“I left everything: my family, my friends, my country. People who haven’t experienced this can’t understand my suffering,” murmurs Mohammed, his eyes misty. His nostalgia is intense. The need to see his family in Algeria is vital. Leaving his country driven by an unsustainable economic or political situation: more than a choice, a sacrifice. Because once he arrived in France, the nightmare only begins. “It’s not easy to rebuild your life in a country where everyone lets you know you are not welcome,” continues Mohammed. Then begins a journey full of hurdles: finding housing, looking for a job under the table… In all these endeavors, undocumented migrants often have to deal with unscrupulous landlords and employers, and especially face the bureaucracy. Mina, Moroccan, helped by the CGT, filed an application for a residence card at the Prefecture last summer. Since then, she has already received two refusals to regularize due to lack of documents. Documents which she hastened to submit. To no avail. The administration stands its ground. “It was missing the job offer which I sent immediately. The only response I got was another refusal. For me, this clearly shows they don’t even look at the files.”
Paranoia
Mohammed also knows the slowness of bureaucracy and the coldness of officials. But he does not give up. His convictions encourage him to get involved. He tries to help other undocumented immigrants with his experience. But the condition of being undocumented is becoming harsher: “Since Nicolas Sarkozy came to power, first as Minister of the Interior and then as President of the Republic, the situation of the undocumented worsens. We feel like prey. The fear of sudden identity checks makes us paranoid.”
The case of Kadija, a young woman exhausted by her illness, is dramatic. At her wit’s end, abandoned by everyone, she, like many other undocumented, has not seen her family in Morocco for years. Yet, things are becoming increasingly unbearable for Kadija, a diabetic, who for a few months has been deprived of her rights to State Medical Aid (AME). Mohammed confirms that obtaining the AME is not what it used to be: “Before, really, all foreigners had access to it and their application would succeed in ten, fifteen days. Now you have to wait two, three months without even being sure of getting it.” But it is precisely this degradation that leads many undocumented to revolt. For Mohammed, the last straw is here: “I’m tired and the other undocumented are tired too. With constant humiliation, we are pushed to our limits.” Weariness and humiliation: two ingredients that can ignite the powder keg and blow up the grip that the government imposes on the undocumented.
