I will say that in both North Macedonia and Kosovo people are extremely closed minded and everybody has village mentality, which is kind of unexpected.
I say unexpected because most of these people travel to other countries (Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, Italy, etc) for holidays and have family living in other European countries or some of them even work in other countries and save money then come back to their own country, etc. So given all of that you would expect people to be more open minded but they are not.
In general people hang out with their extended family uncles, cousins, etc and their friends are their friends from high school. They rarely ever add new people to their social circle. Different ethnicities do not mix at all. I’m not just talking about marriage I’m talking about friendship and general socialisation.
For example in Kosovo I understand the Serbians and Albanians staying seperate and not talking to each other but even all the other ethnic groups keep to themselves. The Albanians only socialise with other Albanians, the Turks (who have been living there hundreds of years) only make friends with other Turks, the Gypsies only make friends with other gypsies, the Bosnians only socialise with other Bosnians. And very few foreigners apart from soldiers, NGO workers, diplomats, etc actually live there. Probably because foreigners would feel very isolated here so they choose not to live there or go back home after a few years. And most Albanian families will disown their daughter if she days sit married a foreigner.
Basically all the same points apply to North Macedonians except the last point. North Macedonians are not so extreme so their parents won’t forbid them to marry a foreigner but in general they still won’t do it because they are worried about being judged by their social circle.
I say unexpected because most of these people travel to other countries (Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, Italy, etc) for holidays and have family living in other European countries or some of them even work in other countries and save money then come back to their own country, etc. So given all of that you would expect people to be more open minded but they are not.
In general people hang out with their extended family uncles, cousins, etc and their friends are their friends from high school. They rarely ever add new people to their social circle. Different ethnicities do not mix at all. I’m not just talking about marriage I’m talking about friendship and general socialisation.
For example in Kosovo I understand the Serbians and Albanians staying seperate and not talking to each other but even all the other ethnic groups keep to themselves. The Albanians only socialise with other Albanians, the Turks (who have been living there hundreds of years) only make friends with other Turks, the Gypsies only make friends with other gypsies, the Bosnians only socialise with other Bosnians. And very few foreigners apart from soldiers, NGO workers, diplomats, etc actually live there. Probably because foreigners would feel very isolated here so they choose not to live there or go back home after a few years. And most Albanian families will disown their daughter if she days sit married a foreigner.
Basically all the same points apply to North Macedonians except the last point. North Macedonians are not so extreme so their parents won’t forbid them to marry a foreigner but in general they still won’t do it because they are worried about being judged by their social circle.