Before the game...
To ensure the best experience and receive feedback on the quality of the game, we would like to first ask you a few questions about your experiences on the topic of migration, and your expectations for this game. Thank you for providing us with your contribution!
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SKIP
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A few questions about your experience and expectations.
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A few questions about your experience and expectations.
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A few questions about your existing knowledge on European migration.
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Halfway there! A few more questions about your existing knowledge on European migration.
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A few questions about your existing knowledge on European migration.
Question 9/12
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Question 11/12
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Start
Your story
Hello Marie,
This is the start of your journey!
After leaving school at the age of 14, you married a fisherman, Abdoulaye, with whom you had three beautiful children.
However, in recent years, fishing resources have become scarce and you've found it difficult to support your family. Already strained by this difficult economic situation, your relationship with Abdoulaye deteriorated when he proposed taking your eldest child, aged 15, out of school so that she could find a job and earn money for the family. After another argument, Abdoulaye left the family home. “If you don't want your daughter to work and earn money, you are on your own!” he said before leaving! You decide to divorce.
At 33, with no qualifications or professional experience, you are now a single mother with even fewer financial resources than before.
For you, there's no question of taking your children out of school: you dream of a life less demanding than your own. You also dream of Europe where, according to the villagers, life is simple and there's no shortage of work.
To get by, it seems there is no choice but to leave…
Home
Minigame 1
Barometer of determinants
There are various reasons for leaving or having to leave your home country. What do you think are the main determinants making Marie leave Senegal? Find below more information on each category before answering the question on the right.
Culture & Identity
Environment
Education
Economic situation
Family life
Political insecurity
Minigame 1
Barometer of determinants
Were your guesses right? Find out more about Marie's determinants for departure.
Environment
Culture & Identity
Marie is not leaving due to environmental causes.
No, Marie is not leaving due to cultural emancipation or other identity reasons.
Political insecurity
Education
Marie is not leaving due to political insecurity.
Marie is leaving to have a greater opportunity to offer her children a quality education, especially in a country where schooling is free.
Family life
Economic situation
No, Marie is not leaving due to family reunification or other family matters.
Yes, Marie is leaving to improve the economical situation of herself, and most importantly her family.
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
Do you want to migrate to Mauritania alone or with your family? At first glance, it may seem simpler and quicker to leave them alone... The journey may be long and dangerous, and you don't want to expose your children to that... But as a mother, leaving your children behind seems unthinkable... What if they hated you for ‘abandoning’ them? What if you never saw them again? It is certainly the most difficult choice you have ever had to make in your life...
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Migrate with your family
Migrate alone
Accommodation
After some thought, and aware of the risks involved, you decide to cross the Mauritanian border with your 3 children without your ex-husband's authorization.
You arrive in Guédé around noon. You spend the afternoon looking for someone to take you across the Senegal river to the other side of the border. You find a smuggler who can get you across the border that evening, but it will cost you half your savings. So much for savings, with the children, you prefer to shorten the stages of your journey as much as possible.
So as not to alert anyone, you decide to leave the house at night and explain nothing of your plans to the children before leaving.
When night falls, you meet the smuggler who drives you to Donaye a small village on the banks of the Senegal river from where you take a pirogue to cross the border. On the boat, your youngest son is afraid, shouts and cries. Throughout the crossing, you try in vain to reassure and calm him. Once in Mauritania, you explain to your son that he must remain calm so as not to be noticed by the border guards. On the banks, your smuggler calls a Mauritanian “colleague” to drive to Nouakchott.
On the day of departure, you take advantage of the fact that the children are at school to pack a bag, snacks and bottles of water for the trip. After double-counting all your savings, you put your money in a small bag.
At 11:30 p.m., it's time to leave. You wake up the children, take 5 minutes to explain your plan and tell them that you have to leave so as not to miss the bus that leaves at 7 a.m. from Saint-Louis (the nearest big city) for Guédé, close to the Mauritanian border. In the evening, with the children still half asleep, you walk the 25 kilometers to the Saint-Louis bus station. You arrive just in time to buy 4 tickets and board the bus before departure.
You arrive in the capital of Mauritania in the early hours of the morning, reassured that this first stage of your journey has gone off without a hitch…
Nouakchott
Capital and most-populous city in Mauritania.
- 1.195.600 inhabitants
- One of the largest cities in the Sahara desert
Welcome to Nouakchott!
INFO
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
Do you accept the old lady’s proposal? You are a foreigner in this country and you feel so vulnerable... Especially with your children! The old lady's offer is tempting because it guarantees you a roof over your head. But can you trust her? What if it's a trap? Wouldn't it be safer to find a solution on your own?
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Decline the offer and find your own way
Accept the kind offer
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
You feel discouraged and think you do not have any perspective in Mauritania. What do you do? The future for you and your children in Mauritania seems uncertain. You feel that it is difficult to be a foreigner in this country. Would it be easier in another country? Or worse, and in that case, are you not so badly off in Mauritania? What if it was a mistake to leave home? You are tormented by doubt and consider all the options: stay in Mauritania and hope for better conditions for you and your children in the near future, leave for Europe, return to Senegal. All these options have their positive and negative sides, but you have to make a choice...
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Go back to Senegal
Continue your journey and leave to another country
Stay in Mauritania
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
You decide to go to France. To enter French territory, you must apply for a visa, which means returning to Senegal. A visa will allow you to arrive and settle in France with peace of mind, and will certainly facilitate your integration in France. But returning to Senegal ‘just’ to get a visa can be discouraging: it will take a long time and you will have to face your family and the people in the village you left so suddenly... What if you leave without a visa? Some of your friends have already tried to reach Europe without a residence permit. Even if they break the law, the ‘land of human rights’ will not endanger the lives of those who cross its borders without a visa, will it?
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Go the irregular way
Go back to Senegal and acquire a VISA
Nouakchott
Second-largest city of Mauritania and a major hot spot for migrant smuggling.
- 173.525 inhabitants (2023)
Welcome to Nouadhibou!
INFO
France, here I come!
It took you two whole years to reach France from Nouadhibou. After various obstacles (crossing the sea, fear of border guards and police, finding money for the various journeys, making sure not to fall into the hands of traffickers, etc.), you arrived in Seine-Saint-Denis (to the north of Paris) with your eldest daughter.
CONTINUE
Minigame 2
Minigame
Match the permit to the description! Read the description, and then click on the number in the front to try your luck with finding the corresponding permit. Once you have answered all questions, you can go to the yellow Continue button below and see what are the correct answers.
It is required to enter and stay in France for more than 3 months. It is granted by the French consular authorities and is generally issued for study, work or family reasons.
It must be made in France at the prefecture. If your application is accepted, you will be granted refugee status and a residence permit. If your application is rejected, you will be turned away and asked to leave French territory.
You are a non-European foreign national, have found a job in France and you already have a long-stay visa.
You are a non-European foreign national who has come to France for higher education without a residence permit for personal or family reasons. You are registered in a public or private institution of higher education or initial training or in a higher professional training organization.
You have family ties in France (spouse of a French national, foreign national who entered through family reunification, parent of a French child, etc.), have rendered services to France (e.g. enlistment in the Foreign Legion) or you benefit from international protection (e.g. refugee).
It requests that the conditions set out in the Immigration Act of January 2024 be respected. Since this Act came into force, workers must have three years‘ residence in France and twelve months’ seniority in a profession specified by decree (jobs in tension) in order to be eligible for regularisation.
You are a non-European foreign national who has been residing in France with a residence permit for at least 18 months and would like to bring your spouse and minor children to France.
Minigame 2
Minigame
Click on the permits to reveal their descriptions and explanations. Did you get the quiz right?
Long-stay visa
It is required to enter and stay in France for more than 3 months. It is granted by the French consular authorities and is generally issued for study, work or family reasons.
Asylum request
It must be made in France at the prefecture. If your application is accepted, you will be granted refugee status and a residence permit. If your application is rejected, you will be turned away and asked to leave French territory.
Student permit
You are a non-European foreign national who has come to France for higher education without a residence permit for personal or family reasons. You are registered in a public or private institution of higher education or initial training or in a higher professional training organization.
Residence permits for workers
You are a non-European foreign national, have found a job in France and you already have a long-stay visa.
10-year resident card
You have family ties in France (spouse of a French national, foreign national who entered through family reunification, parent of a French child, etc.), have rendered services to France (e.g. enlistment in the Foreign Legion) or you benefit from international protection (e.g. refugee).
“Retailleau circular”
Family reunification
It requests that the conditions set out in the Immigration Act of January 2024 be respected. Since this Act came into force, workers must have three years‘ residence in France and twelve months’ seniority in a profession specified by decree (jobs in tension) in order to be eligible for regularisation.
You are a non-European foreign national who has been residing in France with a residence permit for at least 18 months and would like to bring your spouse and minor children to France.
France
Settling in France
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
By taking advantage of the OEPRE programme, you will be able to improve your understanding of the French school system thanks to a dedicated programme. With the Grdr's sociolinguistic workshops, you will be able to better understand the specificities of French society (getting your bearings, the administration, the healthcare system, meals, etc.) and meet other immigrant women in a supportive environment.
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Find help with the socio-linguistic workshops of Grdr
Find help with OEPRE
Nouakchott
Capital and most-populous city in Mauritania.
- 1.195.600 inhabitants
- One of the largest cities in the Sahara desert
Welcome to Nouakchott!
INFO
In Mauritania
Life in Mauritania is not easy. You work a lot as a home help for the family that has taken you in, and you also help out in their restaurant. Even so, you cannot send your family as much money as you had hoped. With such a heavy workload, you do not have time to socialize and the feeling of loneliness increases, especially as you miss your children enormously. You feel trapped because you do not have the feeling the situation will get better. You do not see any perspective to improve your family's conditions in Nouakchott.
One night, when you cannot fall asleep, your cousin from France calls to check up on you. She explains to you that by doing the same job as you in Mauritania, she earns a lot more money than you (€1,400/month in France versus €120/month in Mauritania). After hanging up, you think it would be a good idea to join her in France. You know a little French (you learned the basics at school) and you know someone who would be willing to help you there. You think that with better purchasing power, you could manage to accumulate enough savings to ensure better conditions for your family and be able to return to Senegal after a few months or years of work.
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
You decide to go to France. To enter French territory, you must apply for a visa, which means returning to Senegal. A visa will allow you to arrive and settle in France with peace of mind, and will certainly facilitate your integration in France. But returning to Senegal ‘just’ to get a visa can be discouraging: it will take a long time and you will have to face your family and the people in the village you left so suddenly... What if you leave without a visa? Some of your friends have already tried to reach Europe without a residence permit. Even if they break the law, the ‘land of human rights’ will not endanger the lives of those who cross its borders without a visa, will it?
