NEW FACES – True story: ‘We need to understand that most foreigners here in Slovenia are educated and are just looking for a safe life. In my opinion, as I said before, learning the local language is the key to integration and this is the biggest problem for foreigners in Slovenia right now, because there are not enough opportunities to learn the language.”
(𝘏𝘢𝘴𝘢𝘯 from 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘢)
The BODE+ project (#BrezOvirDoEnakostiinpravic), implemented together with ADRA Slovenia and the Gmajna Cultural Association, is committed to empowering people with a migrant background in the field of advocacy, as they often do not have the right opportunity to present their side of the story. This time, however, it is different – by sharing real stories, we are fighting against the prejudice that migrants are not educated or trained enough to participate equally and qualitatively in the social progress of Slovenia.
This is Hasan’s story.
My name is Hasan. I come from Palestine. I was born in Gaza. I am 37 years old. I studied French. I am a member of Info-Kolpa. I am also a translator from Arabic to English. My family and I are five and we have three children.
In Palestine in general, the situation is not safe to live in, especially if we are talking about Gaza. I am looking for a better one for my children. I came to Slovenia four years ago on my own, then we had a family reunification and three years ago my wife and children came.
In every country you have to learn the local language. I started learning Slovenian during my coronation and almost all the courses were online, so it was not easy for me to learn Slovenian.
In Ljubljana, it is really difficult to rent an apartment for any family (even Slovenian families) and the price is very high and unaffordable.
After I had done 300 hours of Slovene, I started looking for a job and someone mentioned to me that it would be a good idea to open an SP and do deliveries. I have been doing this job for more than three years now. At the same time, I also started working with Info-Kolpa, translating from English into Arabic. So I have 3 children and my wife has been working for 3 years now in one of the most famous hotels in Ljubljana as an assistant chef in the restaurant.
We are in this life to help each other and to understand each other. We have to understand that most foreigners here in Slovenia are educated and are just looking for a safe life.
In my opinion, as I have already mentioned, learning the local language is the key to integration, and this is the biggest problem for foreigners in Slovenia at the moment, because there are not enough opportunities to learn the language. Then it will be easier for foreigners to understand Slovenian culture and find employment. I therefore suggest that we should have more free courses for foreigners to learn the Slovenian language.
For more on the stories and the project, see :
