Transcript Bild 1 - IMMIGRANT

Four migrant stories from Brussels
Alla, Olivier, Pant Liladhar, Orlando – the stories of four migrants in Brussels
Massimo Bortolini | Pictures: Claire Allard
Alla, Olivier, Pant Liladhar, and Orlando came from the Ukraine, Chad, Nepal, and
Cuba respectively, and, on a larger scale, from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central
America. All of them, with the exception of Orlando, came as the asylum seekers;
however, they were unsuccessful in their applications and so tried to find a path
for staying in Belgium legally. All four have lived through hardship; in this new
country, they had to find a new life with a home and work. Today, they all have
permanent residency; however, they still vividly remember what it is like to start
alone and from nothing in a foreAfter more than 10 years, they have decided to
stay and live in Belgium. Their personal accounts capture the difficult life of a
migrant.
After more than 10 years, they have decided to stay and live in Belgium. Their
personal accounts capture the difficult life of a migrant.
City of Shadows
Daiva Tereščenko | Pictures: Cyril Horiszny
Poland’s capital is the destination for a large number of Ukrainian workers. In
order to work legally in Poland, Ukrainians are required to have a visa and a work
permit. However, in reality, many migrants circumvent these regulations by
travelling on a tourist visa and working without proper papers. Paradoxically,
working illegally improves the migrants’ economical situation as many migrants
would not be able to support their families if required to pay all their taxes from
their low wages. However, the irregular status represents a crucial obstacle for
further integration. Working illegally makes them vulnerable to exploitation and
does not allow them to find jobs that match their skills and qualification.
Accordingly, especially among those who have been in Warsaw for a longer period,
many of the migrants interviewed hope for amnesty for illegal migrants. It is also
true, that many Ukrainian migrant workers do not even consider the possibility of
settling in Poland; one does not live here, it is only a spot to make money for life,
which is lived at home in the Ukraine.
Welcome to the Grey Kingdom!
Martina Křížková | Pictures: David Kumermann
Pilsen is the Czech Republic’s industrial power house. However, the industrial
boom of the past couple years is not based on the work of Czechs, but of
thousands of migrant workers, mainly from the Ukraine, Mongolia and Vietnam.
These workers are often victims in exploitative recruitment practices that have
become known as the “client system”. Constitutive elements of this system are:
bad legislation, corruption, mafia-like recruitment agencies and employers that
seek profit at any price. As a consequence of the economic crisis, Czech
authorities refused to prolong the permits of many workers from non-EU countries
in order to open up jobs for Czechs. But once again, Czechs were not interested in
working on assembly lines. Instead, Pilsen experienced the inflow of Bulgarians,
Rumanians, Poles and Slovaks. However, the “client system” adapted to the new
situation and works the same way as before.
Solitude. The way to a brighter future
Tomas Janeba | Pictures: Iva Zimova
Mongolian labour migrants often come to the Czech Republic planning to begin a
new life and to secure their children a better career and future. They pay
inordinate fees to middlemen for organizing their documents and work; they work
from dawn until dusk in conditions that neither Czechs nor other migrants are not
willing to take on. However, many of Mongolian children are not as happy as their
parents would like. Their parents come home only at night and so the children are
responsible for the domestic duties and their own lives. Moreover, they also
encounter a language and cultural barrier. They are different. They are alone.
Furthermore, the children of those from non-EU countries are burden again: a
newborn must be very expensively insured before birth. If they are born early
without insurance, at the hospital check-out they already owe about a million
Czech Crowns for for healthcare.
La dolce vita? A visit to an “Italian village” in the Philippines
Rica Agnes Castañeda - Panelo | Pictures: Jay Panelo
“We Filipinos see property ownership as a major achievement. It marks you as a successful
person. The bigger, the better of course”, explains Susan, who has been working in Rome,
Italy, for more than ten years and has just returned to her village of Pulang Anahaw in
Batangas, a province in Southern Luzon. The people in the neighbouring villages know
Mabini Batangas as “Little Italy” because of the big and colourful houses, each perched on a
hill along a narrow road only fit for one-way traffic. Susan takes me up the hill to a wider and
paved street, which goes to a Catholic chapel. She shows me a stone marker, which informs
the reader, in elaborate words, that this road was build as a collaborative effort from the
village women working in Italy.
Recently this village has gained national attention, thanks to media coverage, and has
become a symbol for the way migration has transformed Philippine society and culture. For
generations, ‘makapag abroad’ (being able to go abroad) has be the essence of the Filipino
dream. Encouraged by the state, which depends financially on the stream of money from
the Diaspora, many young people prepare themselves systematically for a career abroad. In
a background interview conducted prior to my visit of Mabini Batangas, Ms. Maybelle
Gorospe, Director of Planning at the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA)
describes the consequences in this way: “Migration has become a part of our culture; a
culture of migration.”
