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Success paths of young immigrants in higher
education and the professional world.

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I am Youcef Allawi.
[Social educator and psychopedagog]

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I have 28 years. I live here in Vic
[He studied and works in Vic]

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I am of Moroccan origin.
I came to Catalonia in 96.

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I arrived with my family.

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With my mother and my brothers.
First my father came here.

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He ​​spent several years here, namely 5,

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unable to return to Morocco. The day
he succeeded in getting the paperwork,

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get legal status, brought us through family
reunification [spanish legal procedure].

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And we were able to come
to live here in Catalonia.

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Specifically Manlleu.

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[Arriving in a new country] There were many
different things in my city in Morocco.

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The first days I enrolled
in a summer course

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to learn Catalan. It
was 20 hours long.

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I couldn't put these 20 hours into practice

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until I started high school.

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I had very little to do with
people or neighbors,

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or with people like me,
of the same age.

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At that time there was
very little immigration.

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Immigration was seen then
as something exotic.

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As a thing, in
quotes, very pretty and

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there were those few and...

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As I said before, because of my difficulty
with the language, that meant that

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I couldn't establish a relationship
with lifelong Catalans, and so on.

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Therefore, the first step I made,
I explained it also in my story,

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Was to attempt to integrate

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with [in theory] my group,

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that's the Moroccans.

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And when I did this first step of
integration with the Moroccans

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that's when I saw that
there was also the need

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to integrate with the Catalans themselves.

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The first days of high school

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as I was saying, at first I thought

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I was just warming the
chair and that was all.

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If you spent maybe
7 hours a day

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studying... Just warming the chair

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as I felt then.
You didn't understand anything.

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No one asked you anything most of the time

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and you didn't ask anything either.

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You were there... You came...
In that confined space.

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Enclosed you spent 7 hours.
You just wanted these

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hours to end and go home or

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get out on the street.

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There was plenty of
teachers that told me...

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That if I had gotten so far, up
to 4th year of ESO [high school]

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and I passed all the exams
and had done all this effort and...

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Why not go ahead and continue on to
Batxillerat [post compulsory]

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because they are the same
teachers in that school.

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For example. They will
help me for sure and will

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be a guide for me. So
[that was a reason] to continue.

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Also obviously I had
other teachers,

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less numerous,

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a few, but they told that maybe
you shouldn't because

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it will be so hard. If it's been
so hard for you up until now

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that's up to 4th, just imagine
batxillerat which is another world.

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I don't know if you'll
be able to tackle it, right?

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My parents, in particular, mine

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have not had a relationship with the school.
They have never gone to school, for example.

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Therefore, the fact of not having lived

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an experience like this

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maybe doesn't incentivize
them to decide on your behalf

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or advise you because no
matter what they advise you

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in the end it's something
they haven't experienced

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so maybe they'll take
the wrong decision.

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And unfortunately, these people who

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[Choosing your friends]
want to discourage you

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They are often the ones with which
you have a lot in common

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at school, which is maybe

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Doing more street life. Maybe
skip class occasionally.

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Maybe rebel against, sometimes,
teachers or the school or...

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On the other hand, these
friends who have, let's say,

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a higher educational level, or whatever

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or those who payed more attention at
school, or what we would call nerds

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In quotes, nerds

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sure, it is often as we were saying,
that they talk about things that you...

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Things you can't really relate to.

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When I finished high school

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I decided to try to pass
Selectivity [SAT equivalent].

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And I moved to Barcelona to
study at the Pompeu Fabra.

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The University Pompeu Fabra.
To get a law degree.

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Getting to Barcelona
meant for me a total change

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a 180 degrees turn

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of the life I had lived
up to that point.

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Or you get there and, for example,

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and you have no money
to pay the train fare

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and you have to sort it out.

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You can't be always
asking you parents for money...

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to pay the train fare or whatever.
Sometimes you try

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to get on the train without paying, or
sometimes the inspector catches you.

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In [conclusion], you come to Barcelona and

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there are so many nice things,

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so many things that had to do with
the ideas I had in Morocco

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that I completely neglected my studies.

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I decided to return here to the region.

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I inquired at the University of Vic

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I wanted to study something that
had to do with the social use

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Because I'm... I try to be very sociable.
I like to do...

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I like my professional life
to be related to

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what I like, obviously.

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And I love the social issue.

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And then I decided to study
social education because...

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Actually, the word says it
all, "social education".

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I went to Morocco
to do my field work and I loved it.

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I really enjoyed this experience

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to go see the world from
another point of view.

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Until then I had known...

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Because I had lived there with family.

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I lived there as a child, and so forth.

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But didn't knew Morocco's
educational environment.

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I did know it, but as a student,
when I was a little boy,

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but I didn't know institutions, agencies.

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I didn't know the administration.

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And so, going there to
do my field work was

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like an experience. Furthermore,
is to learn about your country

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from another point of view.

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And since then I go to Morocco

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with students who want
to do field work there.

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[Have you had a job?] Related to my
studies and, therefore, to entering

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the professional world, I have worked

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as a social educator at CRAES.

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Professor, University of Vic, of Arabic.

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As an educator for Caritas.

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Other than that I have worked in
factories, companies...

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Temporary jobs.

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Pizzerias, supermarkets...

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Let's say that all these jobs

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companies, factories,

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industrial, etc.

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Happened before finishing my degrees.

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[Difficulties and benefits]
Many times when you are an immigrant

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and, in my case, I am Moroccan

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and you have two degrees, for example,
social education and psychopedagogy

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when you look for an employment

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a lot of times that makes things easier.

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"It's someone called Youcef Allawi"

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First of all this already...

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Already sticks out... more.

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As we said, than a Jordi [Catalan name]
something or other because with Jordis...

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You couldn't work in a public school or

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you couldn't get a public sector
job if you weren't Spanish.

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Or you weren't European.

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So that was a shock to me.

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You've lived here for 13
years, you've always felt

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more integrated than the opposite.

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You felt maybe
one of many out there.

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And you get here and you find
the doors closed.

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[Any advise?]
Well, if you study

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you have a social promotion.

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You climb. However, if you do not study
you will always be...

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You may have other
opportunities, of course.

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But you're always at the bottom.
And when you're at the bottom

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and you are a foreigner...

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I say, unfortunately,
it's the reality of things.

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You're still a foreigner.
You are, maybe, part of the Moroccan group.

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Maybe if you were American or something
else, maybe it wouldn't be the case.

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Maybe, as we said, not
knowing the language,

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dropping out of school... All this

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makes you still be there.
Makes you unable to get away from it.

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And having studied surely helps you

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to reflect and be more strategic.

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To have more tools and resources

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to cope with your
day to day needs.

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We are all equal but some
are more than others