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FULL INTERVIEW

Jovi, 30
from Lithuania
to UK... for now!

You already read something about Jovis’ story. She was one of the first participants that wanted to share her story with us. She was so thrilled that she wanted to do a Full Interview with us, having the opportunity to explain her point of view on her migration story, not always understood by her peers and family.

 

Jovi was born in Mazeikiai, a small city in North Lithuania, in 1984, still under a communist regime. Born in a very traditionalist and conservative family of 4 children, being the only girl, she never used to travel, except to youth camps in Lithuania, mostly because of her family economic situation.

 

The communist regime ended in 1990, but she still remembers some things, like the lack of products in the shops, the long queues when products arrived, people going to Russia to buy some clothes, “however, I remember there was no poverty seen in the villages. Everyone had a job, food was never wasted since only what we needed was produced.” And the fact that national television was in Russian language was a good thing for her: “that's how I have learnt Russian language from a very little age, as I used to watch all Russian picture movies and ask my parents to translate”.

So the regime was not just bad things, according to Jovi´s point of view: “there was a sense of community, equality… though we couldn't raise our voice against the regime or claim our rights, but life was given very equally to everyone and you wouldn't feel that poor. Everyone at school was wearing uniform and you couldn't tell who was poor… there was a lot of respect for teachers.”

People didn’t try to emigrate, at least not like after or during Second World War, when some Lithuanian people were chased by the Russian army, being forced to escape to other countries. Despite that, none of her ancestors has migrant origins, “only my great grandfather was in Siberia for 10 years due to some "crime", which was owning the land given by tsar after the First World War.”

And Jovi hadn’t ever thought about emigrating either “I had never thought! I loved my country and I was used to all the social, cultural context... though I always felt like a black sheep: as I was always too loud, expressive, chatty, unpunctual - which was very different from what fitted into Lithuanian social norms”, “So, I am the only girl in the family… and the craziest one!” she said laughing.

It was when at 19 years old that she went to do Erasmus in Denmark during her second year of University. “Suddenly I saw this announcement about the Erasmus opportunities. I didn't know what it was all about but still went for the interview… and that's it: I was accepted.” By that time, Lithuania was about to enter the EU and was receiving more support to participate in these programs.

 

In Denmark she met many people from different countries, with customs and traditions very different than hers: “I remember one Italian guy asking me why I was wearing high heels all the time (which was a social norm in Lithuania by then) and I got surprised by this question.”

As often happens, the heart spoke louder and she fell in love with a Spanish boy. Since then, living in Spain was a goal for her and she tried to work it out.

When she got back in Lithuania to finish her University, she fell into depression “I felt not like myself, I felt like a stranger, nothing was amusing to me anymore. I was just dreaming I would go to Spain…  one day.”

 

She found her way to do so, finding an “Au Pair” programme and applying to it. Though it was not easy to get called, she ended up living in Madrid for 3 years, first as an “au pair”, and then as an administrative assistant. “But I wanted to try something new” and she went to do volunteer work in Thailand and Indonesia, for 6 months.

At this point we got excited to know about Jovis’ next adventure and we asked: “And then? What was next?” and she answered: “And then I went back to Lithuania, all destroyed from so much injustice.”

 

But she couldn’t stay at Home, the one she didn’t feel like belonging to anymore: “and then my friend suggested me to go to the UK and have our adventure as best friends that we are... and because I wasn't feeling like staying in Lithuania, I agreed!”

So that’s how Jovi ended up living in the UK, at 26: “actually my initial plan was to go to the UK, work a bit, save money and go somewhere else.” She can’t stop: “I wanted to keep exploring!”

She lives in the UK since 2010, but she left London for 1 year to participate on the European Voluntary Service in Spain “hoping to gain experience in facilitating non-formal education sessions since that is something that interests me a lot and I am passionate about working with youth”.

 

Now she is working in London, doing what she used to do before, working as receptionist, although it is not what she would like to do for the rest of her life, “I hope this is a passage period and that after saving some money, I will have again some freedom to choose where to go and start again!”

For now she is living in the UK, but “London is not the place I would like to stay”. According to her experience, even though the city has many immigrants and opportunities, at the same time “it is a cold city. People are fighting for their survival, stepping on each other in order to achieve something. Life is very fast and stressful!”

