In order to survive in Europe, having a job is required. But it can be pretty hard to find work, especially if you have no papers. This category contains all the stories related to work, from successful entrepreneurs to people who ended up without a home and job.
Finding a suitable job in Europe can be quite hard. A good education back home isn't a key to succes. Binata (not her real name) is a trained accountant, but works at the beach in Valencia, Spain, braiding hair. Binata: 'I don't like braiding at all, and I don't like to run after people and sell stuff. For me, it's humiliating'.
Michael has been living and working in Spain for a long time, but since the economical crisis times have changed. He used to have a job in construction, but there is no work there anymore. No work means no money. Michael pays the price, he is forced to live on the streets. In other parts of Europe, immigrants face similar problems.
Without the right documents it is difficult to get an official job, but nothing is impossible. Some undocumented immigrants choose to work in the ‘hidden economy’, but the downside to working illegally is that you have no rights, and exploitation is just around corner. Others borrow a legal friend’s documents and pretend to be that person in order to get a job: a practice known as ‘cloning’ identities.
Who doesn’t want to be successful? Steven from Ghana runs a successful travel agency, Florah from Kenya is fighting corrupting and Tumenta from Cameroon is a program director in Germany. What's the key to their success?
Love, marriage and papers seem to be no match made in heaven. Sister Fa, a successful Senegalese hip hop artist, lives in Berlin with her German husband and daughter. The couple met in Senegal, but decided to live in Germany. For Sister Fa, it was relatively easy to obtain documents: 'I was lucky that my husband put me in a comfortable situation'. But some of her friends struggle to get papers. What are the options? Marrying for love, papers, or both?
