Carrie's Crossing the Valley Project

Interview Analysis

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Meet Nevena Milić

I had the pleasure of meeting Nevena this semester in a class called Adult Career Development.  She is also a student at ASU West and hopes to one day have the opportunity to be a lawyer.  She has amazing goals and drive despite the fact that she is considered a refugee in the United States. 

On April 31, 2004, Nevena welcomed me into her home located at around 3^rd Avenue and Union Hills in Phoenix, Arizona.  When I was receiving directions to her house, which she shares with her mother, father, sister and brother in law, from her that morning, she gave a description of the exterior that struck me as funny.  She said “it’s the one with the little German fence.”  I had to laugh a little since the interview was about her migration and she was throwing influence of the culture in to her every day speech.  Although she is not from Germany, she says that her influence is simply “European”. 

            Nevena was born in Croatia in 1980, and two years later, she became an older sister.  She was born into a family that practiced Eastern Orthodox.  Her family is originally from Serbia but they had lived in Croatia for a number of generations.  Nevena’s father had gone to college to be a waiter and had held this position for many years.  He had met her mother in college and married her shortly after meeting.             

            During Nevena’s youth in Croatia, she attended 9 years of school within the public school system.  During these years, a war exploded between the native Croatians and the other two major populations within the country: Muslim and Serbian.  The reasoning behind the fighting was the goal of the Croatians to convert everyone in the country to Catholicism.  The threat was as follows; if one did not convert, they would be killed.  This was considered a religious war with no political purpose.  Some saw it as genocide since 99% of those that practiced the Eastern Orthodox or Islamic religions, were not Croatian.  During this time known as “The Storm” it is reported that the population of Serbians in Croatia decreased from 12% to only 3%.

            When Nevena was 15 years old, her father was captured by the Croatian army.  They demanded that he switch religions or he would be killed.  He spent time in a prison that he eventually escaped from and returned to his family.  While he was imprisoned, air attacks began and structures in the city were being destroyed, along with innocent people being killed.  Upon her father’s return, the family decided to join other Serbians, and abandon their home until the bombing ceased.  Nevena and her sister were instructed by her parents and neighbors to pack a back pack filled with clothes and blankets.  They walked into the hills surrounding the town and met with others there.  They remained in the mountains for 3 weeks when they learned from a fellow refugee, that their homes had been raided and all of their property had been processed by the Croatian government.  This gave them no other option, then to leave the country. 

            They left the country on August 5, 1995.  They traveled to Serbia and entered a refugee camp there.  At this time, Milosevic was the ruler of Serbia.  The economy was dropping at their time of arrival in the country and Milosevic decided to convince the public that this was the fault of the incoming refugees.  This gave rise to at atmosphere that disallowed for the acceptance of those that were from Croatia, including Nevena’s family.  She said that it did not make a difference that she is of Serbian decent because they have, over time, developed different dialects, and it is easy to tell if you are a native or not. 

            There were no jobs available for her mother and father at the refugee camp and school was always a problem since it was not planned well.  They decided to move to Belgrade, in hopes of finding work and a formal education for Nevena and her sister.  In Belgrade, Nevena graduated from high school and her father found a job as a waiter.  They lived in a 65 year old mud house that had no electricity.  Every night when her father would return from work, they would unscrew the headlight from the car, and plug it into a tiny generator.  This has left Nevena with a fear of the dark and slight claustrophobia.

            Upon graduation, Nevena decided to take the entrance exam for college that is mandatory for all students to take.  The people that were administering the test told her that she wasn’t allowed in the university since she was a refugee.  She went to an administrator and he told her that this was false and he would allow her to take the test.  He added though that she was unlikely to pass since she wasn’t educated in Serbia.  The school accepted 85 students that year and they ranked them all after the test was taken.  Nevena was the 41^st student chosen.  This made her very proud.  Although this was a large accomplishment, she had a hard road ahead. In every class, Nevena was sat in the back corner of the room and they would place a barrier of desks around her and never allow her to speak or answer questions.  This did not break her spirit, in retrospect, it made her stronger.  She knew she had to do it on her own, and that no one would help her.  She graduated with a bachelor's degree in English and Italian.  This was not a happy day for Nevena though, because she knew now, that she had a degree and still would be unable to get a job.

