Fardus Sultan was 18 years old when an American woman smuggled her out of war-torn Bosnia. She came to Ireland because her parents were already here. She studied politics and Arabic in UCD but found it hard to get a job after graduating last year. However, she finally got employment as a translator with a Dublin firm. Her husband, also Bosnian, is a draftsman with Iarnrod Eireann. She worries about bad publicity about refugees.
"There are good and bad people everywhere. You can't judge a person on the basis of nationality. No one wants to be a refugee... We Bosnians are proud people. Even if we don't have enough, we won't beg. We want to work, to make a contribution to this country, to pay our taxes.
"I feel so much a part of Ireland now. I couldn't go back to Bosnia, there's nothing for me there. I'm only 23 but I've already had two lives: one before the war - the innocent normal life of a teenager - and the one since. I had to leave everything behind and forget my first life and adjust to Ireland...
"I feel that Ireland has given me more than my own country. It didn't have to do that for me. That's why it's so important to me that people here have a good impression of Bosnians. Because I will always carry my nationality with me. I feel in a way like a Gaelic Bosnian."
