ODETTE

“Many people think that once they arrive in Europe, life changes. For the better…”

That was not the case for Odette, a 40-year-old woman who fled Cameroon “because my life was in danger.” She tells me her story while holding her wonderful baby girl born here in Italy, not even two years ago, who sings a tune of her own while waiting to go to nursery.

“Now I have so much strength and will to live” – the baby bursts into her own laughter on the words ‘strength’ and ‘live’, she has realised we are talking about her – “But it has been so hard.”

Odette’s odyssey is paradigmatic of so many migrants. Passages from one reception centre to another, without logical meaning. “In one of the many centres, there were six of us in a small room, all with very difficult stories. Constant fights were unavoidable because of an always high tension, a nightmare.” So she goes to a friend’s, but with no job and no papers.

Odette applies for asylum as soon as she arrives in 2015. She receives one denial after another. The lawyer does not follow up with her. She is alone, she appeals once more but this time in addition to the denial, a removal order comes. “That day I thought I was going to die. I had been in Italy for years, had a job as a caregiver in good standing, a child and a partner. My world collapsed on me.” Odette enters a phase of severe discouragement.

A friend introduces her to a new lawyer who is a marvel. She resets everything and in November 2023 Odette is granted humanitarian protection.

Now the baby is with me. Mum has gone to take pictures and I am her very amused babysitter. She pulls my beard, removes my glasses. She laughs, laughs, laughs. Like her mother.

These new, wonderful Italian women.