SU_T_24

[i] Good evening.

[r] Good evening.

[i] Could you please introduce yourself?

[r] Yes, my name [name] I’m Malaysian I’m 21 years old

[i] What were you doing in Mali?

[r] In Mali I was studying but in the second cycle I had to leave school and it was a bit hard. The studies did not go on because my family did not have the means to pay and make me go on with studies for that I abandoned the studies from the second cycle to the ninth.

[i] Do I want you to tell us about your childhood in what city of Mali were you born?

[r] I am from kayes but I was born in Bamako in Kalambaka my village is called Bangas is 100 kilometers from Bamako from Kayes I was born in Bamako and grew up there with my family

[i] So you have the whole family your daddy your mommy are alive?

[r] I still have my mom but my dad died unfortunately I grew up with my mom

[i] Are you only two in the family?

[r] We are in 5 including my father’s aunt and her 3 children

[i] So after school when you were in Mali, what else did you do for a living or do for a living?

[r] You know that football is the dream of all young Africans and the world I used to play football with friends and then I also did business with my father during the winter season I leave for the village to grow with my uncle and the rest of the family there if as there are no schools then if you go to the village

[i] How long did this activity last?

[r] Almost all my childhood almost for 10 or 11 years I did this when I grew up a bit I started to refuse to go to the village because it started to interest me in the trade

[i] Why did you prefer commerce over further education?

[r] No, I have not loved trade more than studies but studies at a certain level if you do not have the means to pay school fees it becomes difficult to go to school see that you are always the first assault of the school there will become hard for you and your parents because if the parents do not pay there is public school that all the time is on strike even today public schools are always on strike the authorities are not interested in studies so their children study abroad of the country instead we children of poor farmers who are there suffer greatly to study is not easy, in private schools if you can study but only when you pay the expenses if you can’t pay them stay without school you don’t go to school so you have to do something if you don’t become criminal I didn’t want this for that I did business with my father and his friends

[i] How long have you been doing this business?

[r] When I started to know my coat of arms well I did this for 13 or 15 years because I did not do great things I was taking care of the till

[i] And did you do this business until you were old?

[r] So I was born in 1994 at the end of 94 then I did this since 2006 from my childhood being there, from 2008 to 2009 I started this until 2012

[i] After 2012 what did you do when you left the trade? Why did you leave the trade?

[r] I have not left the trade but the trade had failure for that was forced to abandon Bamako and move his trade to other parts of Mali began this in 2010 because he was in trouble for that was forced to go with his trade to other areas of Mali he traveled all the time to Ségou then from that time he was in bankruptcy in 2012 we had nothing to sell for that I left it alone, so I stayed with nothing to do I traveled with him, often I went with him to Ségou and for this reason I very much like it.

[i] When did you leave Mali?

[r] I left Mali in 2013 after the coup d’état and all that happened there was in 2013 that I left the country

[i] And when you left Mali, what did you do and where did you go? [

[r] When I left Mali I went to Nigeria we didn’t make choices we do what we find to survive to survive honestly so as not to steal or become criminals we did jobs to earn a living I did as well as all the people who passed through there

[i] When you say you did jobs that made you earn what jobs do you mean what jobs did you do?

[r] I worked as a mason I also did the gardener in the gardens of dates we collect them and put them in bags we put them in cars and bring them to our head we did all these jobs there

[i] What year did you do this?

[r] From 2013 until 2015 2016 more less because I was in Algeria towards the end of 2015 to go to Libya

[i] And when you got to Libya, you stayed there?

[r] I stayed there a little because I arrived almost in 2016 and left in 2017 so almost a year

[i] What did you do in Libya?

[r] We used to work often when there is no mess, otherwise we don’t work.

[i] When did you get here in Italy?

[r] I arrived here in 2017 in June 2017 I arrived here in Palermo

[i] When you got here, did you get to Palermo?

[r] Yes, in June 2017 we arrived in Palermo and then they transferred us from Palermo to Turin from that moment I live in Turin until today.

[i] And when you arrived here in Turin, how were your first days of stay?

[r] It wasn’t easy because we were new here we didn’t have any relatives or friends, so you have to try to make new friends you have to force yourself to get used to the new culture that is the Italian culture you have to adapt as soon as possible with people to understand them especially when you are new in a country where you don’t understand and don’t speak their language this is a bit difficult the thing that was difficult for me is the language

[i] Did you manage to fix this problem?

[r] Yes, of course, because they gave me the immediate opportunity to go to school the thing I liked and learning the language I started to quickly understand people and how is the culture here and how is society then with the school I learned many things, and now I thank God because I am integrated although I still have a lot to learn but still is better than before

[i] What do you do now? Study or work?

[r] Not, no work I’m studying to learn the language and being able to express myself in Italian is very interesting for me because when you’re in a foreign country the first thing you need to know is the language to understand what people tell you so you can walk around quietly you can interact with people to make new friends so when one day you’ll have a job will be easy but when you do not know the language and go to work will be difficult to interact with the boss of work for that I would like to continue studying and then we see the work I want to work we all have to work because if not alvori steal and I do not want to steal but work honestly live honestly is the right thing and I want to live like this

[i] How are you in Italy?

[r] I feel good because the thing that I missed in my country here and free is to go to school to learn the language understanding how the world works I did not have this luck in my country but had it here for free and for this I am grateful I would like to take advantage of the opportunity to do something in it Can you tell me what your goals are in life? What do you dream of doing in life? You study today, what do you want to do tomorrow?

[r] I would like to do business that I loved so much but my dream I dreamed big I would like the usual African system if I can say so to change that the system of government changes and that the leaders open their eyes and see how the world works because with the demagogue system as if it can say democracies but it is not democracy but the demagogue that has tired us African youth when you see here in Italy is full of young Africans who must be at school to study to do something for the country instead they are all there because they do not know where is luck, the authorities have closed the doors and have opened the big door only to their children to go to study abroad and if they are screwed by others have manipulated us if we can say so, to earn what they want we have lied then dream of changing this and that each of us has nothing to do for Africa since all the world has developed except Africa because then they say that Africa is the richest continent in the world Africa is poor until today so we need changes I would like to know what message you could give to the Italian population who offered you what you missed in your country?

[r] Before this I thanked the Italian people who saved me from the sea have welcomed us well here but this remains little thing because they made us pass through a country without documents and guarantees we want to give us work documents and also one thing and that we are here and we are citizens were kind to us and we cooperate together and that the authorities also facilitate things we need documents and work is what we lack

[i] Do you have any messages to send to people who come here and do nothing?

[r] People who come here and do nothing …. I hope that all people who come here have goals may be that the goals are different but we can not live without doing nothing we can not live without a good knowledge who does not work will become criminal we move away from crime we want to be fair if you want to be fair you have to let yourself help this you want to help to turn into good to have a good goal ahead you this will help the whole world

[i] Can you tell me something I forgot to ask you?

[r] I don’t have much to say because the problems we have here everybody knows things are becoming difficult for immigrants in Italy also because this moment is hard but the message I want to say is addressed to African youth young people who come from Africa I would like to tell them that we are young and we are aware and we can bring development to the country who loves Africa can bring peace in Africa so it’s up to us to do this otherwise there is no one who goes to do it to ours place we see now when we speak of these things the French know the actuality in the world and those who have manipulated us 14 African countries for centuries and say that Africa is independent then this is ahead of the other country then independence does not control your economy so there is no independence then the youth must understand this that Africa can take its strength and that it can go on is this the message that I want to give be united as if it should and that God bless us

[i] Thanks for answering my questions.

[r] Thank you so much.