Ilira Mucaj, a young Albanian spirit in Canada

 Ilira Mucaj, a young Albanian spirit in Canada

 Ilira Mucaj is a 21-year-old girl born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, with two immigrant parents from Albania, her father Ferdinand Mucaj from Mallakastra, and her mother Miranda Gumeni from Tepelena, and she speaks fluent Albanian, English, and French.

Despite being born and raised far from her homeland and having visited Albania only four times, her parents have instilled in her a love for Albanian culture and its preservation.

Ilira also dedicates herself fluently to the Albanian language, participating in the Albanian school in Ottawa, Diaspora Shqiptare reports.

She recently graduated from the University of Ottawa, where she earned an Honours Bachelor's degree in Political Science in French, receiving the distinction of Magna Cum Laude. Today, Ilira, who works as a campaign consultant at a political consulting firm, has also become part of the staff of the Embassy of the Republic of Albania since June 2022. She contributes to the passport and ID application office, the consular sector, and is happy to meet and assist many fellow Albanians living in Canada. Her engagement with the Embassy of Albania has allowed Ilira to gain fulfilling experience by helping organize and participate in solemn ceremonies, including raising the national flag at the Ontario Legislative Assembly and the City of Ottawa, where she also served as a moderator. Ilira emphasizes her gratitude for the professional development provided by the Ambassador of the Republic of Albania, Ermal Muça, as well as his role in strengthening her connection to her Albanian heritage. At the age of 16, Ilira became an intern for Member of Parliament David Yurdiga, whom she later served as a Parliamentary Assistant until the end of his term in 2021. Since then, she has worked as a research coordinator for a political consulting firm and has also been employed as an assistant for Carol Clemenhagen's municipal campaign in 2019 and 2021. Her work in recent years with the political consulting firm has allowed her to work with various politicians from different parties and at all levels of municipal, provincial, and federal governments for political research. In addition to her academic and employment experience, she currently serves as Vice President of the Refugee Support Association at the University of Ottawa, an organization she co-founded with others in 2020 to support the flow of refugees to Canada and provide them with resources and assistance. Through this initiative, Ilira and her team have organized annual events such as Women's Day panels, consisting of refugee lawyers, immigration experts, and representatives of non-profit organizations who have helped shed light on refugee struggles and raise awareness of their needs.

The challenges her parents faced when immigrating to Canada in 2001 make her sensitive to the struggles all immigrants face and further motivate her to continue working in this field. When her mother immigrated to Canada, her father was only able to join his family in 2005, so Ilira met her father when she was just 4 years old. During these four extremely difficult years, Ilira's father consistently sent Albanian textbooks in an effort to preserve their Albanian culture, despite the distance. Ilira visited Albania for the first time at the age of 10 and explains that this was due to the fact that during those 10 years, her mother did not have the papers and could not see her family for a decade. Ilira emphasizes that this is a struggle many Albanians face due to the Canadian immigration system, and it is something that has driven her to pursue justice, as she believes that immigrants are the ones who support Canada's economic and cultural wealth and therefore deserve the right to faster decision-making processes and should not be unjustly separated from their loved ones. She emphasizes the need and importance for the young generations living in the diaspora to stay united and to intermingle with the culture through music, reading, television, and learning Albanian history so that the Albanian language and culture are not forgotten.