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Go the irregular way
Go back to Senegal and acquire a VISA
How to get a VISA for France
You return to Senegal to apply for a visa to enter France legally. After taking the opposite route to the one you took a few months earlier, you are delighted to be reunited with your friends and family and give them a big hug!You are looking for information about applying for a long-stay visa in France and here is what you find online:
- Long-stay visa with residence permit (exempts you from having to apply for a residence permit from the prefecture as soon as you arrive in France) if you are student, employee (permanent contract) or spouse of a French national.
- Long-stay visa with residence permit to be applied for within two months of arrival if you are family of a French citizen, self-employed, worker (including fixed-term contract worker), retired or spouse of retired person or artist.
“To enter and stay in France for more than 3 months, you need a long-stay visa. This visa is issued by the French consular authorities. The long-stay visa allows you to enter and stay in France for between 4 months and 1 year. It also allows you to travel (without another visa) within the Schengen area, provided you do not exceed 90 days during its period of validity. There are different types of visa, depending on the purpose and duration of your stay, and your intention to settle permanently in France.
There is also a temporary long-stay visa, valid from 4 to 6 months. It can be issued if you are coming to France as a visitor, and in this case you must be able to live on your own resources. When your visa expires, you must return to your country of origin or apply for a residence permit at the prefecture within 2 months of the end of your visa.”
Without having a job in France, you decide to apply for a temporary long-stay visa, in the hope of finding a job locally.
After several months of paperwork, collecting the necessary documents and saving money, you and your three children are granted a visa! With the help of your family, you manage to buy 4 plane tickets to Paris. The journey (re)begins!
France
Socialising
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
After attending 3 club sessions and discussing with other participants, you have started to think about launching your own project. You know it can be a long road, but now you know what you want to do, and you feel motivated. You are still hesitating about where to set up your business and which theme to choose. First, you think about setting up a development project in your home village in Senegal. This project will allow you to rediscover your culture and it will be easier to implant as you already know the customers and the business culture in this country. On the other hand, you are thinking of opening your own natural cosmetics micro-business that will allow you to develop your skills and learn more about the French business culture. Even though your business will be based in France, you want to use Senegalese natural ingredients to keep a link with your culture and show its benefits in France.
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Set up your own natural cosmetics micro-business
Develop projects in your home village in Senegal
Entrepreneurship
Foreign or migrant entrepreneurs
In France, foreign entrepreneurs account for 19% of investment in construction (compared with 6% for French entrepreneurs), 14% in transport/ delivery/ vehicles (compared with 10% for French entrepreneurs), 8% in sales/ trade/ e-commerce (compared with 12%) and 4% in internet/ information technology (compared with 9%).
Source: Musée de l’Histoire et de l’Immigration
Number and type of employment of residents in France (% of total employed persons acc. to their citizenship)
Number and type of employment of residents in Spain (% of total employed persons acc. to their citizenship)
Number and type of employment of residents in Italy (% of total employed persons acc. to their citizenship)
Where to go?
Reaching Morocco from Mauritania is a perilous journey.
You can either go through Algeria, but the border between Morocco and Algeria is heavily militarised because of the tensions between the two countries.
Or you can go up through the Western Sahara, the disputed territory that separates Mauritania from Morocco.
You chose this second option, knowing that to cross the Western Sahara and reach Morocco, you would have to cross several ‘sand walls’ (also known as Berm) that fragment the territory.
CONTINUE
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
You are caught by the police while trying to get to Guergerat. How to react? You feel very tired with your situation and are tempted by cooperating with the police. At first glance, it seems to be the most reasonable decision. But what will happen at the police station? What if they send you back to Senegal? What if they mistreat you? How long will you stay at the police station? Won’t you waste more time and money? Many questions come to your mind at this moment.
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Cooperate with the police
Run away
You have arrived in Tarfaya, on the Atlantic coast. Your situation is very precarious and you are in a limbo state : you have lost all taste for life, have no perspective, and you feel completely lost.
In Tarfaya, a number of migrants are hoping to reach the island of Fuerteventura in Spain. After a few months of despair, a migrant woman you met there tells you that one of her friends managed to get there, found a job and that her life is much better today. This story gives you hope and strength. You are seriously considering making the crossing and you approach the smugglers who organise the crossing on makeshift boats. The crossing scares you because you know that many people lose their lives there, but you tell yourself that your situation cannot improve in Morocco.
Fortunately, on the evening of the crossing, the weather was fine and the sea was not too rough. After several hours at sea in an icy wind, and scared to death, you reach Fuerteventura.
CONTINUE
France
Minigame 2
Minigame
Match the permit to the description! Read the description, and then click on the number in the front to try your luck with finding the corresponding permit. Once you have answered all questions, you can go to the yellow Continue button below and see what are the correct answers.
It is required to enter and stay in France for more than 3 months. It is granted by the French consular authorities and is generally issued for study, work or family reasons.
It must be made in France at the prefecture. If your application is accepted, you will be granted refugee status and a residence permit. If your application is rejected, you will be turned away and asked to leave French territory.
You are a non-European foreign national, have found a job in France and you already have a long-stay visa.
You are a non-European foreign national who has come to France for higher education without a residence permit for personal or family reasons. You are registered in a public or private institution of higher education or initial training or in a higher professional training organization.
You have family ties in France (spouse of a French national, foreign national who entered through family reunification, parent of a French child, etc.), have rendered services to France (e.g. enlistment in the Foreign Legion) or you benefit from international protection (e.g. refugee).
It requests that the conditions set out in the Immigration Act of January 2024 be respected. Since this Act came into force, workers must have three years‘ residence in France and twelve months’ seniority in a profession specified by decree (jobs in tension) in order to be eligible for regularisation.
You are a non-European foreign national who has been residing in France with a residence permit for at least 18 months and would like to bring your spouse and minor children to France.
Minigame 2
Minigame
Click on the permits to reveal their descriptions and explanations. Did you get the quiz right?
Long-stay visa
It is required to enter and stay in France for more than 3 months. It is granted by the French consular authorities and is generally issued for study, work or family reasons.
Asylum request
It must be made in France at the prefecture. If your application is accepted, you will be granted refugee status and a residence permit. If your application is rejected, you will be turned away and asked to leave French territory.
Student permit
You are a non-European foreign national who has come to France for higher education without a residence permit for personal or family reasons. You are registered in a public or private institution of higher education or initial training or in a higher professional training organization.
Residence permits for workers
You are a non-European foreign national, have found a job in France and you already have a long-stay visa.
10-year resident card
You have family ties in France (spouse of a French national, foreign national who entered through family reunification, parent of a French child, etc.), have rendered services to France (e.g. enlistment in the Foreign Legion) or you benefit from international protection (e.g. refugee).
“Retailleau circular”
Family reunification
It requests that the conditions set out in the Immigration Act of January 2024 be respected. Since this Act came into force, workers must have three years‘ residence in France and twelve months’ seniority in a profession specified by decree (jobs in tension) in order to be eligible for regularisation.
You are a non-European foreign national who has been residing in France with a residence permit for at least 18 months and would like to bring your spouse and minor children to France.
Work
Socialising
Did you know?
By taking part in several sessions of the Club “Women’s entrepreneurship”, you discover the skills radar. The skills radar is a tool set up by Grdr to list all the skills and know-how used by migrants (with professional and/or solidarity projects). This tool was created in response to problems frequently encountered by migrants who set up projects and by the people who support them: not valuing the experience and skills acquired in the country of origin and during the migratory journey, failure to take into account the obstacles associated with setting up projects (language barrier, administrative complexity, difficulties in intercultural relations, etc.).
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
Thanks to the skills radar, you are gaining self-confidence and becoming more aware of your skills. A friend from the Club has even suggested that you work together to develop a project to sell cosmetics. What do you do?
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Decline the offer to work together
Work together
A new adventure begins for you!
You accepted your friend's proposal and started your own cosmetics business with her. This encourages you to take steps to regularise your situation and to apply for a residence permit. According to your research, you can apply for a residence permit for entrepreneurs and the self-employed. Good news! The Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture has granted you a temporary residence permit for business start-ups and self-employed workers for a period of one year. This residence permit allows you to set up your cosmetics business with your friend, but you will have to regularise your situation again in 8 months' time. During this period, you managed to send money to your family in Senegal.
CONTINUE
Work
A new life...
You have been in Morocco for 3 years and now live in Rabat. You have found a job as a cleaner in a hotel and you manage to send a third of your salary to your family (around 70€/month). Despite this (small) financial support, your family wants you to return to Senegal.
CONTINUE
Return to Senegal
You are back in Senegal, and it's far from being a piece of cake... Even though you are very happy to be back with your family and friends, there is a lot of gossip about you: ‘Ha ha, she thought she could go to Europe on her own, and now she's back in the village! It's all very well to dream of a better future, but the role of a woman is certainly not to travel the roads alone! What a good-for-nothing!’
This affects you and you feel ashamed of having failed your emigration. Despite this situation, you try to remain optimistic and you know that the gossip about you will eventually die down. You hope to be able to earn enough money by selling clothes that you sew at the market, so that you can settle in Dakar with your children and find a job as a governess for Western expatriate families.
Mauritania
In Nouakchott, you met a Mauritanian teacher of your children's school. After a few months of romance, you got married and moved into his house with your children. As well as making you happy, your marriage has facilitated your integration into Mauritanian society and eased the financial and administrative difficulties you have had to face up to now.
When you left Senegal, you could not have wished for a better life for you and your children: they continue to go to school and, although your husband has a steady income, you earn your living with odd jobs so as to be financially independent. Putting aside a little money each month, you are even thinking of opening a small cosmetics store in Nouakchott.
Limbo
After 4 years in France, you apply for a residence permit for workers. Unfortunately, your application is rejected. You are then subject to an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory) within 30 days.
Following this decision, you cannot be regularized for the next 3 years, and must leave French territory by your own means.
The OQTF is a blow to your morale. You feel trapped and disappointed. You don't understand the French authorities' decision: you are working and want to integrate into society, so why shouldn't you be granted a residence permit?
Despite it being illegal and the risk of being placed in a detention center or placed under house arrest, you decide to stay in France so that your daughter can continue her studies. She is about to take her baccalauréat and plans to go to university to study law. You manage to send money to Senegal for the two younger children, so that they too can continue their education.