            During this time, her family had put in an application to become a refugee to the United States.  It took 2 years and 4 months to get any response from IOM.  The 3 months before they left, she spent every morning waiting for the office to open and she would pound on the door until they let her in.  Finally, the workers got tired of her and they said “Fine.  Here is your date.  Just go!”  This was the best news for Nevena and she remembers it very well. 

            They went to the airport and met with a large group of other refugees that Nevena recalls totaled to roughly 60 people.  Out of all of these people, Nevena was the only one who spoke English.  This meant that she was given the duty of making sure everyone got on their correct flight and managed the airport well.  At their last stop in Minneapolis, Nevena’s family was the only one traveling to Arizona.  She almost missed her flight because there were so many people traveling to so many different places, all who did not speak English.

            The Milić family was lucky that they had friends who moved to Phoenix in 1999 and they took the family under their wing.  They had set up an apartment for them in Sunny Slope and furnished it.  They also provided basic needs such as toothbrushes, clothes, dish soap, and a variety of food.  It took two months for Nevena to get a job.  This was complicated by the fact that her degree did not transfer to the United States.  She had never owned or used a computer before, but they excited her greatly, so she was pleased when she received a job at a small IT company. 

            On her first day of work, Nevena encountered her first dose of American hostility.  Her father drove her to work in an old car that they had purchased, and on the way it began to overheat.  Her father pulled over at a gas station on 19^th Avenue and Peoria Avenue.  She entered the building to speak with the clerk, and during this time a customer also entered the convenience store.  As she was speaking to the clerk, the customer interjected and said “I notice that you have an accent.  Where are you from?”  This made Nevena very happy since no one in the United States had shown any interest in her heritage.  She said slowly, “I am a refugee from Croat- -.”  At this point the man cut her off by raising his right hand in the air, and slapping Nevena across the face.  Shocked, Nevena listened to the man yell at her about how the US Military is over there fighting for her freedom and that she should be back there helping them and relishing in their accomplishments.  Nevena left the store promptly and told her father to drive her back home.  She didn’t care if she got fired; she could not do her best at her new job after that run in. 

            She did go to her job the next day, and it was still available for her.  She also began taking technology classes at Paradise Valley Community College full time and within two years, she received her associates. She says that it was hard though having a full time job and going to school since she and her sister were attempting to do the same thing and support her parents in the process, since neither of them knew English.  She says that her expectations of the United States were not completely fulfilled since those who came to the United States from Croatia and then returned to their native country, made the US seem like a place where money grew on trees.  You would simply work hard, but get paid like a king.  Nevena realized though, that it was only this way if you were not here to live and to make a life for yourself.  Those people did not plan to stay so they had few bills and even fewer responsibilities.  This frustrated her at the beginning but now she has just accepted it as her way of life.

            Nevena told me that the people in Croatia, including the army and the government are happy that they are gone.  They want what she calls a “pure Croatia” and they wanted all of them to leave or be killed.  She has friends of the family and a few relatives that still live in Croatia and Serbia and others that are scattered around the globe, but even though she cannot speak with them or see them, she is happy that they and her family are in safe places where they can continue their lives. 

            Nevena is now a student at ASU West and hopes to become a lawyer.  She still works at the same IT company and is proud of the work that she does.  Her mother has acclimated very well to living in the United States and she has numerous friends that she has lunch with and goes shopping.  Her father has not yet mastered the English language and does not have a job but he has made it his goal to make their house as beautiful as possible.  In the five years that they have been here, her father has built numerous pieces of wood furniture, retiled the whole house, built a garage and a porch, and landscaped the whole yard.  Nevena is proud of him and is glad that he has the opportunity to express this talent.  Her sister is also a student as ASU West and is married.  She continues to live with the family in their own along with her husband.  Nevena believes that their lives could not get any better and takes pride in her whole family’s accomplishments.