The portraits of exiled women students in France: the journey of Emma, a courageous woman who loves life.

EMMA*

 

Can you tell us a little about your background?

I had been in school for five years in my country, and over there, we have a serious problem: there is a high unemployment rate among graduates. I am part of this generation: I got my master’s degree to teach and then I continued until my thesis. Despite this, I was never able to practice and I did a series of small jobs as a journalist, translator, etc. We were hoping for changes after a major political event in my country, but nothing has changed.

 

I had never thought that I would have left my country, I wanted to live there but I felt that things would get worse and when I see what is happening today, I think I was right. As part of my history thesis, I had the opportunity to get a scholarship to study in France every year for a few months. Here, there was everything I wanted as a researcher, I didn’t see the difficulties and I told myself that I would apply in France to continue the research thinking that it would be better. I had no hope in my country, so it was a way to open up my horizons. The first year I was able to study in France, then I went back to my country and I got a scholarship again for the following year, the same year I got divorced.

 

There are several dimensions to my decision to leave: first, I was suffocating in my country because of all the upheavals and the impression that nothing was going to improve. In my personal life, there was the divorce, and in the society that I come from, divorced women are not well seen, and I also had a lot of relatives in common with my ex. I also had a health problem for which I could not have any medical attention in my country because it was too expensive.

 

So, I got a visa that year and the idea was to register here and then apply for the papers. I had a pre-registration but I didn’t finalize the registration because I had problems at that time: there was the divorce, the amount of the registration and then I felt racism in the emails that my thesis director sent me, whereas if it doesn’t go well, it’s not worth it. When my visa expired, I went to the Cimade to apply for asylum. I was told that because of my country of origin and the reason for my request, and personal reasons, it would not be possible and the only thing to do was to stay here for three years and work for eighteen months for half a salary. I said okay, but it was the moment when my visa was expiring and that was hard: the change of country, all my relatives were far away, etc. So, I had depression at the moment. So, I had a one-year depression for which I was able to be taken care of. Then there was the downgrading, there is no such thing as a bad job, but I went from libraries to doing cleaning hours. I had no friends and the city itself seemed to have changed: I no longer saw it as a tourist or a researcher, but as a person who had to face daily life. Fortunately, I didn’t have the stress of the papers anymore because I understood when I went to the Cimade that I shouldn’t think about it for three years, but I couldn’t even submit the file for the papers at the end of the three years because I was missing some elements. It was really a crossing of the desert and it affected my health a lot, especially my health problem which got worse because of the stress.

 

There is one thing that never left my mind and by which I was presenting myself: it was the fact that I was a graduate and that one day I would return to school. At the time of Covid-19, I started to mobilize with collectives of exiled people and then, at the beginning of the school year 2021, I was regularized and I was able to enroll at the university. I was in a university degree allowing me to value my migratory journey to mobilize what I lived, and what I saw and I could thus be useful by transmitting the information. The profession for which I was trained is not recognized and does not exist in France, so it was also a form of struggle behind this training and this profession, which I needed! There is an administrative categorization for exiled people but a friend once told me that being a local can happen after a few months or it can take several years, you can also always be a newcomer after seven years if you lack a network, etc. I like this idea of redefining categorizations; my job is to connect locals and newcomers. I am very proud of this path and also because I joined the pedagogical team of this degree where there are both theoretical courses and a practical part with an internship in an association. You have to know how to communicate with students who don’t know the French system, nor the associations, and sometimes the university system either.

 

Where do you see yourself in the next few years? What are your hopes and dreams?

Unfortunately, my dreams depend a lot on my administrative situation, I would like to have a multi-annual residence permit to be able to project myself, for the moment my dreams are very short-term. For example, my contract is a one-year fixed-term contract.

 

What are your material living conditions?

I had to work a part-time job when I was doing my training from the beginning, I didn’t have a scholarship and it was very difficult. Now I work on the diploma as a part-time student and I continue to be a caregiver for the rest of the time; this is the job I was regularized for. I had been living in an emergency shelter since the end of Covid-19, and despite obtaining my papers, this unstable situation has not changed. It’s even harder when you’re a woman because you need your own space. Now I’m in a shelter but it’s not suitable because it’s far away and there are two of us per room, but luckily, I can stay overnight where I work sometimes.

 

What advice would you give to exiled women who are willing to resume their studies in France?

In my experience, when you want to go back to school, you want to stay in the field you studied in your country of origin, but here it’s a different reality, you have to give yourself the opportunity to open up and get informed. You can enroll in another training program that also uses your own skills, such as your first language, you have to be flexible because exile is another reality. Then, you must not remain alone and isolated but try to create new links alternative to those you have in your country, to get closer to associations, etc. And lastly, you must not give in to racism or rejection or become discouraged because there are also other people who are not like that. We must not give up, there are forms of hospitality everywhere, especially in the universities, and we must look for them.

 

What does International Women’s Day (March 8) mean to you?

Of course, the International Women’s Day speaks to me! In my country, women’s rights are more advanced than in other countries in the region, they were the first to exercise certain professions for example. Our day of struggle for women’s rights is not March 8, this day was inaugurated to show the recognition of the role of women in the political struggle of the country. Since the mid-20th century, there have been feminist associations, so the struggle of women is not something new that I would have discovered in France. Here, for me, March 8 is a continuity: two years ago, I participated in the feminist strike, and we talked about the situation of undocumented women and their role in the front line during the health crisis. On November 25, 2021, during the mobilization against violence toward women, we talked about Darmanin’s statement proposing aid for exiled women victims of violence while at the same time preparing the new bill. We underlined that exiled women are victims of multiple forms of violence: psychological, administrative (which plunges them into precariousness and takes away their rights in the framework of their work) etc. The situation of exiled people in general is difficult but women accumulate all types of violence and, if this situation worsens, women will be the first victims. For example, at the medical level, they need more attention. Today, we can see that women represent half of the exiled people in France, they are often graduates or even over-educated, it is a waste to see their situation deteriorate. That’s why we have to mobilize!

 

Is there anything else you want to add?

It is a great step forward that there is an association of exiled students because there are many exiled graduates. This association must exist in all the cities of France: an exiled student needs to be very much surrounded because the issues are multiple (papers, registration, etc.). Moreover, exiled students can strengthen their ranks and bring a lot to their community: it is necessary to take responsibility when one has been lucky enough to be educated, even though one can also suffer discrimination. We have to get to know each other and think together about what we can do in general as exiled people in a framework like the UEE. It is very important and I hope that we will have UEE poles all over France and even in Europe later on!