You are still struggling with the administrative formalities, but you are confident you will be able to apply for a new residence permit in 3 years' time, and so perhaps finally open your own cosmetics store in Noisy-le-Grand.
Residence permit
You take part in the Grdr association's sociolinguistic workshops. You meet other immigrant women facing the same difficulties as you, who become your friends. As well as giving you a better understanding of the French school system, these workshops help you to learn more about your rights and the administrative procedures specific to France (social security, unemployment insurance, retirement, family allowances, etc.).
The association employee who accompanies you helps you complete your application for a residence permit. In particular, she explains you that, since you work in a “job in tension”, you can apply for an exceptional residence permit ("Retailleau circular"), which may increase your chances of regularization, provided you have been residing in France for 3 years without interruption and have 24 months' worth of pay slips, including 8 in the last 12 months.
Thanks to this piece of advice and after 5 years working in France without documents, you obtain a residence permit! You have a difficult job but your efforts have finally paid off. You are grateful for this decision, which allows you to live your life in France with serenity surrounded by your eldest daughter, your cousin and all your friends but away from your two children in Senegal who miss you very much.
The future
You miss your family in Sénégal and are often discouraged by the French administration (which can be very complicated!), even though you entered France regularly. You realize it is easier to develop projects with a residence permit and without living in fear and administrative obstacles. You feel secure, well integrated into the community and able to move forward. You are proud of what you have achieved and do not regret your choice, even if you would have preferred not to have to leave your country.
Open questions
The only downside is that your children are far away and it seems more difficult than expected to bring them to France through family reunification... Even though you miss your children terribly, you are reassured by the fact that you can send them money every month and support local associations that work near your village.
You feel you have made progress professionally, even if your administrative status is not yet secure. You are also happy to have met someone with whom you can share your life.
Trapped
You are well settled in Noisy-le-Grand and you are grateful to have a house, a job and a loving husband.
However, you feel trapped by your situation: you do not know whether you will ever be legalised, you miss your children terribly, and without a residence permit, you can neither bring them legally to France nor return to Senegal... Without a residence permit, it is also difficult for you to undertake new projects, both personal and professional.
You console yourself by telling yourself that your emigration was not in vain and that it allows you to send money to your family every month.
Morocco
You do not know whether you would rather stay or go back to Senegal. You miss your family, but you feel shattered by everything you have been through since you left (using smugglers, constantly risking your life, violence from border guards, racism, etc.). You do not know whether you will have the courage to face the people in your village because you feel you have ‘failed’ to reach Europe. In the meantime, before making a decision, you stay in Morocco, even though life is far from easy there, and you make friends to make your daily life more bearable.
The End
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The correct answer is...
- Immigrant women seeking to be (more) integrated into the world of work
The club was born out of the realization that many migrant women find it difficult to enter the job market. Thus, it aims at supporting immigrant women seeking to be more integrated into the labour market.
Political insecurity / Dictatorship: The person needs to flee a situation of political insecurity, war or conflict (non-respect of rights, physical threats, persecution particularly against LGBTQI+, failure of democracy), they are asylum seekers/refugees
New Pact on Migration and Asylum
The Pact on Migration and Asylum introduces new rules for managing migration and creating a unified asylum system at the European level, focusing on supporting member states that are located at the borders of the EU and often encounter the highest arrivals of refugees and asylum seekers. The pact was voted on in April 2024 and has specific goals in mind:
- More effective procedures: introducing pre-screening upon arrival, enhancing border controls, and improving IT systems and procedures
- Schengen borders: improving application and controls of Schengen borders
- Solidarity and integration: supporting especially vulnerable groups and improving integration into local communities overall
- Resilience and partnership: handling migrant and refugee crisis effectively and improving international partnerships to reduce migrant smuggling and abuse
The pact aims at managing responsibilities more clearly, and enabling member states who have to face a high influx of migrants to handle the heightened arrivals with the support of the other member states and relocation. This was especially developed due to the migrant crisis during the last decade, with border countries carrying the heaviest burden and national asylum management systems overflowing. The New Pact was adopted by the European Parliament during the voting in April 2024.
OEPRE - Opening schools to parents for children's success program
You decide to rely on the help of the free training programme OEPRE, to receive your training and improve your future in this new country.
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THinking...
Lying in bed, you cannot sleep. Today, you had to ask the village grocer for a new loan so you could prepare meals for your children. “This is the last time I will give you credit, Marie. Especially since you never pay me back,” he told you. You have a few hundred grams of rice left over for tomorrow's meals, but what about the days after? This situation cannot go on... You absolutely must find a job. Even if it is frightening to start a new life somewhere else,you think it would be better for you and your family to leave Senegal to improve your living conditions.
The correct answer Is...
- People are living mostly in urban areas, with just under half the population living directly in cities.
Run away from the police
When the border guards stop you, you struggle furiously. To control you, they beat you violently, but you manage to escape and flee. You have succeeded to cross the last sand wall in the Western Sahara.
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Help the community
You want to set up development projects in your home village in Senegal while remaining in France. You prefer to develop your projects in your country of origin, so you know your customers.
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French culture and socialising
In France, people's lifestyles can be illustrated around the art of living. This means that they enjoy culture, eating out, shopping and visiting museums. When it comes to eating habits, the French attach great importance to lunchtime. It's a convivial time to get together and talk. Lunchtime is a sacred moment! As well as eating habits, there is also the famous aperitif hour, which is a time specific to France that even people abroad sometimes don't understand.
Politeness is also deeply rooted in French culture: kissing, saying thank you to someone, apologising and saying “bon appétit” are real social rituals. Most people in France use “le vouvoiement” which is a unique feature of the French language. It is the polite way of addressing someone instead of using the pronoun ‘tu’. In France also the debate is considered as an “art de vivre”. The French are keen on debating about anything and everything, and to tackle serious subjects such as current affairs, society, politics and ideas. Political debate has always been at the heart of French life.
The correct answer is...
The inability to get an appointment at the prefecture can quickly tip a person into illegality.Applying for a residence permit can be risky, because refusal to issue or renew a permit increasingly leads to the issue of an ‘Obligation to leave French territory’, or even a ‘Ban on Reentry to French Territory’.
New Pact on Migration and Asylum
The Pact on Migration and Asylum introduces new rules for managing migration and creating a unified asylum system at the European level, focusing on supporting member states that are located at the borders of the EU and often encounter the highest arrivals of refugees and asylum seekers. The pact was voted on in April 2024 and has specific goals in mind:
- More effective procedures: introducing pre-screening upon arrival, enhancing border controls, and improving IT systems and procedures
- Schengen borders: improving application and controls of Schengen borders
- Solidarity and integration: supporting especially vulnerable groups and improving integration into local communities overall
- Resilience and partnership: handling migrant and refugee crisis effectively and improving international partnerships to reduce migrant smuggling and abuse
The pact aims at managing responsibilities more clearly, and enabling member states who have to face a high influx of migrants to handle the heightened arrivals with the support of the other member states and relocation. This was especially developed due to the migrant crisis during the last decade, with border countries carrying the heaviest burden and national asylum management systems overflowing. The New Pact was adopted by the European Parliament during the voting in April 2024.
You decide to accept the woman's offer for accommodation
You are not sure you can trust her but it is the better option you have for you and your children. You have more time not worrying about finding an accomodation and manage to find a better payed job at school. Your children can go to class but are not considered as “real” pupils (they can't pass exams for instance) because they are not Mauritanian. They face discrimination and do not feel well at school since they are foreigners and do not speak Arabic. Despite this situation, you hope that your new job will help your children to get a better education.
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The correct answers are...
- Increasing the border controls at the Schengen borders and member states at EU borders
- Registration and pre-screening (identification, health, security, fingerprints, etc.) upon arrival of the asylum seeker
- Relieving the pressure on border member states by sharing the burden on the asylum application managements across member states and allowing relocation for registered migrants and asylum seekers
You decide to try to enter france irregularly
You know visa procedures can be long and do not want to wait. By taking this decision, you know that there are huge risks in taking migration routes as a woman and that you will be illegal. You know that there are boats from Morocco that will take you to the Canary Islands (Spain). To do this, you need to travel to Tarfaya, in the south of Morocco.
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Did you know?
Most migrations are transborder (see UNHCR). In 1989, there was a conflict between Senegal and Mauritania that led the two countries to have very poor diplomatic relations for years. The situation is calmer now and Mauritania became in the past decade an important transit but also host country for migrants.
Migrants in Morocco
Morocco has become step by step a staging post and even (often by default) a destination country for migrants. And the management of migratory flows is subject to a difficult balance between integration actions and policies and border security management.
Arriving in Morocco as an illegal immigrant means facing constant risks of repression from Moroccan policies .In fact, there are often police raids and discriminatory arrests. The treatment is quite brutal: arrest of asylum seekers and refugees without checking their papers, detention, forced removal to remote areas near the Algerian border, or to isolated areas in the south, near Tiznit, Errachidia, Benguerir, Beni Mellal and Marrakech. Many of them had to walk for several kilometres before reaching the first town from which they could try to return home. For example, the Oulad Ziane neighbourhood is a place of recurring tensions, with racist remarks and physical violence. Women are often the victims of exploitation and trafficking networks, and all kinds of violence, including sexual violence, persist. In addition, access to healthcare services is difficult for these groups of people, even though front-line services are, in principle, free.
You want to apply for a visa
You know visa procedures can be long but you do not want to take the risk to be illegal and to endanger yourself by taking migration routes.
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Education: The person wants or has to move away to attend certain studies and educational opportunities. This can also include professional training opportunities for their job.
The correct answers are...
- Increasing the border controls at the Schengen borders and member states at EU borders
- Registration and pre-screening (identification, health, security, fingerprints, etc.) upon arrival of the asylum seeker
- Relieving the pressure on border member states by sharing the burden on the asylum application managements across member states and allowing relocation for registered migrants and asylum seekers
The correct answer is...
- Immigrant women seeking to be (more) integrated into the world of work
The club was born out of the realization that many migrant women find it difficult to enter the job market. Thus, it aims at supporting immigrant women seeking to be more integrated into the labour market.
You want to go back to senegal
“Mommy, I want to go home. I want to go back to Senegal and be with my friends” your 12-year-old daughter keeps telling you. Completely discouraged by the discrimination your children face at school, you decide to follow your children's advice and return to Senegal in the hope of finding better prospects than in Mauritania.
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You decide to take your kids with you
You migrate with your family and take the risk of being illegal because you don’t have your ex-husband’s approval to leave the country with your children
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The correct answer is...
