Interview with Joseba (Spanish (Subtitled sections are 00:20:53 – 00:40:01 and 00:56:26 – 1:08:32)

Joseba came to Exeter 12 years ago as part of a student exchange programme and decided to stay due to work opportunities that came up. Due to a fondness for Devon, he decided to stay longer than he had initially planned. He is originally from the Basque Country in Northern Spain. Upon arriving to the UK, the biggest difficulties for him were having to recalibrate his understanding of how everything works, and communication difficulties, but he found years of speaking practice, translation exercises, and lots of Netflix helped a great deal. Joseba appreciates a local sense of belonging to Devon and has enjoyed discovering the particularities of the area, and learning about life here. However he still maintains an attachment to the Basque Country, and has a fondness for specific ways of life there, which is evoked when he goes back to visit. While Joseba does identify with and feels a sense of belonging to the Basque Country, he is ultimately glad to have moved country and finds relief in being away, because he felt the Basque conflict and the fixed sense of identity there were too much for him. Joseba used to feel a ‘gap’ between him and his family when he would go back, but since his parents came to live in the UK for 6 months, he feels they understand each other better after having experienced something of what he went through when he migrated. His ‘memory object’ is a backpack that is popular in the Basque Country. It has been the one constant through the last 20 years of his life and the same model of backpack as the one that accompanied him to the UK originally. His accent is also important to him as something that has accompanied him through this time and that he doesn’t attempt to cover up, because he is proud of his Basque roots. These things help define him and bring him back to his origin. Brexit has not affected Joseba in terms of direct relationships with those around him, but it has created doubts as to how he’d be treated at the airport or by the government, ultimately contributing to a general feeling of insecurity. On the topic of Covid-19 and its impacts, he claims it has affected him no different than anyone else. Joseba volunteered for the interview because he was interested in hearing his own answers, as he didn’t know what would arise until he was asked about specific things. He currently doesn’t have plans to return to the Basque country, and thinks he might like to try moving again to a new place to try a new lifestyle someday.