YOUR STORY
Fabio, 24
from Cape Verde
to Portugal
Some Stories shared by You
I guess my ancestors didn't choose it... regarding the flow of their lives, they ended in Portugal. Portugal is a "brother country" of mine (Cabo Verde) and the easiest way to move to a different country was the most similar... at that time, Portugal was the only one. They both moved there, for different reasons and both loved it for different reasons aswell.
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IAs second generation in a foreigner country I got to say that my life could be much different, for better and worse... the most impacting story I have is definitely the racist jokes and discrimination that occur in the daily live in Portugal... even though is a country with many African roots, people are quite racist! My community, the Cape Veardean, is one of the biggest in Portugal, but we still suffer a lot by discrimination and wrong ideas about us, ok that we are all different and in some way equals... but don't discriminate based on the way we speak or in culture (by definition you can's judge culture). My life was always about travelling and feeling like I belong somewhere and emigrate is a valid option to follow... and the first country that comes to my mind is Japan, because is the most different I can think about and that amazes me!In a nutshell, I feel proud to be a second generation immigrant, not because of what it means, but because I believe I have a more open mind and a broader vision on the humanity itself.
Susana, 27
from Portugal
to Italy
Back in 2006 was getting bored of my career in Lisbon, Portugal. Despite having a degree in Engineering and working in my area of studies on a Multinational company, I was feeling that I would stay in that role forever and would stagnate completely if nothing happened soon. Around April I met most of my European colleagues on a meeting in Spain and was invited to move to the UK. They needed someone to fulfil the same role I had in Portugal and were excited about getting a person that was already trained. I didn’t hesitate. Discussed the opportunity with my family and partner. The opinions were mixed but in the end I decided to go ahead and I moved to the UK.
The 1st year was hard. I missed my family, my friends, the food, the city, my home of 30 years. Everything was strange and different. My English was quite good, but I soon learned that my accent would give me away every single time. My partner had an even harder time because his English was very poor and he spent the 1st year in school learning the language. There are things we never got used to, like going to the cinema, and some things are still strange, like going out to have a meal and finding the menus available are less than appetizing for my Mediterranean palate. But overall we have amanged to build a new life and we made new friends.
We would go back tomorrow if our country could offer us the same quality of life and career, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love it here to in our adopted country.
Jovi, 31
from Lithuania
to UK
I did not choose to emigrate, this was done by my parents when I was still too young to decide. United States was chosen out of necessity for a job. I cannot think of much that did not change because of our move to the United States.
My gender and appetite stayed the same. I lived through many social difficulties, between the language and not sharing similar values and priorities as everyone else. I experienced discrimination in a brief period, when I was in middle school. Some of the male students were not yet sensitive to other races or cultures and thought I presented a threat to them in school and in the future.
My integration in society took place primarily through sports, because being from Europe, football was always important to me, and I was usually one of the more skilled players in my school. I used this as a way to interact with others.
I very much wish the professional opportunities would change in Spain. I would certainly move back if it were so. Also, I think society needs to become a bit more polite and refined in some aspects.
In the United States, I would like to see a shift in culture so that foreigners were given a more warmth and genuine embrace overall. I see the American people as very distant and cold in general. Relationships are extremely cold and superficial. This gives way for almost every foreigner I have known here to feel alone from time to time, and what they always miss from their home country is the types of relationships they had.
I see my future as a struggle and victory to achieve a professional status that allows me to travel between countries, so as to not have to remain in the United States for the rest of my life.
I am not a labour immigrant and I was never planning to emigrate to Italy, it just happened that I came to study here after having won a study grant, met a guy, married him, and I stayed to live with my husband here.
As far as I never chose the Host Country it's difficult for me personally to accept disadvantages of living here, for instance, it's not a country of opporunitites, it's difficult to enter the labour market, it's difficult to get people distinguish between Ukraine and USSR and Russia and "Eastern Europe" (to get them rid of stereotypes). I've never lived an episode of discrimination as we're used to picture it, it's just these small details I notice as I used to live and study in different countries before. For example, I had a short part-time job (a week) and my boss was once telling some other collegue that he doesn't want to hire Italians to do my job as "they are demanding" while he perfectly knows and I told him that he requires too much and the work is too hard (fortunately, it was agreed it would be for 1 week only). Or people, knowing I am Ukrainian and talking to me for a year still say "at your home country, in Russia" or mass media dividing countries into first-, second-, and third world. My examples of discrimination are more about bad education of locals and their poor general knowledge of the world, though.
Concerning integration, the first appartment I rented 4 years ago during my studying in the University was shared with Italian students and workers. We bacame and continue to be very close friends with them.
If me and my husband found better works and living conditions in my home country we could move there, why not? Unfortunately, there is no better job for him, higher level of corruption, worse healthcare, worse education and climate, so we stay here.
I think the most important thing for improvement of immigrants' situation is strong growing economy of the country, low unemployement rate and low corruption rate. In such situation it will be impossible for anyone to accuse immigrants of the problems of a country. Another thing that I noticed is that many people just lack knowledge about the world outside Europe, especially about Eastern countries, Far East, its people, traditions, history etc. As a consequence, locals are a bit affraid of strangers and would rather avoid hiring some foreigner to work, talking to the stranger on the street, proposing a help or just exchanging a couple of words, inviting a new foreign collegue to have a coffee etc. It's not that I can't integrate but it's local people who tend not to notice me and have never an extra minute to someone new in their life. They meet their old friends, go to their restaurants, gyms, cinemas, stay with their families and just don't care about going for a cup of capuccino with you as you have agreed before and never did after. If they travelled more, read more and met more people, if they themselves got into situation when they are "strangers, foreigners, alliens" in a foreign country they would get rid of their indifference, stereotypes and prejudice.
Veronica, 30
from Ukraine
to Italy
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Adriana, 28
from Portugal
to Scotland
Patricia, 40
from Portugal
to UK
Susana, 27
from Portugal
to Italy
Josué, 24
from Spain
to USA
