Country of origin: egypt
Year of settlement: 2003
Age on arrival: 9
City: turin
Gender: female
Language of the interview: Italian
[i] I would ask you to introduce yourself, to tell me your story, the story of your family?
[r] Hello! My name [name] I’m 23 years old, I’m a master of architecture, I’m of Egyptian origin and I’ve been in Italy for many years since I was 9 years old in total, I lost count, I moved with my sister because we had a problem, we moved here in Italy, because of health issues and then we decided to continue staying here because we felt good. I have two sisters and a brother, smaller and I am the oldest.
[i] And where did you come from in Egypt, where did you live the first 9 years of your life?
[r] Then the first 9 years I lived in Cairo, capital of Egypt, I have some memories but a bit vague because in the end I lived my adolescence here in Italy where I started to understand many things, so I have some vague memories of my family, grandparents I have it, but I lived more here than there.
[i] What do you remember when you came here that you were almost a child when you arrived in Italy, the school and your classmates as it is, you felt different or pure… ?
[r] The first year was really tiring for me,
[i] Was that what school year?
[r] I arrived here in fifth grade, and it was tiring because I was good in Egypt I was good at school, I understood the others I had friendships, I arrived here I didn’t know anyone when I arrived there were few Egyptians in Turin, and so I had no relative no family, I didn’t even have friends, only my father my mother and moreover I didn’t even know how to speak that I found myself in front of arriving here in Italy, so, even if there were other communities at school, other children from other communities anyway were not Arabic. I couldn’t communicate with them, then my teachers were really very good, because they helped me in every way in fact finishing fifth grade I already knew how to speak Italian and I also had a good relationship with my Italian teacher, and from there I started to feel good in Italy, because I am now integrated and I knew how to speak, and I could have friends, and my parents tried in every way to leave me as much time as possible with the people who speak Italian, so I went to school a lot the oratory we attended for many years, even the states because I for 6 years I did not go back down to Egypt, a bit ‘for problems with documents, my mother remained pregnant and other things so it was really impossible to go back there, and then I attended the states girls like all children, and from there I was more than well integrated.
[i] Where did you go to school in what neighborhoods?
[r] So we moved a little too much to Turin, in the first year I did it in Corso Marconi, in the San Salvario area, and then we moved to Corsica France, I did two years of secondary school in the Bernini area, in Corso Francia, and then we moved to Corso Regina Margherita there too, I did one year of secondary school, and then I went to high school, but I still lived in Corso Regina Margherita, and then we recently moved to the area of Corso Giulio.
[i] What is it that changes in these areas with respect to your experience, where have you been better where have you been worse?
[r] No, in all the neighborhoods however I was fine, I have a preference in the sense that Corso Regina is much more halfway to ………so I liked to stay in a quieter area, I lived only a year in the San Salvario area, but I was still a little girl, I can’t tell if I felt good or bad, but I remember that there was an Egyptian community there in that area instead in Corso Regina not in the Corso Francia area at the time there were still no people, and where I live now either, few people anyway who are Egyptians, if we go to see the Egyptian community, but at the level of school neighbors did not, I got along well in everything, I had no problems.
[i] When your parents came to Italy, did they manage to do what they did before?
[r] No, this was a problem for them my parents didn’t manage to get what they had before in Egypt, in the sense that they are both graduates and my father in particular in law and here it was impossible to be a lawyer, a bit for the language because anyway a lawyer aims at everyone a play on words, so if you don’t understand a language well if you can’t speak well and useless to be a lawyer, plus the degree just don’t recognize it in Italy, so not even my mother of course, so here they came, they started to study a little but they didn’t reach the eighth grade, while in Egypt they both graduated, so it was a little bit, I wouldn’t call it trauma but more or less in the sense it was a problem for them, my father opened a restaurant and pizzeria my mother did other cooking classes, then my father decided to go back down to work as a lawyer, because here he hadn’t managed to do what he did for so many years
[i] So he’s going a little further back. Commuting from Cairo?
[r] Exactly Cairo Turin, he stays there a little then he comes to visit us, even if we go to visit him at least I do that he likes it here instead it’s just us, he saw that for us it’s better to stay here, because we got used to stay here in Turin, in short we grew up here
[i] Yes, you also have brothers who were born in Italy, don’t you?
[r] I have an 8 year old sister the youngest was born in Italy, but the one born before her arrived here was 3 years old in the end yes, she wasn’t born here but almost and my brother arrived here in third grade, in the end we lived here more time more memories here we have something but not as much as what we experienced at the end our friendships our rounds are here are here are not there.
