My name is Agim and I come from Kosovo. I used to work in the marble industry, but the pay was bad. The wages didn't allow me to support my family. So in 2015 I took my wife and three children to Germany. We applied for asylum.

Life in Germany was much more difficult than I imagined. There were simply no good prospects for us at all. We were wondering if we should go back home. But how could we live there?

We discussed this with an advisor from the "Returning to New Opportunities" programme. These advisors are called reintegration scouts. They help people who want to return to their home countries. Our scout introduced us to a colleague in Kosovo. This colleague works for DIMAK, the "German Information Centre for Migration, Training and Employment". He explained to us the opportunities available to us in Kosovo.

When we returned voluntarily in 2019, I immediately took part in the URA programme at DIMAK. URA (Albanian for "bridge") is specially designed for people returning to Kosovo. I received advice there. We were given lots of suggestions to help us settle in well again.

The programme also helped us to deal with the authorities. I was also able to attend job and existence training. That helped me a lot, because today I am employed as a construction worker. That changed everything – now I can finally feed my family.

As of 12/2019