SU_T_29

[i] Good evening, [name] !

[r] Good evening.

[i] Would you like to introduce yourself please?

[r] Yes my name [name] , I was born on 12/04/1994, I have Guinean nationality, I was born in Conakry in the capital Guinean, I am 25 years old, I live in Italy .

[i] During your inactivity did you have the good fortune to go to school ?

[r] Yes, my father wanted me to become an intellectual, but I didn’t like school, I didn’t want to continue my studies.

[i] Can you please tell me your schooling history or did you do nothing at school?

[r] Yes I did about 9 years of school then I decided to do something else, because I thought that the first in class is not always the first in life for this I left school, then I started the work that my father did.

[i] what work you did, because you chose this job,

[r] My father was a freight forwarder (in port), my father decided when I left school to make me be a truck driver at the port of Conakry

[i] This job as you learned it

[r] I learned it through a friend of my father’s, to whom my father entrusted me he taught me this job so as not to stay in the neighborhood to do delinquency

[i] Did you learn this job in a school or did you learn it from that gentleman?

[r] No, it was almost a school but not like the schools in Europe, it was a school in Africa.

[i] Has this insanity lasted long?

[r] It lasted one year and eight months.

[i] In a year and eight months have you learned how to drive an articulated car?

[r] Yes, I was driving a 14-wheeler, the PPM the one that embarks and disembarks containers in the capital Guinean more precisely at the port of Conakry.

[i] Have you done this job for how long?

[r] the learning lasted a year and eight months, after I worked alone for a year then they closed the business at the port to combine the company, there were no more jobs for us, so I left my country . since there was nothing to do, I had lost my job, I went away

[i] What year did you make this exile decision?

[r] If I remember correctly, I decided in 2012

[i] In 2012 you decided to go where ?

[r] I went to Ivory Coast

[i] In Ivory Coast, did you go to your family or to work?

[r] When I lost my job in Conakry I was with another family in Ivory Coast, I went to see how I would be there.

[i] Did this adventure in Ivory Coast last for how long?

[r] This lasted until July 2016.

[i] What have you been doing for four years, working or not doing anything?

[r] yes! I worked, I did a little business with the brother of my pardre (uncle)

[i] In 2016 you changed jobs to do what?

[r] When I got there (Ivory Coast) the job that I had learned in my country I had no opportunity to continue it, so I decided to do business to be able to live.

[i] And how was it until 2016?

[r] It wasn’t easy but you had to take care of it, you know when you come from a poor family you have to take care of it.

[i] Is it after you abandoned this small business that you still decided to flee from Ivory Coast?

[r] Yes, after this job I decided to do something else, a decision that was not easy. from the Ivory Coast I went to Niger, then to Algeria, from Algeria I went to Libya, then from there I arrived in Italy. currently I live here in Turin

[i] In what year did you arrive here in Italy?

[r] I arrived in Italy in February 2017

[i] when you arrived in Italy as you did because you didn’t have a family here, you didn’t have friends like you did?

[r] I didn’t arrive directly to the north, I arrived in Sicily then from there they sent me to Turin. I was welcomed by the Italian Red Cross, then the Red Cross of Settimo (Turin) sent us to the facilities I was in a reception center, where I stayed for a while, then from there they sent me to another center. Because currently they have closed so many reception centers I go back a bit, because when I arrived, after two months of rest, the time to make fingerprints, the procedures for documents, explain my story, they put me in an Italian school to learn the language I was at school I learned the language, I took the certificate of the third grade, because it’s called that in Italian. then the reception centre where I was sent to do another training asked me what job I wanted to learn I chose the kitchen, they put me in this school I did 6 months of training, then they sent me to do an internship. I live here in Turin but I went to Genoa to do the internship for 6 months, then I returned to Turin and I’m doing it until now, I continue, I can stand up as it should be

[i] throughout this journey: the work you did in your country (Guinea), the Ivory Coast, you did anything else? You arrived in Italy, why didn’t you continue the job you were already doing in your country? Because of lack of possibilities or because you didn’t have a choice?

[r] I can say for lack of choice, and still of relationship. because you know from Africa I arrived in a country whose language I did not understand is not easy, I did not know what are the procedures, the problems of the documents, if you do not have documents you can not do some things and for what I did not do quickly, for the future I hope I can continue to do the job I did to my country

[i] Do you have any plans to start the work you were already doing in your own country?

[r] I actually have projects for this, now I’m trying to get some information to get the license of this kind but for now I have the procedure of the documents I’m waiting for, and if God gives me the result I hope, I will be able to make my projects.

[i] The fact that you lived in three countries what difference did you notice, between Guinea, Ivory Coast and Italy. Do you have a difference to explain to me?

[r] Maybe I have so many differences to explain, because I have lived so many things, I have had so many more experiences from life and so many things, I have learned so much culture, then I have learned so many things ancara .

[i] the [name] who lived in Guinea and the one who lived in Ivory Coast, who will be the [name] who will live tomorrow or after tomorrow? Do you imagine in what situation, what project for the future?

[r] you know that all people must think positive, nobody wishes themselves to have negative thoughts, I always think in the best way at the moment I thank God, I feel pretty good, I’m in Turin, only that the situation (in general) is not so good when you’re in a country where the cultara is totally different is not very easy, but we always try to adapt, I hope the best for the future

What are the difficulties and advantages that you have encountered during this trip from Africa to Europe? Because it is not the halftone culture, I can understand that the culture of Guinea may look a little like that of the Ivory Coast with which it borders but that of Africa is very different from that of Europe, what are the advantages and disadvantages that you have encountered?

[r] the difficulties I have encountered I leave them alone because they have already passed, because we can not tell everything we have experienced the difficult situations, but hopefully for the future.

[i] I’ll ask you a question if you want to answer it if you don’t, it doesn’t matter. Have you experienced racism here in Italy since you arrived?

[r] actually yes, for example when I went to work in Genoa, a group of old people entered where I worked saw that I was the only black guy who worked with Italians, and that I made pizzas for customers, it was a Saturday, There were so many people, a gentleman said since a black guy inside a pizzeria ? I took it as a joke, I actually said with immigration there are positive and negative things, and I’m among the positive things

[i] and did this hurt you or did it not hurt you?

[r] Yes, it hurt a little, but I didn’t think about it that much. In life everything is possible. one day, vice versa, we’ll see a white man doing something in Africa that we wouldn’t expect.

[i] Do you have a message to give to those who suffer from racism, and to those who do it ?

[r] I would say to those who do it, who have not had the good fortune to discover the world with all its diversity discover other cultures, I think it is ignorance that makes him do so. For those who suffer the racism of not considering these things, of always thinking positively because people who think small won’t go so far. this is my thought before it hurt me but now it doesn’t do me anything, I’m already used to it, it doesn’t do me anything anymore.

[i] Can you tell me a little bit about your country, please? if you think of it.

[r] a little bit about my country says, “whoever seeks finds, and whoever says goodbye to his parents will face many things in life”?

[i] [name] , it’s been a pleasure responding to our questions,

[[r] All the pleasure is for me, I thank you and thank you to all those who have listened to us, and those quarderano this video.

[i] thank you very much

[r] thanks to you.