These years from 2020 to 2025, the beginning of 2025, have been the most beautiful years of my life. My husband came [to Skri Lanka] too, I went back often, and the children came as well. It’s a very beautiful culture. Modestly speaking, it doesn’t matter where you are, who you are, or who or what you work for. You can find a home anywhere in the world, and everywhere, you find people. Even when I was sick with dengue fever, I was surrounded by people who cared for me. I wasn’t alone. Mehmet even said, ‘I’ll come,’ but I told him, ‘You don’t need to, I have people here taking care of me, there’s no need.’ That’s how you find a home, you find love, you find kindness everywhere. The world is one sky; the world belongs to everyone. Why should I confine myself only to my house, my country, my family? It belongs to all of us. We are just in one part of the world. So now my daughters, one is in Berlin, one is in Lisbon. I’m not upset that they’ve gone, and we don’t say, ‘Why don’t you stay here with us?’ It doesn’t matter, wherever you go, you contribute…Wherever they have it better, wherever they see more, wherever they contribute, they are also contributing to their own country. And this is no longer the classic form of migration; now it’s simply globalization, home and country exist everywhere.
Merita Idrizi Behluli was born in Mitrovica in 1963. She is a graduate of the Technical Faculty in the University of Prishtina. She is an architect and development expert with over 30 years of experience in construction reform, architectural design standards, and post-crisis reconstruction. She has advised governments and private sector stakeholders through major international programs. In 2007, she led the Tsunami Response Team in Sri Lanka. She is the co-founder of Mini Studio, a consultancy and design company.