Africa under Saint Wenceslas
Two groups of African migrants are living in Prague; however, they are almost
never in touch. The first mostly arrived before the Velvet Revolution as university
exchange students, stayed and integrated into the Czech society. The others are
arriving currently, on a thorny path, as asylum seekers or illegal migrants to find a
better life. Usually they find their first jobs in the centre of Prague where they
attract tourists to night clubs. They have no real alternative to this “shameful” job
for various reasons; firstly, with their status, they cannot work legally, and finally,
because of racism of Czech employers. They are marginalised and associated with
drug business. And then, there is Michel, in whose sad destiny converge aspects
of both of these groups of Africans. None of them can go back; the traditional
African society only accepts the return of winners.
Migration trap among the Great Masurian Lakes
by Piotr Szenajch | Pictures: Monika Kmita
‘Circular migration’ means moving constantly to find work but never settling in
the new place to stay. Many inhabitants of North-Eastern Poland leave for 3-8
months for Germany, Spain, Italy or the UK. When they are abroad, they yield
to harsh living conditions in jobs below their qualifications. They face a constant
risk of fraud and abuse prevalent for those working in a grey legal area. After
coming back, they spend the money they have earned on their everyday life
rather than investing it. Some gradually resign from building a steady career at
home. Their choice is not irrational or careless – it is the only means of
surviving and supporting their families. At home, the labour market does not
offer them any better conditions. All this occurs in the heart of Mazury – a
stunning tourist hotspot with wild forests and a thousand crystal-clear lakes.
In the melting pot – Muslim migrants in post-crisis Bochum
by Georgiana Catalina Macovei | Pictures: Octavian Balea
Bochum lies in the heart of the Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr region), Germany’s former mining
and industrial centre. In the past decades, the area has experienced a profound
economic restructuring; the change of Ruhrgebiet and Bochum towards a postindustrial city conglomeration itself is best reflected by the area’s appointment as
Europe’s Capital of Culture for 2010. Nevertheless, unemployment in the area is
high. Since the influx of Turkish “guestworkers” in the 1960s, migrants of Muslim
faith make up a significant portion of the area’s population. What impact did the
economic crisis of 2008 have on Bochum’s large and diverse Muslim community?
Who was affected and what support networks are provided by religious institutions
such as Mosque societies?
Georgians and their country on the way
Jan Hanzlík | Fotografie: Petr Šilhánek
In Georgia, a transforming country cut off from international trade, the world
economic crisis, augmented by the war in Ossetia, hit very hard. Georgians cannot
get work at home, the doors are closed to them in Russia due to their reluctance to
conform, and there is only a ghost of a chance of getting visa for the EU. Hundreds
of thousands of people lost their homes, jobs, and all stability in the fight for
Ossetia and Abkhazia. Desperate people do desperate things – often many
Georgians set out for the West to find work without visas and work permits. Those
that returned voluntarily through repatriation programs received new stimulus and
a chance to start their own businesses. Their success, however, is largely not in
their own hands. It will be also influenced by the overall development of their
beautiful and welcoming, although isolated and poor Caucaus country.
“Let's show the world how we live and work!”
By Lisa Riedner, Munich | Pictures: Trixi Eder
The Struggles of Bulgarian Day-labourers in Munich
With Bulgaria’s accession to the EU in 2007, Bulgarian citizens are entitled to free
movement within other EU states. For many members of Bulgaria’s large Turkish
minority, this new freedom was taken as a chance to get away from discrimination
and economic despair at home. Pembe, Natka, Hristo and Yasar, four ethnic Turks
from the town of Pazardjik in Bulgaria, went to Bavaria’s capital Munich with
hopes of making a better life. However, they were forced to realize that free
movement does not automatically entail the possibility of legal employment.
Germany as well as other older EU states made use of the “transition period” of
Bulgaria’s accession by blocking Bulgarian citizens’ access to their labour markets
until 2014. Banned from legal employment, migrants like Pembe, Natka, Yasar and
Hristo find themselves in a catch-22 of illegalized abusive work relations (often as
day-labourers) and homelessness. Now, some of these workers work together with
the Munich-based « Initiative Zivilcourage » and the union ver.di to change their
situation. They develop initiatives that should raise public awareness for the
situation of the Turkish day labourers from Bulgaria; volunteers provide language
trainings and the union organises legal advise. The pictures shown are one of the
outcomes of these activities.