Despite common belief, the vast majority of so-called illegal immigrants do work and pay taxes to their host country.
You ask your cousin for help
For you, returning to Senegal is out of the question, but with limited prospects for you and your children in Mauritania, you are thinking of hitting the road again and heading for another country, ideally Europe. Therefore, you decide to call a cousin who lives in France and ask her questions about life there. She explains to you that by doing the same job as you in Mauritania (home help), she earns a lot more money than you (€1,500/month in France versus €120/month in Mauritania). Moving to France has two major advantages for you: there is no language barrier (you learned French at school) and it represents the best way for you and your children to improve your lives.
After careful consideration, you decide to move to France with your eldest daughter and send the younger two back to Senegal. You will try to ask for a family reunification once you have secured your situation in France.
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The correct answer is...
The geographical position. Mauritania's geographical position, and in particular its proximity to the Canary Islands, makes passage more accessible, thanks in particular to less rigid controls.
OEPRE (acronym for “Opening schools to parents for children's success”) is a free training program for newcomer and non-EU allophone parents, involving them in their child's schooling. Training sessions take place in schools, middle schools and high schools, on weekdays, at times that enable as many parents as possible to attend.
The correct answer is...
It houses the Oulad Ziane neighbourhood where there are recurring tensions, with racist remarks and physical violence present.
Seine-Saint-Denis
Seine-Saint-Denis is a department north-east of Paris. Although it is one of the smallest départements in France, it had a population of 1,701,072 in January 2024. Seine-Saint-Denis has welcomed a large number of inhabitants, following the rural exodus, the independence of the former French colonies and the labor needs of industry. Housing needs were often met by the construction of large housing estates: there are many in the department. Seine-Saint-Denis has a large immigrant population, making it one of the country's most mixed departments.
Family life: The person moves away to marry or for family reunification...
Did you know?
Most migrations are transborder (see UNHCR). In 1989, there was a conflict between Senegal and Mauritania that led the two countries to have very poor diplomatic relations for years. The situation is calmer now and Mauritania became in the past decade an important transit but also host country for migrants.
Women’s entrepreneurship Club
The club was born out of the realization that many migrant women find it difficult to enter the job market. They face particular problems linked to their gender, their immigrant status and/or dequalifications that confine them to employment sectors that do not correspond to their skills. This is why migrant women's associations have developed collective dynamics to overcome their individual constraints.
The Club "Entreprendre au Féminin" (transl. Women’s entrepreneurship) brings together associations, women with economic projects and/or those undergoing retraining, enabling migrant women to discuss their projects and obtain useful information and tools to implement them, while taking into account their specific needs.
To facilitate the overall process of inclusion for immigrant women, the club focuses on access to employment through the development of initiatives (associative, economic, etc.). It also aims to identify the skills (social, informal) of immigrant women to help them integrate into the world of work, by mobilizing the resources of the "Cité des Métiers". In addition, to enrich the sessions, professional speakers are occasionally invited to present existing schemes.
Your decision is made!
You take the bus to Nouadhibou, on the Atlantic coast, in the hope of catching a boat to the Canary Islands (Spain). You have two main possibilities to reach El Hierro island (the archipelago's southernmost island):
- Either you can board on a shipowner's boat to reach the Canary Islands or the Iberian peninsula. This is the fastest option, but also the most expensive.
- Or you can board on a pirogue. This is the cheapest option, but also the least safe.
People wishing to apply for asylum in France face a real obstacle course. The asylum application procedure is long, and not all applications will receive a favourable response.
Migrant population in France
The foreign population living in France is 5.3 million, or 7.8% of the total population. It is made up of 4.5 million immigrants who have not acquired French nationality and 0.8 million people born in France of foreign nationality. Source: INSEE, 2023 population estimates. According to the IOM: 281 million international migrants in 2022. Welcoming migrants in France
Migrants in France are welcomed by temporary accommodation facilities. At the beginning of 2024, the dedicated reception facilities had 119,732 places. According to the OFII (French Office of Immigration and Integration), it is 97% occupied, 75% of whom have an asylum application under consideration. The number of asylum seekers benefiting from reception conditions was 146,000 in December 2023, compared with 127,132 in May 2018.
Jobs in high demand
In France, we talk about "jobs in high demand" to refer to professions:- where there are more job openings than qualified or interested candidates to fill them;
- that are hiring the most and offer good prospects for the years to come.
Each year, a list of jobs in high demand is drawn up for each region. For example, in 2024, in the Ile-de-France region, the jobs most in demand were in the building and public works, para-medical, medical, electronics and electrical sectors.
Since 2 April 2024, the President of Senegal has been Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Your new life
You become increasingly familiar with your surroundings. Through work, the social center and your cousin's friends, you get to know French society and its peculiarities (“la bise”, strikes, the importance of meals and gastronomy, stinky cheeses, etc.).
Taking part in an event organized by an association of African women, you meet an employee, Bintou, working at Grdr, a French organization which carries out development projects in migrant-sending, transit and host countries. Bintou explains to you that in Europe, Grdr works for the socio-economic integration of migrants and supports them in carrying out projects in their country or territory of origin. In particular, she is in charge of the Club “Women's entrepreneurship”, which she invites you to join.
An overview of the Senegalese population
In 2023, the population of Senegal was 1.812.690. The total land area in Senegal is 196.710 per km². This land mass is around 36% the size of France. This makes Senegal the 25th smallest country in Africa and the 88th smallest in the world. Just under half the population (50%) live in cities. The median age in Senegal is 19.3 years.
Nouakchott - Mauritania
The current population of Mauritania is 5,022,441. Mauritania is an islamic republic. It is a denominational (Muslim) multi-party state. Regarding languages, we distinguish the official language, Arabic, three national languages, Pulaar, Soninke and Wolof, and French, a former official language which is still the language of working, education and administration. The median age in Mauritania is 21 years old in 2020. Mauritania's population is made up of Moors, Fulani, Soninké and Wolof. Nouakchott has been the capital of Mauritania since 1957 (previously the capital was Saint-Louis). Nouakchott has a population of 958,401 and a surface area of 1,000 km2. The population is mostly concentrated in Nouakchott, which accounts for 26% of the national population.
The level of education is particularly low for girls, which is partly explained by the relatively high number of child marriages and early pregnancies. The gross enrolment rate in higher education was 4% for women in 2020, compared with 8% for men.
The correct answer is...
In schools. Training sessions take place in schools, middle schools and high schools, on weekdays, at times that enable as many parents as possible to attend.
Arriving in France
It was your first time on a plane, and your children were very excited! But when they arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport, they were quickly taken aback: everything was so big, everything was so gray, everything was moving so fast, nobody was smiling... Luckily, your cousin welcomed you at the airport, otherwise you would have been lost, especially on public transport!
Your cousin took you in for a few weeks in her apartment in Noisy-le-Grand, but between her husband, her children and yours, there was not enough room. So you decided to leave her place, and found refuge in emergency shelters in the Paris region.
This situation was far from comfortable, especially with your children, but it is gradually improving… Thanks to your cousin's network, you have found a job as a care assistant in a caring home. The pay is decent (1,400€/month), which enabled you to obtain social housing in Seine-Saint-Denis.
Your children attend the social center and you all take part in the activities and events on offer. This enables you to meet people (often in the same situation as you) and get to know local organizations.
A few months later...
After several months in Paris without working and without having succeeded in obtaining a residence permit, you have found a job as a care assistant in a caring home, thanks to your cousin's network. The pay is decent (1,400€/month), but your job is undeclared. Therefore, you do not benefit from any social protection (unemployment insurance, pension contributions, medical cover), which is compulsory in France.
New school
At the start of the new school year, you manage to enroll your daughter in secondary school. She's delighted to be back at school! Unlike in Mauritania, her integration into the class is much easier, as she quickly becomes close to students of Senegalese origin. The situation is more complicated for you. You have trouble understanding the French school system. Grades, correspondence notebooks, class councils, remarks, detention hours - all this is a far cry from what happens in Senegalese schools! And even if you get by in French on a day-to-day basis, you find it hard to understand technical terms and often feel a lack of legitimacy (or even shame) when dealing with school staff. You would like to get more involved in your daughter's education to help her succeed. You have high hopes for her academic success. You discuss this with your cousin and her friends, who suggest 2 avenues: the OEPRE and the Grdr.
The Common European Asylum System (CEAS)
Starting in 1999 until 2020, the European Union has worked on the CEAS to establish a common asylum system that would be valid in all EU member states.The CEAS is governed by 5 deciding instruments and 1 agency:
- Asylum Procedures Directive: ensures fair and justified, quick, and qualitative decisions on asylum applications, provides special support to people with special needs, including unaccompanied minors or victims of torture
- Reception Conditions Directive: checks for a common and qualitative standard of reception conditions and measures (accommodation, provisions, health, etc.)
- Qualification Directive: handles international protection, making asylum decision more long-term and stable and ensuring access to rights and support measures for beneficiaries of international protection
- Dublin Regulation: establishes the state responsible for the asylum application; serves as an early detection system for problematic issues and solving them before they turn into grave problems
- EURODAC regulation: Supports the Dublin regulation, further giving law enforcement in all EU member states entry into the fingerprint and information database of migrants to handle prevent, identify, and investigate serious crimes, such as terrorism
The main agency behind the CEAS is the European Union Agency for Asylum. The Agency's main purpose is improving the application of CEAS and its regulations, and providing assistance to the member states in the assessment of asylum applications. In 2020, the CEAS was reformed through the New Pact on Asylum and Migration, with the goal of improving the efficiency of procedures, and to improve solidarity, responsibility, and partnerships with third countries and/ or non-EU countries.
New Pact on Migration and Asylum
The Pact on Migration and Asylum introduces new rules for managing migration and creating a unified asylum system at the European level, focusing on supporting member states that are located at the borders of the EU and often encounter the highest arrivals of refugees and asylum seekers. The pact was voted on in April 2024 and has specific goals in mind:
- More effective procedures: introducing pre-screening upon arrival, enhancing border controls, and improving IT systems and procedures
- Schengen borders: improving application and controls of Schengen borders
- Solidarity and integration: supporting especially vulnerable groups and improving integration into local communities overall
- Resilience and partnership: handling migrant and refugee crisis effectively and improving international partnerships to reduce migrant smuggling and abuse
The pact aims at managing responsibilities more clearly, and enabling member states who have to face a high influx of migrants to handle the heightened arrivals with the support of the other member states and relocation. This was especially developed due to the migrant crisis during the last decade, with border countries carrying the heaviest burden and national asylum management systems overflowing. The New Pact was adopted by the European Parliament during the voting in April 2024.
