative way, unfortunately.
Greece now feels like my second home, despite the ongoing challenge of renewing my documents every three years.
If I could go back in time, I would tell my younger self not to leave my country and stay in Albania. But even then, I have fought a lot for my life, and I am proud of all I’ve accomplished. I have a house, and a son who has been raised well, so I am really proud of these things.
Regarding the future, I only hope I will be able to visit other countries, because I have only been in Albania and Greece my whole life.”
Interviewers: Levente Sándor, Zalán Hajdu, Daniella Szep, Markela Cocoli, and Kinga Boross
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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