Life stories

"I don't like asking people to help me. I was very disappointed..." Ornela^* pronounces often this phrase to anyone who asks her why she goes on almost alone with her legal procedures in France. This 28-year-old young woman left Albania when she was barely of age and, for 10 years, she has traveled the roads of immigration while building her family life.

"Covid 19 revealed the true face of the man I gave everything up for." Edona1 decided to leave her birth country at the age of 56 to join her husband, who was already staying and working legally in France. Her decision was made to provide a proper family life for her 13-year-old son, with whom she left Albania. It was the year 2017. After a difficult journey, without a visa but with lots of hope, her regularization does not come. Thus, she is unable to work in France, in the small town somewhere in the Grand Est where she lives with her family. "Each hair on my head represents how many times I have regretted coming to France," she admits.

"I am a very determined person. If I want something, I get it." Kaltrina's^* eyes, as always adorned with a sharp line of eyeliner, shine with determination. And yet, obtaining the right to stay in France was anything but easy for her. On the eve of the renewal of her residence permit, the 21-year-old Albanian tells me her story for the first time.

Dorina spent 8 years trying to raise her children, without her husband, living with her in-laws. She worked 12 hours a day, while cleaning the house and caring for her sick father-in-law. All this at the risk of suffering psychological, economic and physical violence. A human story.