Paperjam: Please, introduce yourself.

Feliks Chatykian: My name is Felix. I’m Armenian but was born and raised in Ukraine. I’ve been here in Luxembourg since September 2022 and I’m working as a risk analyst and data protection officer at Snapswap, an e-money institution. I did my studies in Ukraine, got my master’s degree there too. I was also in Spain for two months before moving to Luxembourg: in July 2022, after the war started in February, I moved to Spain. There I worked for two months but then… I had some problems with the Spanish language, so at my workplace they said: “Sorry, your skills are not that good…” so I looked where to go, what to do. I was thinking of going back to Ukraine or to Armenia, but then I was speaking to my uncle and he said he had a friend in Luxembourg who said it was a fine place, no problem if you know English. And I was like: “OK, let’s try it. Why not?” And I bought a ticket, arrived to Luxembourg.

What exactly did your uncle say?

Oh, he didn’t really know anything. The Armenian community is very big and he said, you know, “I have some friends in Luxembourg and France.” And I knew about Luxembourg but not much. I knew that it’s big in things related to economics, finance, all this stuff. I did my studies in economics.

And what were your first impressions of Luxembourg? 

The city I liked, a lot. It was like in the movies. I’d never travelled a lot in Europe, especially in these parts, but when I arrived in the Ville-Haute, the old city, it was very beautiful. And the weather was perfect. Sunny. On that first day I went just for a walk and I met a lot of people of different nationalities. Just randomly I met the Armenian ambassador for Benelux.

What, just on the street?

Yeah, I was just walking, I saw a guy in a suit with an EU flag pin and an Armenia flag pin and I approached him and said: “Hi, I’m also Armenian… how are you?” And it was the ambassador for Armenia in Benelux! We just had a quick talk.

Yeah… it’s a small country! OK, and what about housing and all the administrative stuff of setting up here? How did that go?

When I first arrived… there’s a “social living” program for refugees, for Ukrainians who moved because of the war, and they offered me accommodation. It was co-living, but it was great. You don’t need to pay for that while you’re looking for something else. And for administration, there was a process: you go to the office, you get all the documents to work and live here--because Ukraine isn’t part of the EU so you need a visa--so you go to the ministry of foreign affairs. And I got, in one week, my work permit and everything. So you just go and live in the place they provide you… it was perfect.

From Ukraine, to Spain, to Luxembourg, all pretty suddenly… what was going through your head in those first days?

It was really hard. Not just the first days but the first months… almost for a year. I arrived here and didn’t have a job, anything, just my savings. I registered with Adem. Everyone had said: “You can find a job here, you know English, you’ve got a university degree, some experience.” But one thing is saying it, another thing is what I experienced. It was almost one year that I didn’t have a job. I was sending CVs like a machine. I spent all my days in the national library in Kirchberg, sitting with my laptop… I was thinking: “OK, maybe I need to go back to my family…” but every time I had that thought something appeared, some new job opportunity. But waiting, waiting, waiting, hesitating…

A friend said: “OK, while you’re looking for a job in your field, you can try something else…” so I started working on a construction site, driving the elevator: sitting in an elevator going up and down. I did that one month, a second month. And on the very last day of that job, when my contract was up, I got an another email from Adem. I replied (as always) and they [Snapswap] invited me for an interview. It was the first interview I had, actually. I went there, met my current colleagues… and in three days I went to another interview. And that was it.

I started at Snapswap under a special one-year CIE [employment initiation contract] with Adem as an administrative associate, replacing a colleague who had gone on maternity leave, but the company provided me with training and experience, which allowed me to transition to a risk analyst position. I also became the data protection officer and was offered a permanent contract. So I could see and experience the working culture here in the sense that the company cares about you and gives you opportunities to find yourself. And, yeah: shout-out to Adem and my counsellor there--they were really helpful.

Speaking of work cultures, then, how does Luxembourg compare to Ukraine and Spain?

If we compare it to Spain, it’s more strict: there we had a siesta, as I remember… I didn’t do it but my Spanish colleagues used to go somewhere for two, three hours [laughs]. If we compare it to Ukraine, here in Luxembourg we have more privileges in terms of vacation days and everything. And it’s more flexible here, we can work from home. There we also have that possibility, but here it’s well-structured and organised.

And these aperos, all these afterworks--it was not very common in Ukraine. In Spain we didn’t do that because it was a small company, maybe in big companies they do.

And here you have colleagues from different nationalities and this is something I didn’t see in Ukraine or Spain. Here [at Snapswap] we have almost all sides of the world represented.

Which brings us to languages. How are you faring so far? What do you speak?

I speak, I would say, many languages… but they are not very relevant in Luxembourg! I speak Armenian, Ukrainian, English and Russian, also a little bit of Spanish. Here… it’s just English that I can use. In our company we have French courses, the teacher comes twice a week, we’re trying to learn. With some colleagues we try sometimes to speak French. But it doesn’t go well! [laughs]. The environment in Luxembourg doesn’t push you hard to speak. When I was in Spain for just two months I needed to speak Spanish--but here you try French, you see that people don’t understand, you just switch to English. So that’s fine, but it’s a bit easy to stay in your comfort zone.

But my goal is to speak at least a little bit of French. And of course I want also to learn Luxembourgish. There’s a group of people--not in my workplace but that I know in the city--I met some people who speak Luxembourgish--so just to have access to that community. And of course to receive citizenship in the future.

It sounds like you’ve managed to integrate a bit outside of work, then?

I like sports. I’ve tried some different sports here. That’s where I met my friends. I go swimming at the Cocque, very nice pool there. Also on Sundays we play football, there’s a pitch at the International School of Luxembourg, you can go there and play with whomever you want. Also martial arts, where you meet different people: you can be sparring with someone and then, you know, it’s somebody from the finance sector, who has kids--it’s interesting. In my gym I met an Armenian guy from the same city where I’m from, originally, so now we’re friends.

All right, last question… how’s the food here?

First of all, it’s expensive [laughs]. I don’t always find the food I like… I miss Ukrainian and Armenian food. But you can try all the cuisines of the world. And I know a very nice Luxembourgish restaurant in Cents: Beim Zeutzius. We went there once with the company, I had the jarret de porc… that was nice. And with a beer--they produce it there too. I went back a few times after that.