You will prevail!
After careful consideration, you decide to stay in Mauritania where you and your children have a roof over your head, where your children can go to school (even though it is far from easy for them) and where you have a job and can earn some money. You keep working hard in Nouakchott in the hope of being able to pay for your own place and for your children's education.
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Information about Nouadhibou and the Nouadhibou-Canary Islands journey
Between January and March 2024, 12,400 migrants reached the Canaries, compared to 2,200 the previous year. More than 80% of these boats passed through Mauritania. Nouadhibou, a coastal town in Mauritania, has become a migratory crossroads, sheltering around 30,000 migrants out of a total population of 140,000. Indeed, the migratory route to the Canary Islands is increasingly passing through this country, despite the European Union's efforts to stem the flow. Arrivals on the Spanish archipelago have risen sharply since the beginning of the year, with many departing from the coast of Mauritania. Many attractive factors make Mauritania a strategic choice for migrants. Its geographical position, and in particular its proximity to the Canary Islands, makes passage more accessible, thanks in particular to less rigid controls.
You want to start your own micro-enterprise
You want to set up your own natural cosmetics micro-business in France. You know that if you develop your micro-business, you'll be able to increase your skills and take on different challenges and that your status will remain precarious. You're also keen to promote the benefits of natural cosmetics from Senegal.
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Seine-Saint-Denis
Seine-Saint-Denis is an attractive department with different support and services. For example in the solidarity area, since November 2021, the Department has had a new public policy tool to combat discrimination: the Departmental Observatory against Discrimination and for Equality. Social assistants are on hand in all the city's neighborhoods to help residents. The "Maison de la solidarité" is open to homeless people and families in great difficulty. Exceptional assistance for people experiencing temporary difficulties has also been set up.
The department also boasts a large number of cultural and social associations. It has several sports clubs belonging to federations approved by the Ministry.
You decide to decline the kind offer
You will try to find another way because you are not sure you can trust her. You manage to register children at school and put a lot of hope in it, especially in finding accommodation with the help of the school. Despite all your efforts, your children are not considered as “real” pupils (they can't pass exams for instance) because they are not Mauritanian. They face discrimination and do not feel well at school since they are foreigners and do not speak Arabic.
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The Senegalese flag is influenced by its status as having been one of the oldest French colonies in Africa. With some intellectuals wanting a flag that combines European and African values, they opted for a similar tricolour to the French flag. After achieving autonomous status in 1958, influence from the Sudanese Republic (today, Mali) and finally independence as its own country in 1960, Senegal kept the tricolour design and added the green star, as a symbol of hope and the major religions of the country.
You decide to migrate alone
You migrate alone because it is easier to cross the Mauritanian border without your children, even though you will miss them very much and that it breaks your heart so deeply.
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Economic / Social safety net: The person moves away to access better socio-economic prospects (decent employment, increase in living standards) to improve their life quality or to support for the needs of the family remaining in the country, etc.
Two years go by...
You have been in France for 2 years now, and you have met a Senegalese man who moved to France almost 10 years ago. After a few months of romance, you got married and moved into his flat in Noisy-le-Grand.
As well as making you happy, your marriage has facilitated your integration into French society, since your husband is involved in several solidarity organizations. Thanks to him, you discover the Club “Women’s entrepreneurship” workshops implemented by the French NGO Grdr.
“Sexual and gender-based violence may be exacerbated by policies aiming to restrict migration, or to increase control of borders, which can push women into adopting dangerous routes to arrive in their country of destination. Women suffer sexual violence in border areas, where they are blocked by various actors (smugglers, police officers, soldiers and civilians lurking around the camps) who abuse their bodies. They are often dependent on the goodwill of the men who control the blockades and border crossings, and are forced, in a more or less coercive way, to have sexual relations in order to be able to continue their journey. Those who refuse are generally detained longer in border areas.
The violence suffered by women on the road to exile and in the country of arrival is often not recognized, unlike the violence produced in the country of origin (excision, for example). A large number of women who have fled gender-based violence in their own countries, and in particular sexual violence, have also suffered it on the road and on arrival [in Paris], due to a lack of accommodation.” Elsa Tyszler, sociologist.
Migration routes of women
Worldwide, 48% of people who decide to migrate are women. Although they account for almost half of all migrants, women are particularly vulnerable on migration routes: they face a higher risk of gender-based violence including trafficking, sexual exploitation and forced marriages.
“Gender influences reasons for migrating, who migrates and to where, how people migrate and the networks they use, opportunities and resources available at destinations, and relations with the country of origin. Risks, vulnerabilities and needs are also shaped in large part by one’s gender, and often vary drastically for different groups. The roles, expectations, relationships and power dynamics associated with being a man, woman, boy or girl, and whether one identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or intersex (LGBTI), significantly affect all aspects of the migration process, and can also be affected in new ways by migration.” - International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Your journey
When you arrived in the Canaries, you spent several weeks in an overcrowded reception center, where you were accompanied by a Spanish NGO who organized your transfer to Galicia, in northern Spain. Thanks to this organization, you were able to find several odd jobs: grape-picking in wineries, dishwashing in a restaurant, cleaning in hotels, etc. Once you had saved enough money, you carpooled across the Pyrenees into France from Santiago de Compostela, and spent a few nights in Toulouse before reaching Paris.
In Paris, you were welcomed by your cousin, with whom you live in Noisy-le-Grand. You sleep on the sofa bed in the living room.
Although you trust her, you find it very difficult to tell your cousin about your journey because it makes you anxious. At night, you relive the most stressful situations you may have faced, waking up panicked and sweating. Your cousin tells you that you are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which is unfortunately common among migrants who have been through difficult situations... With her support, you dare to go to a migrant aid association, which puts you in touch with a psychologist, in the hope of overcoming your trauma.
First things to do when you arrive...
Once in Nouakchott, your priority is to feed and water the children. So you settle down in a small restaurant to rest and regain your strength. While eating, your son asks you: “Mom, what are we going to do now?. “Where are we going to stay?” your eldest daughter asks. Just then, an elderly Mauritanian woman who has been watching you for some time approaches your table. “I bet you are Senegalese and you want to get to Europe. Your journey is likely to be long and perilous... I would not have suggested it to a man, but if you wish, I can welcome you and your children into my home, and in exchange you can take care of the household chores. That way, you won't have to worry about your accommodation, and you will be doing the old lady a favor. What do you think?”
The correct answer is...
Many children do not have access to school. The level of education is particularly low for girls, which is partly explained by the relatively high number of child marriages and early pregnancies. The gross enrolment rate in higher education was 4% for women in 2020, compared with 8% for men.
Participate and work together
You accept your friend's proposal and start a cosmetics business with her. You know that starting your own business can be difficult and risky, but you are confident that it will be worth it.
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After a day of wandering in Guédé, during which you felt vulnerable and alone, night has finally fallen. You meet the smuggler who drives you to Donaye a small village on the banks of the Senegal river from where you take a pirogue to cross the border. On the boat, you are afraid since you cannot swim, but fortunately, you arrive in Mauritania safe and sound. On the banks, your smuggler calls a Mauritanian “colleague” to drive to Nouakchott.
You arrive in the capital of Mauritania in the early hours of the morning, reassured that this first stage of your journey has gone off without a hitch…There, your priority is to find a place to live and a job to earn money. You enter a restaurant to eat and regain your strength, and in the course of a conversation with the manager, she offers you free accommodation in exchange for your help with household chores and the children.
Your journey
You do not want to take any risk with your children, especially without their father’s authorization. You make the decision to leave the country alone, even if it breaks your heart to leave your children behind. You share your plans with your sister-in-law, whom you trust blindly and who agrees to entrust your children. You promise to send her money as soon as you are settled in Europe, so that she can continue to provide for your children's schooling.
One evening, after school, you tell your children that you'll be leaving the next morning, after their aunt has picked them up. Your children are in shock, cry and beg you to take them with you, but you stick to your decision.
As planned, after heartbreaking goodbyes with your children, you hit the road very early the next morning. You walk the 25 kilometers to the Saint-Louis (the nearest big city) bus station from where you take a bus to Guédé, close to the Mauritanian border. You arrive in Guédé late in the afternoon and spend the evening looking for someone to take you across the Senegal river to the other side of the border. You find a smuggler who can get you across the border the next evening.
Your Journey
It has been a long journey to Noisy-le-Grand, where you are now settled with your daughter.
The pirogue crossing from Nouadhibou to El Hierro was particularly traumatic for both of you. You know that you were very lucky during the crossing, as many do not survive and can spend days adrift without food or water.
When you arrived in the Canaries, you spent several weeks in an overcrowded reception center, where you were accompanied by a Spanish NGO who organized your transfer to Galicia, in northern Spain. Thanks to this organization, you were able to find several odd jobs: grape-picking in wineries, dishwashing in a restaurant, cleaning in hotels, etc.
Once you had saved enough money, you carpooled across the Pyrenees into France from Santiago de Compostela. Arriving in Paris, you were welcomed by your cousin, with whom you live in Noisy. You sleep with your daughter on the sofa bed in the living room. Thanks to your cousin's network, you have found a job as a care assistant in a caring home. The pay is decent (1,400€/month), but your job is undeclared. Therefore, you do not benefit from any social protection (unemployment insurance, pension contributions, medical cover), which is compulsory in France.
Culture / Emancipation / Identity: The person wants to achieve cultural emancipation, discover and build their own identity, is curious about the world, and has a desire to discover something new and different in their life. They want to encounter new people and discover new cultures and sides to themselves.
Grdr implements activities designed to contribute to the social and professional integration of immigrant women, as well as skills-building sessions for social players on subjects linked to women's migration, interculturality and language learning.
Socio-linguistic workshops aim at creating exchange spaces for migrant women who need to practice spoken French, find out about and understand the codes of French society, their rights in France and the workings of the institutions they encounter in their daily lives. Local services are invited to take part in the workshops to get to know each other better.
Grdr’s association's socio-linguistic workshops
You decide to rely on the help of Grdr to enhance your understanding of the country you are in and to find your footing in France. You hope you will be able to connect to other people and find friends here who can understand what you went through.
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UNDOCUMENTED PEOPLE IN FRANCE
Undocumented migrants are people who do not have a residence permit.