Do you all have Italian citizenship?
[r] No, not even the youngest of us who was born here, because according to Italian law, if a child was born here when he was 18 years old, then he has citizenship, but for us we can’t have it, we can have it once we work in Italy for at least 3 years with a certain high income or if my father has a high income and since we don’t have any of the requirements because I’m still going to university and my father doesn’t have an income that is enough for 6 people we haven’t managed to have citizenship.
[i] And that’s what’s bothering you?
[r] Yes, let’s say, in the sense that I’m studying, I understood what kind of writing to the register I have to be of Italian origin, or at least have Italian citizenship, and this then once I do the state exam started to cause problems, but like when I leave from another country many countries I have to have a visa if I’m not an Italian citizen even there a little ‘is something that bothers me, yes egyptian i’m proud happy i’m also italian i’m proud happy but i need at least when i move from one country to another ah you’re egyptian so don’t do this if you don’t have citizenship, so it creates some problems for me even on the move, if i’m outside of europe, outside of europe obviously my passport is enough in europe
[i] Would you like to stay and live in Turin, a city that you feel as your home, like a towel, as you imagine in the future, also with regard to the theme of immigration?
[r] So if I have to talk about Turin as soon as it arrived Turin was much quieter than now, now it’s a little more crowded there are many communities that once did not exist, and as I imagine it honestly I do not know, but yes to my home I feel good if I go from another country I feel the nostalgia to return to Turin but if I have to talk from the point of view of work once I finish my masterful I have to find work, I do not know if in Turin I will be able to find work, so it is one of many things pushes me to go to another clear place where to find work.
[i] So a clear place not Egypt?
[r] Even Egypt there are problems, so I do not think that I will find a job there always remains my country here I go to visit my family, my family members, my relatives here remains a country where I studied, where I had my friends, and I have created a family here, instead another country I will find a job if I can not find here, if it is not Turin is not Italy in my opinion yes I would move to another country,
[i] Is this thing nice to give the impression of mobility however it helps to develop also as people is not only obligatory or anyway forced also personal inspiration not of evolution of change?
[r] In my opinion yes, the more you move the more you go to other countries but even if you don’t go to live there but just go on holiday seeing the places people make you change so many things of your personality makes you understand so many things that maybe being in yours you could not understand so yes in my opinion.
[i] It also puts you in question a little bit… ?
[r] Yes, even getting into the shoes of others, because a person from a certain country behaves like that.
[i] Do you have an example? What happened to you?
[r] There are many, every day in my university I speak of the Polytechnic of Turin there are many communities, there are Chinese, tougher than Pakistani, even Egyptians, Moroccans we really talk about many French nationalities everything, and then understand the customs but simply even New Year’s Eve is not for everyone, here in Italy for us Muslims is another New Year’s Eve, the Chinese a third New Year’s Eve at different times, already here is a beautiful thing, so you can understand that there are other holidays, there is not only a Christmas like we in Egypt have the Copts who have a Christmas that falls at the time totally different from that Christmas Italian, or European, and the Chinese have another thing, so yes begins to understand the customs, even the way of thinking of people, because it does not, this does something else, so in my opinion yes.
[i] Then you also have the vehicle of Arabic anyway that you can use, with whom do you speak Arabic ?
[r] So I speak Arabic with my parents because it’s a rule at home, where you only speak Arabic, at least so we don’t lose it, outside the house, so my parents know that I speak 24/24 hours so much the university work with my friends we speak Italian, so they said at least keep a little ‘our Arabic understand it read and talk, even for my younger sister so that she was born here, went once, at least when she grows up, understands what we say at home, we do not seem strange people.
[i] Let this heritage be carried with you. But with other communities, I imagine that the Arabic spoken in Egypt is nothing but transversal?
[r] That’s right.
[i] So explain it to me a little?
[r] Then Arabic is the Arabic of all Arabic countries, but each country has its own different dialect so, if we are in Morocco or I am half of the Moroccan or Tunisian people we are already beginning to lose the words, like half of the Moroccan people I don’t understand anything at all. The words are totally different, but maybe if they are half of the Tunisian or Lebanese people I already start to understand more, but still it’s not very bad for the Egyptian so the dialects are different yes, but we understand each other, even with my Egyptian friends who were born here or have lived here for many years, we speak the mix. we begin to use the words in Arabic, the words in Italian, and our dialect, so it is very different. figured with Moroccans, Italian is not even spoken in Arabic.
[i] Okay [name] thank you very much.
[r] Sure, thanks to you