The presence of NATO in Albania and Macedonia, the acceptance and accommodation of refugees are still very vivid topics in peoples’ consciousness.  
In the Republic of Macedonia respondents reply reluctantly to the questions thus expressing their insult towards the international community which has not made any amends for the losses of the country giving shelter to the refugees. Figures have spread among people, which, irrespective whether they correspond to the reality, have turned into a gloomy cliché about the deceived expectations and the failure of the democratic government. The losses from the Kosovo crisis amount to more than $600 million and to this very moment the international organizations have reimbursed $60 million.   

Both Albanians and  Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia are inclined to discuss rather the economic crisis, the consequences of the Kosovo war, and to abuse politicians than to go back to the memory of the tension in the country and the sufferings of the refugees as well as their pains as hosts. Macedonians are facing very painfully the issue of unemployment – now in Macedonia the employed people are 313 400 and the unemployed number 341 500. Of course, the Albanians have been included in these statistical data, but there is no poverty or insecurity among them – they hold the shadowy economy as well as the monopoly family and clan business. By the end of August one of the Albanian leaders in Macedonia made some shocking disclosures about the party of the Albanians that is ruling in coalition with the VMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolution Organization), accusing them of running all the smuggling to Kosovo. There is a special term for smuggling in Macedonia, i.e. “shverts” and “shvertsers” /coming probably from the German word schwarz/. The explanation of the Macedonian journalists is that at present, a redistribution of the shadowy economy has been carried out among the Macedonian Albanians, particularly in view of the newly found opportunities after driving the Serbian rivals away from Kosovo. 

The evidences of the Albanians in Albania are of another nature. Within the much more disastrous condition of the state and the country’s economy, they prefer to speak about their immediate participation in giving shelter to the refugees. All respondents speak with a high emotional level of enthusiasm. The interviewed persons emphasized on the exceptional hospitality of the Albanians when receiving their compatriots from Kosovo. They are proud that they have defended well one of the oldest and most typical Albanian tradition, i.e. the hospitality.  

Media had a great impact during the war and the time of the refugees’ arrival. Reports and announcements on the refugees’ fate and searching separated families have been continuously broadcast. Many people offered parts of their homes to accommodate the refugees. They received relatives but more often quite unknown families were invited. Refugees insisted on living together because of the suffered stress and fear from a possible parting, thus big families of 10-15 persons were often accommodated in one room.  

The local population took care of the refugees in the camps providing them with food, blankets and inviting the refugees to visit them at their homes. 

Actually, through the refugee flow to Albania and Macedonia, the three Albanian communities met unique opportunities for mutual acquaintance and intimacy in some spheres and estrangement in others. 

Albanians in Macedonia referred coolly and tacitly to this issue, they were not willing to discuss their feelings and it was difficult to understand whether they felt any sympathy for the Kosovars during the war: “We gave them shelter because we had to, that’s all”, “We managed, once they are at my home, there is food for all”. They did not say that they relied on the humanitarian organizations.  

People in Albania estimate the support of the international humanitarian organizations. They highly appreciate the fact that medical care was provided free of charge which was used by all, both the refugees and the local Albanians. UNICEF funded the publication of textbooks for the refugee children and at the same time it repaired and renewed the schools and provided the local children with school facilities as well.  

Training classes were organized during the stay of the Kosovo children in Albania. On 6^th June schools broke up for holidays for the Albanian children and on 7^th June training classes started for the Kosovo children. They brought them together on 1^st June alone, i.e., on the Children’s Day to entertain the children in the camps and to give them presents.  

Besides the local teachers, Kosovar teachers from the camps were involved as well. The opinion of the interviewed respondent-teachers is that the Albanian children are more advanced and better educated than the Kosovo children. To the question whether this was not a result of the fact that the Kosovo children had studied in an outlaw school network, probably with an indeterminate training program, the respondents’ answer was that this was only a part of the problem. According to a respondent headmaster, because of the different cultural and historical development, some serious differences in the mentality mainly of the younger generations have accumulated: Albanian children are modern and worldly, while the Kosovar children are patriarchal and religious. The same respondent maintained that when they gathered for friendly dinners and talks with their colleagues-refugees from Kosovo, they used to conclude: “You are much richer, but we are more intelligent and educated”. The Kosovars did not dispute this assertion but they felt some irritation.  

According to the school respondents the aim of the Kosovars was that they had at each school a representative from the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) who, along with his subject – mathematics, chemistry or literature, prepared the children and the adolescents for their return to Kosovo and for their duty to UCK and independent Kosovo. Conversations on this issue were difficult because this kind of political and ideological interference at school reminded the Albanians about the recent past and this definitely embarrassed them. Respondents usually stopped this theme with the conclusion: “There were UCK representatives everywhere in the country as well as in the camps and they did their job”.