 

What about discrimination? “Oh yes, definitely, I feel it especially when it comes to not having perfectly brushed language skills and also mainly for being Eastern European. Sometimes it feels as we, Eastern Europeans, are sometimes perceived as living in a "Stone Age" by Western Europeans. But I think this picture is changing, however there is still unequal power relations between West and East Europe, and mentality is also still different, I think, because people from Eastern Europe are still more traditional and nationalist due to their social Historic events and also because the East of Europe has not experienced those many immigration flows.”

 

One of the main arguments of discussion nowadays is about integration of immigrants in the host society. We think the opinion of the immigrants themselves should be considered. Jovi thinks that what is failing is that “there is a lot of discourse about integration, but they kind of remain just discourses. I think there should be organised activities for locals and immigrants based on their interests, like a football day, accessible for different people living in the local communities. But I think the most important is raising social awareness! The problem in the UK is that the Media tends to picture the immigrants in a way which continues to segregate the immigrant communities even more: if there is a crime committed, everywhere in the Media the country of origin of the criminal is emphasised. (…) Immigration is a very complex phenomenon. There can't be just one formula to solve the problems with integration, but at least we can always try to collaborate with each other and find the dialogue. That’s where non-formal education could be used as one of the effective tools and we should start it with youngsters.”

 

We ask her if she feels more like an Emigrant or an Immigrant: “I feel more like an emigrant: someone who has left their home and might never manage to go back due to identity changes.” So, maybe she won’t return to her Home Country Lithuania, but she doesn’t want to stay in the UK.

“I always imagine myself living close to the sea, as I love the sound of waves. I would like to find some place to live and settle and, at the same time, I would like to have a job that allows me to travel, explore the world, to continue wandering, meeting people...”

 

She left this interview by saying: “One famous quote said:

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." - Frederick Douglass “

We hope Jovi can find her place in this world and that she will keep dreaming and fighting for what makes her happy!

Gonçalo was born in Portugal 32 years ago, but his mother was born in Angola, a portuguese ex-colony in Africa, that forced many citizens to escape from the Civil War in the 70’s. Being a second generation immigrant, he felted some discrimination 20 years ago, but he thinks something has changed…

Portugal was a country that in the XV and XVI century colonised a lot of territories in all continents, with a big presence in Africa, having strict connections with it since then, like a common language. In the 1970’s the Civil War in Angola, after the Independence War, forced one third of the population to escape and a lot have chosen Portugal has a destiny. Amongst the hundreds of refugees arriving to Portugal was also this 17 years old girl trying to having a better life. This was Gonçalo’s mother. Being son of an african immigrant, in the 80’s and 90’s he still felt some discrimination caused by the “lack of general knowledge about the immigrants, seen as non-cultured people, poor, and that came to ‘steal jobs’”. Fortunatly, this feeling vanished throughout the years. Gonçalo lives in Porto, the second bigger city in Portugal, and he feels like today there is much more acceptance towards his generation, the second generation immigrants. “I am saying that I feel this where I live but probably in rural areas or in the capital the reality can be different”. But why and how did this change happen? With the passing of the years and the mixing of cultures, almost everyone happens to have someone in the family with african origins and, as a “natural process”, the integration and acceptance increased. It wasn’t something made by the Government, on some attempt to improve immigrants integration, it was just time that increased the knowledge and tolerance towards this reality. In fact, what we can see as Government measure was the “isolation of ‘social neighbourhoods’ that put together and alone all the immigrants”, and that didn’t help. But the mixing of cultures along the years, and the end of the Civil War in 2002, gave the opportunity to the locals in Angola to have more educational opportunities, and that changed the stereotype from “someone that is escaping and has no more choices to seeing them as equals”.

 

Gonçalo has visited Angola some times as a tourist and he felt that “like in several african countries, the difference between the poor people and the rich people is really obvious”. At this moment, “the emigrated citizens could return to Angola if they have the intention to change the country, because now they have more knowledge and opportunities. But leaving everything that they built here, all the confort, to go there and start from scratch is really difficult.” He told us that his sister and his father went and tried to live there for some years, but personally he never felt the curiosity to go and live there, especially because Chemistry is not a field with many opportunities there.

 

For being in Europe “we have more opportunities and access to everything and everyone” and Gonçalo enjoyed this opportunities by participating in several projects in the UK, Turkey, Greece and Italy, where he lived for some months. “If the opportunity to emigrate comes, I will not think twice. (…) not because of economic needs, but because I like to travel, to learn new languages and meet new people”. Nowadays, the main reason to emigrate are not the finantial or social aspects , but the aspects of personal growth, knowledge and self-realization

Gonçalo, 32
Portuguese
with Angolan Mother

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