“The term ‘undocumented’ says nothing about the diversity of the people concerned. They include women and men, singles and families of different ages and nationalities, people whose parents and siblings may be French or legally resident. People who have been in France for varying lengths of time, sometimes for a very long time: 15 years, 20 years, over 30 years... People who, until recently, had a residence permit...
Nor does it say anything about the reasons for their exile: a bleak future, love at first sight, the attraction of our culture, persecution in the country of origin, war...
Nor does it say why or how these people became ‘undocumented’.
[In France], since 1986, [22] laws on immigration, asylum and nationality have changed the right of residence for foreign nationals. This avalanche of legislation has made the right to regularisation considerably more complex, while producing procedures that are increasingly unpredictable and exclusionary.
Not only have the criteria for regularisation become increasingly restrictive, but certain situations that a few years ago gave entitlement to a stable residence permit now come under the heading of ‘exceptional admission to residence’.
Not all prefectures ask for the same documents, and many require proof that is not provided for by law. An equally illegal but very common practice is to systematically question the authenticity of civil status documents provided by the country of origin.
In this administrative maze, applying for a residence permit can be risky, because refusal to issue or renew a permit increasingly leads to the issue of an ‘Obligation to leave French territory’, or even a ‘Ban on Reentry to French Territory’. This implies the prospect of placement in a detention centre and then deportation, or if the person remains in France, the impossibility of submitting a new application even if his/her situation has changed.”
Extracts from “The making of undocumented people” - La Cimade
Don't take the risk
You think the proposal is too risky, you are afraid of losing too much by launching your business now. You refuse your friend's proposal and keep your job as a care assistant. Even if it is not declared, it allows you to send money to your family, and reassures you that you are not putting yourself and your husband in financial difficulty.
You are involved in the local community with your husband, through several international solidarity associations. This commitment brings you joy, but you miss your family terribly. Unfortunately, without a residence permit, it seems impossible to bring your children to France under the family reunification scheme.
Next
Nouakchott - Mauritania
The current population of Mauritania is 5,022,441. Mauritania is an islamic republic. It is a denominational (Muslim) multi-party state. Regarding languages, we distinguish the official language, Arabic, three national languages, Pulaar, Soninke and Wolof, and French, a former official language which is still the language of working, education and administration. The median age in Mauritania is 21 years old in 2020. Mauritania's population is made up of Moors, Fulani, Soninké and Wolof. Nouakchott has been the capital of Mauritania since 1957 (previously the capital was Saint-Louis). Nouakchott has a population of 958,401 and a surface area of 1,000 km2. The population is mostly concentrated in Nouakchott, which accounts for 26% of the national population.
The level of education is particularly low for girls, which is partly explained by the relatively high number of child marriages and early pregnancies. The gross enrolment rate in higher education was 4% for women in 2020, compared with 8% for men.
Women’s entrepreneurship Club
The club was born out of the realization that many migrant women find it difficult to enter the job market. They face particular problems linked to their gender, their immigrant status and/or dequalifications that confine them to employment sectors that do not correspond to their skills. This is why migrant women's associations have developed collective dynamics to overcome their individual constraints.
The Club "Entreprendre au Féminin" (transl. Women’s entrepreneurship) brings together associations, women with economic projects and/or those undergoing retraining, enabling migrant women to discuss their projects and obtain useful information and tools to implement them, while taking into account their specific needs.
To facilitate the overall process of inclusion for immigrant women, the club focuses on access to employment through the development of initiatives (associative, economic, etc.). It also aims to identify the skills (social, informal) of immigrant women to help them integrate into the world of work, by mobilizing the resources of the "Cité des Métiers". In addition, to enrich the sessions, professional speakers are occasionally invited to present existing schemes.
Cooperate with the police
Exhausted by the journey and its twists and turns, you decide to cooperate with the police.
Next
Detention
You stop struggling with the police. The border guards take you to a detention centre. After 48 hours in detention and several hours of intimidation and interrogation, they release you. Fortunately, the detention centre was in Boujdour, on the other side of the berm you were trying to cross. From now on, if you want to move around Western Sahara and Morocco, you will no longer encounter physical borders.
You have nowhere else to go... Returning to Senegal or Mauritania is not an option, nor risking your life again by crossing the Atlantic. You are stuck in Morocco.
As a black migrant woman, life in Morocco is difficult. You face racism from the locals and you live in a very precarious situation. You are morally and physically exhausted. You have lost all taste for life, have no perspective, and you feel completely lost.
Although ashamed of your situation, you decide to confide in your family. You tell them what you have been through since you left home. You tell them that you feel guilty for having invested so much money in this trip, but that it was all for nothing. You do not know what to do and you are hoping they will give you some advice.
As you would expect, your family provides you with comfort and unconditional support. This call does you a lot of good and encourages you to stay in Morocco and fight to improve your life and that of your children. Especially as your situation and your ‘failure’ are the talk of the village, you want to do your best to make your children proud of you.
You decide to try to enter france irregularly
You know visa procedures can be long and do not want to wait. By taking this decision, you know that there are huge risks in taking migration routes as a woman and that your actions will be illegal.
Next
Undeclared jobs in France
Working illegally, with money given from hand to hand, or with borrowed papers, the vast majority of so-called illegal immigrants work and pay taxes. Particularly exploitable because they have no legal existence, they keep whole swathes of the economy running at low cost.
This is particularly true of seasonal and domestic workers, as highlighted in a 2024 report by the European Parliament's Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, which points out that the situation of these people has worsened in recent years.
The public authorities are not fooled by this exploitation of labor. Indeed, even if illegal immigrants are excluded from the legal labor market, they sometimes have to prove that they have worked legally in order to be regularized. In short: on the one hand, the administration forbids them to work; on the other, it requires proof of employment to regularize them.
The Common European Asylum System (CEAS)
Starting in 1999 until 2020, the European Union has worked on the CEAS to establish a common asylum system that would be valid in all EU member states.The CEAS is governed by 5 deciding instruments and 1 agency:
- Asylum Procedures Directive: ensures fair and justified, quick, and qualitative decisions on asylum applications, provides special support to people with special needs, including unaccompanied minors or victims of torture
- Reception Conditions Directive: checks for a common and qualitative standard of reception conditions and measures (accommodation, provisions, health, etc.)
- Qualification Directive: handles international protection, making asylum decision more long-term and stable and ensuring access to rights and support measures for beneficiaries of international protection
- Dublin Regulation: establishes the state responsible for the asylum application; serves as an early detection system for problematic issues and solving them before they turn into grave problems
- EURODAC regulation: Supports the Dublin regulation, further giving law enforcement in all EU member states entry into the fingerprint and information database of migrants to handle prevent, identify, and investigate serious crimes, such as terrorism
The main agency behind the CEAS is the European Union Agency for Asylum. The Agency's main purpose is improving the application of CEAS and its regulations, and providing assistance to the member states in the assessment of asylum applications. In 2020, the CEAS was reformed through the New Pact on Asylum and Migration, with the goal of improving the efficiency of procedures, and to improve solidarity, responsibility, and partnerships with third countries and/ or non-EU countries.
The correct answer is...
Many children do not have access to school. The level of education is particularly low for girls, which is partly explained by the relatively high number of child marriages and early pregnancies. The gross enrolment rate in higher education was 4% for women in 2020, compared with 8% for men.
Environment: The person has to move away due to a disaster situation and/or hazards linked to the geographical nature of the territory (landslides, etc.), climate changes (drought, floods, storms, etc.).
You want to apply for a visa
You know visa procedures can be long but you do not want to take the risk to be illegal and to endanger yourself by taking migration routes.
Next
(EN) - D2IMIG Serious Game 3 - France
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Transcript
Before the game...
To ensure the best experience and receive feedback on the quality of the game, we would like to first ask you a few questions about your experiences on the topic of migration, and your expectations for this game. Thank you for providing us with your contribution!
You are replaying the game and have just filled in the evaluation already? Click on the button below to skip the evaluation. Please only do this if you have already filled in the evaluation before.
SKIP
Question 2/12
A few questions about your experience and expectations.
Question 3/12
A few questions about your experience and expectations.
Question 4/12
A few questions about your experience and expectations.
Question 5/12
A few questions about your existing knowledge on European migration.
Question 6/12
Halfway there! A few more questions about your existing knowledge on European migration.
Question 7/12
A few questions about your existing knowledge on European migration.
Question 8/12
A few questions about your existing knowledge on European migration.
Question 9/12
A few questions about your existing knowledge on European migration.
Question 10/12
A few questions about your existing knowledge on European migration.
Question 11/12
A few questions about your existing knowledge on European migration.
Question 12/12
Last question! Thank you for contributing.
Your journey is loading...
Start
Your story
Hello Marie,
This is the start of your journey!
After leaving school at the age of 14, you married a fisherman, Abdoulaye, with whom you had three beautiful children.
However, in recent years, fishing resources have become scarce and you've found it difficult to support your family. Already strained by this difficult economic situation, your relationship with Abdoulaye deteriorated when he proposed taking your eldest child, aged 15, out of school so that she could find a job and earn money for the family. After another argument, Abdoulaye left the family home. “If you don't want your daughter to work and earn money, you are on your own!” he said before leaving! You decide to divorce.
At 33, with no qualifications or professional experience, you are now a single mother with even fewer financial resources than before. For you, there's no question of taking your children out of school: you dream of a life less demanding than your own. You also dream of Europe where, according to the villagers, life is simple and there's no shortage of work.
To get by, it seems there is no choice but to leave…
Home
Minigame 1
Barometer of determinants
There are various reasons for leaving or having to leave your home country. What do you think are the main determinants making Marie leave Senegal? Find below more information on each category before answering the question on the right.
Culture & Identity
Environment
Education
Economic situation
Family life
Political insecurity
Minigame 1
Barometer of determinants
Were your guesses right? Find out more about Marie's determinants for departure.
Environment
Culture & Identity
Marie is not leaving due to environmental causes.
No, Marie is not leaving due to cultural emancipation or other identity reasons.
Political insecurity
Education
Marie is not leaving due to political insecurity.
Marie is leaving to have a greater opportunity to offer her children a quality education, especially in a country where schooling is free.
Family life
Economic situation
No, Marie is not leaving due to family reunification or other family matters.
Yes, Marie is leaving to improve the economical situation of herself, and most importantly her family.
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
Do you want to migrate to Mauritania alone or with your family? At first glance, it may seem simpler and quicker to leave them alone... The journey may be long and dangerous, and you don't want to expose your children to that... But as a mother, leaving your children behind seems unthinkable... What if they hated you for ‘abandoning’ them? What if you never saw them again? It is certainly the most difficult choice you have ever had to make in your life...
