Ces 5 articles sont écrits par 5 étudiantes de Sciences Politiques Paris, campus de Nancy, dans le cadre de leur service civique au Secours Catholique Caritas Hauts de Lorraine. Elles ont participé à un atelier journalistique pendant 2 mois, en binôme avec 5 femmes et filles exilées en France.
"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.
She grew up in a violent environment. A lawyer now, Helena is still terrified of her father. Since the beginning of her life, he mistreats both of them, her mother and her. Mother, unable to bear it any longer, ends up leaving home when Helena is only a little girl. This departure leaves the field open to her father, who forces her to stop her studies so that she can work. Helena recalls that he was in debt and uses her to earn money. He ends up forcing her to "work" with a friend, a wealthy and influential 37-year-old man.
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.
English 
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Albanian