Between two worlds

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"We are currently experiencing a generational change and this comes with a collective mindset shift, where many things are only now becoming clear to us, " reflects Lejla Mujkić. The 24-year-old lawyer, who is currently completing the CCDL (Cours Complémentaires en Droit Luxembourgeois), looks back on formative experiences in her childhood and youth. "I ask myself more than ever who I am and who I want to be. But these uncertainties no longer scare me. On the contrary. The resilience I experienced as part of the Bosniak community has taught me to face challenges with courage, " she explains.

Lejla was born in 1999 in a facility for refugees in Luxembourg and spent the first eight years of her life there. Her parents had fled to Luxembourg towards the end of the Bosnian war (1992–1995) in the hope of a safer and better life for their family. These beginnings shaped the young woman – she studied international law in order to better understand parts of her past. "I often talk about the Bosnian war. After all, before the conflict in Ukraine broke out, it was the most recent war on the European continent, " says Lejla. It is important to remember these events to ensure that such tragedies do not happen again.

Apart from her parents and her younger brother, Lejla does not have much family in Luxembourg, a fact that contrasts with the situation of Arnela Avdušinović, who tends to be surrounded by a larger family in Luxembourg. Arnela's father came to Luxembourg in the early 1990s, while her mother followed in 1994 with Arnela's then three-year-old brother. Arnela herself was born in Luxembourg in 1995. Today she works as a teacher at an international school.