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Migrate with your family
Migrate alone
Accommodation
After some thought, and aware of the risks involved, you decide to cross the Mauritanian border with your 3 children without your ex-husband's authorization.
You arrive in Guédé around noon. You spend the afternoon looking for someone to take you across the Senegal river to the other side of the border. You find a smuggler who can get you across the border that evening, but it will cost you half your savings. So much for savings, with the children, you prefer to shorten the stages of your journey as much as possible.
So as not to alert anyone, you decide to leave the house at night and explain nothing of your plans to the children before leaving.
When night falls, you meet the smuggler who drives you to Donaye a small village on the banks of the Senegal river from where you take a pirogue to cross the border. On the boat, your youngest son is afraid, shouts and cries. Throughout the crossing, you try in vain to reassure and calm him. Once in Mauritania, you explain to your son that he must remain calm so as not to be noticed by the border guards. On the banks, your smuggler calls a Mauritanian “colleague” to drive to Nouakchott.
On the day of departure, you take advantage of the fact that the children are at school to pack a bag, snacks and bottles of water for the trip. After double-counting all your savings, you put your money in a small bag.
At 11:30 p.m., it's time to leave. You wake up the children, take 5 minutes to explain your plan and tell them that you have to leave so as not to miss the bus that leaves at 7 a.m. from Saint-Louis (the nearest big city) for Guédé, close to the Mauritanian border. In the evening, with the children still half asleep, you walk the 25 kilometers to the Saint-Louis bus station. You arrive just in time to buy 4 tickets and board the bus before departure.
You arrive in the capital of Mauritania in the early hours of the morning, reassured that this first stage of your journey has gone off without a hitch…
Nouakchott
Capital and most-populous city in Mauritania.
Welcome to Nouakchott!
INFO
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
Do you accept the old lady’s proposal? You are a foreigner in this country and you feel so vulnerable... Especially with your children! The old lady's offer is tempting because it guarantees you a roof over your head. But can you trust her? What if it's a trap? Wouldn't it be safer to find a solution on your own?
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Decline the offer and find your own way
Accept the kind offer
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
You feel discouraged and think you do not have any perspective in Mauritania. What do you do? The future for you and your children in Mauritania seems uncertain. You feel that it is difficult to be a foreigner in this country. Would it be easier in another country? Or worse, and in that case, are you not so badly off in Mauritania? What if it was a mistake to leave home? You are tormented by doubt and consider all the options: stay in Mauritania and hope for better conditions for you and your children in the near future, leave for Europe, return to Senegal. All these options have their positive and negative sides, but you have to make a choice...
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Go back to Senegal
Continue your journey and leave to another country
Stay in Mauritania
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
You decide to go to France. To enter French territory, you must apply for a visa, which means returning to Senegal. A visa will allow you to arrive and settle in France with peace of mind, and will certainly facilitate your integration in France. But returning to Senegal ‘just’ to get a visa can be discouraging: it will take a long time and you will have to face your family and the people in the village you left so suddenly... What if you leave without a visa? Some of your friends have already tried to reach Europe without a residence permit. Even if they break the law, the ‘land of human rights’ will not endanger the lives of those who cross its borders without a visa, will it?
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Go the irregular way
Go back to Senegal and acquire a VISA
Nouakchott
Second-largest city of Mauritania and a major hot spot for migrant smuggling.
Welcome to Nouadhibou!
INFO
France, here I come!
It took you two whole years to reach France from Nouadhibou. After various obstacles (crossing the sea, fear of border guards and police, finding money for the various journeys, making sure not to fall into the hands of traffickers, etc.), you arrived in Seine-Saint-Denis (to the north of Paris) with your eldest daughter.
CONTINUE
Minigame 2
Minigame
Match the permit to the description! Read the description, and then click on the number in the front to try your luck with finding the corresponding permit. Once you have answered all questions, you can go to the yellow Continue button below and see what are the correct answers.
It is required to enter and stay in France for more than 3 months. It is granted by the French consular authorities and is generally issued for study, work or family reasons.
It must be made in France at the prefecture. If your application is accepted, you will be granted refugee status and a residence permit. If your application is rejected, you will be turned away and asked to leave French territory.
You are a non-European foreign national, have found a job in France and you already have a long-stay visa.
You are a non-European foreign national who has come to France for higher education without a residence permit for personal or family reasons. You are registered in a public or private institution of higher education or initial training or in a higher professional training organization.
You have family ties in France (spouse of a French national, foreign national who entered through family reunification, parent of a French child, etc.), have rendered services to France (e.g. enlistment in the Foreign Legion) or you benefit from international protection (e.g. refugee).
It requests that the conditions set out in the Immigration Act of January 2024 be respected. Since this Act came into force, workers must have three years‘ residence in France and twelve months’ seniority in a profession specified by decree (jobs in tension) in order to be eligible for regularisation.
You are a non-European foreign national who has been residing in France with a residence permit for at least 18 months and would like to bring your spouse and minor children to France.
Minigame 2
Minigame
Click on the permits to reveal their descriptions and explanations. Did you get the quiz right?
Long-stay visa
It is required to enter and stay in France for more than 3 months. It is granted by the French consular authorities and is generally issued for study, work or family reasons.
Asylum request
It must be made in France at the prefecture. If your application is accepted, you will be granted refugee status and a residence permit. If your application is rejected, you will be turned away and asked to leave French territory.
Student permit
You are a non-European foreign national who has come to France for higher education without a residence permit for personal or family reasons. You are registered in a public or private institution of higher education or initial training or in a higher professional training organization.
Residence permits for workers
You are a non-European foreign national, have found a job in France and you already have a long-stay visa.
10-year resident card
You have family ties in France (spouse of a French national, foreign national who entered through family reunification, parent of a French child, etc.), have rendered services to France (e.g. enlistment in the Foreign Legion) or you benefit from international protection (e.g. refugee).
“Retailleau circular”
Family reunification
It requests that the conditions set out in the Immigration Act of January 2024 be respected. Since this Act came into force, workers must have three years‘ residence in France and twelve months’ seniority in a profession specified by decree (jobs in tension) in order to be eligible for regularisation.
You are a non-European foreign national who has been residing in France with a residence permit for at least 18 months and would like to bring your spouse and minor children to France.
France
Settling in France
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
By taking advantage of the OEPRE programme, you will be able to improve your understanding of the French school system thanks to a dedicated programme. With the Grdr's sociolinguistic workshops, you will be able to better understand the specificities of French society (getting your bearings, the administration, the healthcare system, meals, etc.) and meet other immigrant women in a supportive environment.
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Find help with the socio-linguistic workshops of Grdr
Find help with OEPRE
Nouakchott
Capital and most-populous city in Mauritania.
Welcome to Nouakchott!
INFO
In Mauritania
Life in Mauritania is not easy. You work a lot as a home help for the family that has taken you in, and you also help out in their restaurant. Even so, you cannot send your family as much money as you had hoped. With such a heavy workload, you do not have time to socialize and the feeling of loneliness increases, especially as you miss your children enormously. You feel trapped because you do not have the feeling the situation will get better. You do not see any perspective to improve your family's conditions in Nouakchott.
One night, when you cannot fall asleep, your cousin from France calls to check up on you. She explains to you that by doing the same job as you in Mauritania, she earns a lot more money than you (€1,400/month in France versus €120/month in Mauritania). After hanging up, you think it would be a good idea to join her in France. You know a little French (you learned the basics at school) and you know someone who would be willing to help you there. You think that with better purchasing power, you could manage to accumulate enough savings to ensure better conditions for your family and be able to return to Senegal after a few months or years of work.
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
You decide to go to France. To enter French territory, you must apply for a visa, which means returning to Senegal. A visa will allow you to arrive and settle in France with peace of mind, and will certainly facilitate your integration in France. But returning to Senegal ‘just’ to get a visa can be discouraging: it will take a long time and you will have to face your family and the people in the village you left so suddenly... What if you leave without a visa? Some of your friends have already tried to reach Europe without a residence permit. Even if they break the law, the ‘land of human rights’ will not endanger the lives of those who cross its borders without a visa, will it?
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Go the irregular way
Go back to Senegal and acquire a VISA
How to get a VISA for France
You return to Senegal to apply for a visa to enter France legally. After taking the opposite route to the one you took a few months earlier, you are delighted to be reunited with your friends and family and give them a big hug!You are looking for information about applying for a long-stay visa in France and here is what you find online:
“To enter and stay in France for more than 3 months, you need a long-stay visa. This visa is issued by the French consular authorities. The long-stay visa allows you to enter and stay in France for between 4 months and 1 year. It also allows you to travel (without another visa) within the Schengen area, provided you do not exceed 90 days during its period of validity. There are different types of visa, depending on the purpose and duration of your stay, and your intention to settle permanently in France.
There is also a temporary long-stay visa, valid from 4 to 6 months. It can be issued if you are coming to France as a visitor, and in this case you must be able to live on your own resources. When your visa expires, you must return to your country of origin or apply for a residence permit at the prefecture within 2 months of the end of your visa.” Without having a job in France, you decide to apply for a temporary long-stay visa, in the hope of finding a job locally. After several months of paperwork, collecting the necessary documents and saving money, you and your three children are granted a visa! With the help of your family, you manage to buy 4 plane tickets to Paris. The journey (re)begins!
France
Socialising
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
After attending 3 club sessions and discussing with other participants, you have started to think about launching your own project. You know it can be a long road, but now you know what you want to do, and you feel motivated. You are still hesitating about where to set up your business and which theme to choose. First, you think about setting up a development project in your home village in Senegal. This project will allow you to rediscover your culture and it will be easier to implant as you already know the customers and the business culture in this country. On the other hand, you are thinking of opening your own natural cosmetics micro-business that will allow you to develop your skills and learn more about the French business culture. Even though your business will be based in France, you want to use Senegalese natural ingredients to keep a link with your culture and show its benefits in France.
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Set up your own natural cosmetics micro-business
Develop projects in your home village in Senegal
Entrepreneurship
Foreign or migrant entrepreneurs
In France, foreign entrepreneurs account for 19% of investment in construction (compared with 6% for French entrepreneurs), 14% in transport/ delivery/ vehicles (compared with 10% for French entrepreneurs), 8% in sales/ trade/ e-commerce (compared with 12%) and 4% in internet/ information technology (compared with 9%).
