Success paths of young immigrants in higher education and the professional world.
I am Youcef Allawi. [Social educator and psychopedagog]
I have 28 years. I live here in Vic [He studied and works in Vic]
I am of Moroccan origin. I came to Catalonia in 96.
I arrived with my family.
With my mother and my brothers. First my father came here.
He ​​spent several years here, namely 5,
unable to return to Morocco. The day he succeeded in getting the paperwork,
get legal status, brought us through family reunification [spanish legal procedure].
And we were able to come to live here in Catalonia.
Specifically Manlleu.
[Arriving in a new country] There were many different things in my city in Morocco.
The first days I enrolled in a summer course
to learn Catalan. It was 20 hours long.
I couldn't put these 20 hours into practice
until I started high school.
I had very little to do with people or neighbors,
or with people like me, of the same age.
At that time there was very little immigration.
Immigration was seen then as something exotic.
As a thing, in quotes, very pretty and
there were those few and...
As I said before, because of my difficulty with the language, that meant that
I couldn't establish a relationship with lifelong Catalans, and so on.
Therefore, the first step I made, I explained it also in my story,
Was to attempt to integrate
with [in theory] my group,
that's the Moroccans.
And when I did this first step of integration with the Moroccans
that's when I saw that there was also the need
to integrate with the Catalans themselves.
The first days of high school
as I was saying, at first I thought
I was just warming the chair and that was all.
If you spent maybe 7 hours a day
studying... Just warming the chair
as I felt then. You didn't understand anything.
No one asked you anything most of the time
and you didn't ask anything either.
You were there... You came... In that confined space.
Enclosed you spent 7 hours. You just wanted these
hours to end and go home or
get out on the street.
There was plenty of teachers that told me...
That if I had gotten so far, up to 4th year of ESO [high school]
and I passed all the exams and had done all this effort and...
Why not go ahead and continue on to Batxillerat [post compulsory]
because they are the same teachers in that school.
For example. They will help me for sure and will
be a guide for me. So [that was a reason] to continue.
Also obviously I had other teachers,
less numerous,
a few, but they told that maybe you shouldn't because
it will be so hard. If it's been so hard for you up until now
that's up to 4th, just imagine batxillerat which is another world.
I don't know if you'll be able to tackle it, right?
My parents, in particular, mine
have not had a relationship with the school. They have never gone to school, for example.
Therefore, the fact of not having lived
an experience like this
maybe doesn't incentivize them to decide on your behalf
or advise you because no matter what they advise you
in the end it's something they haven't experienced
so maybe they'll take the wrong decision.
And unfortunately, these people who
[Choosing your friends] want to discourage you
They are often the ones with which you have a lot in common
at school, which is maybe
Doing more street life. Maybe skip class occasionally.
Maybe rebel against, sometimes, teachers or the school or...
On the other hand, these friends who have, let's say,
a higher educational level, or whatever
or those who payed more attention at school, or what we would call nerds
In quotes, nerds
sure, it is often as we were saying, that they talk about things that you...
Things you can't really relate to.
When I finished high school
I decided to try to pass Selectivity [SAT equivalent].
And I moved to Barcelona to study at the Pompeu Fabra.
The University Pompeu Fabra. To get a law degree.
Getting to Barcelona meant for me a total change
a 180 degrees turn
of the life I had lived up to that point.
Or you get there and, for example,
and you have no money to pay the train fare
and you have to sort it out.
You can't be always asking you parents for money...
to pay the train fare or whatever. Sometimes you try
to get on the train without paying, or sometimes the inspector catches you.
In [conclusion], you come to Barcelona and
there are so many nice things,
so many things that had to do with the ideas I had in Morocco
that I completely neglected my studies.
I decided to return here to the region.
I inquired at the University of Vic
I wanted to study something that had to do with the social use
Because I'm... I try to be very sociable. I like to do...
I like my professional life to be related to
what I like, obviously.
And I love the social issue.
And then I decided to study social education because...
Actually, the word says it all, "social education".
I went to Morocco to do my field work and I loved it.
I really enjoyed this experience
to go see the world from another point of view.
Until then I had known...
Because I had lived there with family.
I lived there as a child, and so forth.
But didn't knew Morocco's educational environment.
I did know it, but as a student, when I was a little boy,
but I didn't know institutions, agencies.
I didn't know the administration.
And so, going there to do my field work was
like an experience. Furthermore, is to learn about your country
from another point of view.
And since then I go to Morocco
with students who want to do field work there.
[Have you had a job?] Related to my studies and, therefore, to entering
the professional world, I have worked
as a social educator at CRAES.
Professor, University of Vic, of Arabic.
As an educator for Caritas.
Other than that I have worked in factories, companies...
Temporary jobs.
Pizzerias, supermarkets...
Let's say that all these jobs
companies, factories,
industrial, etc.
Happened before finishing my degrees.
[Difficulties and benefits] Many times when you are an immigrant
and, in my case, I am Moroccan
and you have two degrees, for example, social education and psychopedagogy
when you look for an employment
a lot of times that makes things easier.
"It's someone called Youcef Allawi"
First of all this already...
Already sticks out... more.
As we said, than a Jordi [Catalan name] something or other because with Jordis...
You couldn't work in a public school or
you couldn't get a public sector job if you weren't Spanish.
Or you weren't European.
So that was a shock to me.
You've lived here for 13 years, you've always felt
more integrated than the opposite.
You felt maybe one of many out there.
And you get here and you find the doors closed.
[Any advise?] Well, if you study
you have a social promotion.
You climb. However, if you do not study you will always be...
You may have other opportunities, of course.
But you're always at the bottom. And when you're at the bottom
and you are a foreigner...
I say, unfortunately, it's the reality of things.
You're still a foreigner. You are, maybe, part of the Moroccan group.
Maybe if you were American or something else, maybe it wouldn't be the case.
Maybe, as we said, not knowing the language,
dropping out of school... All this
makes you still be there. Makes you unable to get away from it.
And having studied surely helps you
to reflect and be more strategic.
To have more tools and resources
to cope with your day to day needs.
We are all equal but some are more than others