SU_T_30

[i] Hello Mr [name], could you please introduce yourself?
[r] Thank you, I will introduce myself, my name is [name]. I am 26 years old and come from Conakry, Guinea. I arrived in Italy 3 years ago. I travel to many cities in Italy. We will talk about the things I did first in Italy. I’d like to start again with the journey, the trip. How I finally arrived in Italy. I left Guinea on 1 January 2016, to come directly to Senegal. Where I stayed for about a week. The idea of coming to Italy came when I arrived in Morocco. When I left Guinea, I had no idea I would come to Europe. I had no intention of going the illegal route. I left with a passport. I finished my studies, I tried to change location a little. To improve life a little, to have a little experience of African submissive life. The idea came to me, I left on 1 January. When I arrived in Senegal, I saw the difference between Guinea and Senegal straight away. I didn’t like it, I didn’t have any direct contacts. I hit the road and continued on to Mauritania. It was a bit… seeing as life wasn’t the same… the relationships weren’t there. There were no contacts, there was no support. I kept going, I didn’t stay, I came to Morocco. So once in Morocco, I met lots of other Guineans who had come from other regions of Morocco. We formed a group, the Abbé, who were all there for one purpose. The objective was to return to Spain. So I was with a friend who told me a little about things. That it wasn’t easy to live in Morocco, that there was no work. So I said to myself, finally, I’m going to try something else that I hadn’t thought of at the beginning. So we tried our luck in a region of Algeria. We stayed for about three months because we didn’t have enough money. We had to work, we had to prepare, we had to contact the people who were doing the trafficking. And finally, we arrived in Libya and went to Italy. After ten months of coming and going. It wasn’t easy, I can tell you it wasn’t easy, it was really difficult. We’re here by chance, it was really a stroke of luck on our part. There were a lot of people who didn’t make the trip. Others stayed in Libya, others lost their lives, others went back home. And so here we are, they came back here again. We are all still in the integration process. Because it’s been going on like this for the third year now. I can say that Italy was not my destination, it was not a country of my dreams. I didn’t know the Italian language, I didn’t know the people of Italy, the culture, nothing at all, the history. My dream was to come to Switzerland or to go to French-speaking countries where they spoke a language I could understand. So when I arrived, I didn’t have the chance to go to Sicily. I was dropped off directly in Cagliari, which is an island in Sardinia, an island in Italy. I couldn’t travel there because I wasn’t legal, I didn’t have the right documents to travel to France or Switzerland, for example. So I stayed there straight away. I said to myself, ‘I’m here now, I need to set myself a goal.’ What was the objective? To understand the language. I set myself this objective straight away. I set off through the project, I started studying the Italian language straight away. The procedure again, the procedure for documents, everything to do with the administration for doing training courses. That too, it was straight to the point. And after two or three months, four months like that, we went straight to the commission. Luckily, we got our team, because we were already a bit ahead of the Italian language. We also did things, volunteer work in the municipalities, to help them with the archives. They saw that we were really on the road. And straight away, they gave us documents that have now enabled us to find a job, to travel, to do a bit of everything everywhere. Once we had the documents, I decided straight away to leave the island. Because I was curious to discover a bit of Europe. Since I was on the island, I thought to myself, I’ll just go to the centre of Italy. I decided to leave Italy, and went straight to the centre of Italy, where I stayed for a while, in a small village. I thought to myself that, well, so far I hadn’t found what I was looking for. Because I really like cities that are very mixed, where there are all kinds of cultures and origins. And then I decided to leave for Italy. I ended up in Switzerland because I have an older brother there. So I went to join him, where I stayed for a year. I didn’t have any communication problems because he speaks French, I was in the French-speaking area. And then I stayed for a year on the Italy project that I was working on for the company, for the houses, for everything. And the contract was already finished, so I couldn’t stay because I didn’t have a job. Given the situation, I escaped, if you can call it that. And after that, I got to know some organisations. All the time that I was doing one year in Switzerland, I didn’t sit around. I looked for every door, I knocked on every door, because I realised that I didn’t have a passport that would allow me to sign an employment contract or enrol in a Swiss university. I sought out all possible connections, and luckily I got to know an association based in Geneva. It’s called International Social Service, and it looks after children aged 18 to 30, just like that, to support them. If, for example, you go to Switzerland for the integration process, and they refuse you, they do not consider the asylum application, to end up in the country, and they say the Dublin. With them, we prepared my return to Italy, they told me to choose a city that I would like to stay in, and then I chose Turin, directly. After 5 months of procedures, with the help of this organisation, they contacted Diakonia Valdez, and then they organised my return. I came back about 9 months ago now, it’s the second month of the current period, almost a year. I can say that I’m not totally well now, but a lot of things have improved. Since my return here, I’ve done quite a lot. I went on professional training courses in communication, in video editing techniques, which I really liked, and which I did in my home country before coming here. Then I went to the integration school, which they call C.I.P.I.A. here. I’ve already finished that, I got the integration diploma, and now I’m doing a year of volunteering with children, and I like it. I can say that if I had known about projects like this before, I would have been much further ahead.
[i] By the way, I wanted to go back a bit. Since you come from Guinea, I would have imagined that you had a family, I hope. How was your childhood, how did you manage to get to university, to do I don’t know what at university. I would like you to go back a bit and tell me about that.
[r] OK, and I am, as you may know, I come from Fouta, I am a bit of Fouta. I was born in the priest’s house, and at the age of 8 I was taken to the village to study at the Koranic school first. I stayed at the same time as I was studying at the Koranic school, I was still doing primary school. I stayed in the village for 6 years, the time it took me to do the Koranic school and primary school. When I got the certificate to enter the 7th year, I was immediately transferred to the abbot. Where I did middle school, high school, and then when I got my baccalaureate I went to Conakry to go to university. I lived with my mother, I have my mum and I have two older brothers and two younger brothers. And I have my dad, who all live there in L’Abbé. At university, I went to the University of Kountia, I don’t know if you know it. The Higher School of Journalism of Guinea. I did it for 4 years, I worked a little with international NGOs like the Girondelle Foundation. An NGO based in Guinea to train young journalists who frequently leave university and work in the private or public media, in newspapers, and who are not yet able to deal with information about elections. We went to the universities to give people some guidance on the angles they take when there are elections because passers-by don’t know that in Guinea, election problems and problems with electoral posts always have somewhat negative consequences. In 2014, when Guinea was hit by the Ebola epidemic that caused many deaths, I managed to volunteer with the Red Cross, to organise awareness-raising sessions for young people on how to avoid the disease and how to behave during the epidemic. And then, afterwards, I worked with 1500 Frontières for a period of 6 months which ended in 2015, at the end of 2015. And in 2016, I left the country.
[i] Now, can you tell me what your goals in life are? Do you have any childhood dreams that you want to fulfil now?
[r] Well, I can say that some of my dreams have already come true and I’m on the way to doing other things because that’s how human beings are. At any given moment, when you’re moving from one stage to another, your dreams grow every day. When I was a child, my dream was to become a journalist, to work in radio, for everyone to see me, to hear me. I already have my journalism diploma, I have worked, even if I don’t currently do it, but it’s something that is close to my heart. I’m currently thinking about it because, given the current immigration situation in Europe, it’s something that is not… that is a problem at the level of the European continent. Many people have immigrated to Europe and we who are here have already realised that even Europe is in crisis. We all have problems integrating, starting families and realising some of our dreams. That’s why my goal right now is to study. I’m trying to figure out how to go back to school and get a master’s degree. And then do an internship. I plan to set up a small project and go back to serving my country.
[i] Do you have anything else to tell me? Maybe I forgot to ask you.
[r] I can say that, well, we’ve already said a lot to each other, but I don’t remember everything we’ve said here. Except that there is one thing that I would like to remind everyone who is here, the people who have left, for example, Guinea, Senegal, all those who are in Europe, is to take courage. Europe is not easy. They need to tighten their belts even more than they did on the journey. The journey was not easy. So I know a lot of people here who arrived here and ended up in the campos, who don’t take advantage of the training opportunities. Because we know that those of us who came here, some of us did a bit of studying, others went to secondary school, some to university. They don’t have enough experience and others don’t even have a small trade to get a small job. So, while they’re here and involved in the projects, they should take advantage of the opportunity to train, to go to integration schools and then look for acquaintances and small projects. And always to stay on their feet and succeed in life. That’s all I can say to everyone.
[i] Thank you very much for answering our questions.
[r] Thank you.