Source: Musée de l’Histoire et de l’Immigration
Number and type of employment of residents in France (% of total employed persons acc. to their citizenship)
Number and type of employment of residents in Spain (% of total employed persons acc. to their citizenship)
Number and type of employment of residents in Italy (% of total employed persons acc. to their citizenship)
Where to go?
Reaching Morocco from Mauritania is a perilous journey.
You can either go through Algeria, but the border between Morocco and Algeria is heavily militarised because of the tensions between the two countries. Or you can go up through the Western Sahara, the disputed territory that separates Mauritania from Morocco.
You chose this second option, knowing that to cross the Western Sahara and reach Morocco, you would have to cross several ‘sand walls’ (also known as Berm) that fragment the territory.
CONTINUE
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
You are caught by the police while trying to get to Guergerat. How to react? You feel very tired with your situation and are tempted by cooperating with the police. At first glance, it seems to be the most reasonable decision. But what will happen at the police station? What if they send you back to Senegal? What if they mistreat you? How long will you stay at the police station? Won’t you waste more time and money? Many questions come to your mind at this moment.
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Cooperate with the police
Run away
You have arrived in Tarfaya, on the Atlantic coast. Your situation is very precarious and you are in a limbo state : you have lost all taste for life, have no perspective, and you feel completely lost.
In Tarfaya, a number of migrants are hoping to reach the island of Fuerteventura in Spain. After a few months of despair, a migrant woman you met there tells you that one of her friends managed to get there, found a job and that her life is much better today. This story gives you hope and strength. You are seriously considering making the crossing and you approach the smugglers who organise the crossing on makeshift boats. The crossing scares you because you know that many people lose their lives there, but you tell yourself that your situation cannot improve in Morocco.
Fortunately, on the evening of the crossing, the weather was fine and the sea was not too rough. After several hours at sea in an icy wind, and scared to death, you reach Fuerteventura.
CONTINUE
France
Minigame 2
Minigame
Match the permit to the description! Read the description, and then click on the number in the front to try your luck with finding the corresponding permit. Once you have answered all questions, you can go to the yellow Continue button below and see what are the correct answers.
It is required to enter and stay in France for more than 3 months. It is granted by the French consular authorities and is generally issued for study, work or family reasons.
It must be made in France at the prefecture. If your application is accepted, you will be granted refugee status and a residence permit. If your application is rejected, you will be turned away and asked to leave French territory.
You are a non-European foreign national, have found a job in France and you already have a long-stay visa.
You are a non-European foreign national who has come to France for higher education without a residence permit for personal or family reasons. You are registered in a public or private institution of higher education or initial training or in a higher professional training organization.
You have family ties in France (spouse of a French national, foreign national who entered through family reunification, parent of a French child, etc.), have rendered services to France (e.g. enlistment in the Foreign Legion) or you benefit from international protection (e.g. refugee).
It requests that the conditions set out in the Immigration Act of January 2024 be respected. Since this Act came into force, workers must have three years‘ residence in France and twelve months’ seniority in a profession specified by decree (jobs in tension) in order to be eligible for regularisation.
You are a non-European foreign national who has been residing in France with a residence permit for at least 18 months and would like to bring your spouse and minor children to France.
Minigame 2
Minigame
Click on the permits to reveal their descriptions and explanations. Did you get the quiz right?
Long-stay visa
It is required to enter and stay in France for more than 3 months. It is granted by the French consular authorities and is generally issued for study, work or family reasons.
Asylum request
It must be made in France at the prefecture. If your application is accepted, you will be granted refugee status and a residence permit. If your application is rejected, you will be turned away and asked to leave French territory.
Student permit
You are a non-European foreign national who has come to France for higher education without a residence permit for personal or family reasons. You are registered in a public or private institution of higher education or initial training or in a higher professional training organization.
Residence permits for workers
You are a non-European foreign national, have found a job in France and you already have a long-stay visa.
10-year resident card
You have family ties in France (spouse of a French national, foreign national who entered through family reunification, parent of a French child, etc.), have rendered services to France (e.g. enlistment in the Foreign Legion) or you benefit from international protection (e.g. refugee).
“Retailleau circular”
Family reunification
It requests that the conditions set out in the Immigration Act of January 2024 be respected. Since this Act came into force, workers must have three years‘ residence in France and twelve months’ seniority in a profession specified by decree (jobs in tension) in order to be eligible for regularisation.
You are a non-European foreign national who has been residing in France with a residence permit for at least 18 months and would like to bring your spouse and minor children to France.
Work
Socialising
Did you know?
By taking part in several sessions of the Club “Women’s entrepreneurship”, you discover the skills radar. The skills radar is a tool set up by Grdr to list all the skills and know-how used by migrants (with professional and/or solidarity projects). This tool was created in response to problems frequently encountered by migrants who set up projects and by the people who support them: not valuing the experience and skills acquired in the country of origin and during the migratory journey, failure to take into account the obstacles associated with setting up projects (language barrier, administrative complexity, difficulties in intercultural relations, etc.).
Make a decision!
It is time to make a decision!
Thanks to the skills radar, you are gaining self-confidence and becoming more aware of your skills. A friend from the Club has even suggested that you work together to develop a project to sell cosmetics. What do you do?
Keep in mind that this decision might influence your future journey
Decline the offer to work together
Work together
A new adventure begins for you!
You accepted your friend's proposal and started your own cosmetics business with her. This encourages you to take steps to regularise your situation and to apply for a residence permit. According to your research, you can apply for a residence permit for entrepreneurs and the self-employed. Good news! The Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture has granted you a temporary residence permit for business start-ups and self-employed workers for a period of one year. This residence permit allows you to set up your cosmetics business with your friend, but you will have to regularise your situation again in 8 months' time. During this period, you managed to send money to your family in Senegal.
CONTINUE
Work
A new life...
You have been in Morocco for 3 years and now live in Rabat. You have found a job as a cleaner in a hotel and you manage to send a third of your salary to your family (around 70€/month). Despite this (small) financial support, your family wants you to return to Senegal.
CONTINUE
Return to Senegal
You are back in Senegal, and it's far from being a piece of cake... Even though you are very happy to be back with your family and friends, there is a lot of gossip about you: ‘Ha ha, she thought she could go to Europe on her own, and now she's back in the village! It's all very well to dream of a better future, but the role of a woman is certainly not to travel the roads alone! What a good-for-nothing!’
This affects you and you feel ashamed of having failed your emigration. Despite this situation, you try to remain optimistic and you know that the gossip about you will eventually die down. You hope to be able to earn enough money by selling clothes that you sew at the market, so that you can settle in Dakar with your children and find a job as a governess for Western expatriate families.
Mauritania
In Nouakchott, you met a Mauritanian teacher of your children's school. After a few months of romance, you got married and moved into his house with your children. As well as making you happy, your marriage has facilitated your integration into Mauritanian society and eased the financial and administrative difficulties you have had to face up to now. When you left Senegal, you could not have wished for a better life for you and your children: they continue to go to school and, although your husband has a steady income, you earn your living with odd jobs so as to be financially independent. Putting aside a little money each month, you are even thinking of opening a small cosmetics store in Nouakchott.
Limbo
After 4 years in France, you apply for a residence permit for workers. Unfortunately, your application is rejected. You are then subject to an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory) within 30 days. Following this decision, you cannot be regularized for the next 3 years, and must leave French territory by your own means. The OQTF is a blow to your morale. You feel trapped and disappointed. You don't understand the French authorities' decision: you are working and want to integrate into society, so why shouldn't you be granted a residence permit? Despite it being illegal and the risk of being placed in a detention center or placed under house arrest, you decide to stay in France so that your daughter can continue her studies. She is about to take her baccalauréat and plans to go to university to study law. You manage to send money to Senegal for the two younger children, so that they too can continue their education. You are still struggling with the administrative formalities, but you are confident you will be able to apply for a new residence permit in 3 years' time, and so perhaps finally open your own cosmetics store in Noisy-le-Grand.
Residence permit
You take part in the Grdr association's sociolinguistic workshops. You meet other immigrant women facing the same difficulties as you, who become your friends. As well as giving you a better understanding of the French school system, these workshops help you to learn more about your rights and the administrative procedures specific to France (social security, unemployment insurance, retirement, family allowances, etc.).
The association employee who accompanies you helps you complete your application for a residence permit. In particular, she explains you that, since you work in a “job in tension”, you can apply for an exceptional residence permit ("Retailleau circular"), which may increase your chances of regularization, provided you have been residing in France for 3 years without interruption and have 24 months' worth of pay slips, including 8 in the last 12 months. Thanks to this piece of advice and after 5 years working in France without documents, you obtain a residence permit! You have a difficult job but your efforts have finally paid off. You are grateful for this decision, which allows you to live your life in France with serenity surrounded by your eldest daughter, your cousin and all your friends but away from your two children in Senegal who miss you very much.
The future
You miss your family in Sénégal and are often discouraged by the French administration (which can be very complicated!), even though you entered France regularly. You realize it is easier to develop projects with a residence permit and without living in fear and administrative obstacles. You feel secure, well integrated into the community and able to move forward. You are proud of what you have achieved and do not regret your choice, even if you would have preferred not to have to leave your country.
Open questions
The only downside is that your children are far away and it seems more difficult than expected to bring them to France through family reunification... Even though you miss your children terribly, you are reassured by the fact that you can send them money every month and support local associations that work near your village.
You feel you have made progress professionally, even if your administrative status is not yet secure. You are also happy to have met someone with whom you can share your life.
Trapped
You are well settled in Noisy-le-Grand and you are grateful to have a house, a job and a loving husband. However, you feel trapped by your situation: you do not know whether you will ever be legalised, you miss your children terribly, and without a residence permit, you can neither bring them legally to France nor return to Senegal... Without a residence permit, it is also difficult for you to undertake new projects, both personal and professional. You console yourself by telling yourself that your emigration was not in vain and that it allows you to send money to your family every month.
Morocco
You do not know whether you would rather stay or go back to Senegal. You miss your family, but you feel shattered by everything you have been through since you left (using smugglers, constantly risking your life, violence from border guards, racism, etc.). You do not know whether you will have the courage to face the people in your village because you feel you have ‘failed’ to reach Europe. In the meantime, before making a decision, you stay in Morocco, even though life is far from easy there, and you make friends to make your daily life more bearable.
The End
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This game offers different routes and stories depending on your choices. If you didn't like how your story went or want to explore different routes and countries, click on the button below "New game".
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The correct answer is...
- Immigrant women seeking to be (more) integrated into the world of work
The club was born out of the realization that many migrant women find it difficult to enter the job market. Thus, it aims at supporting immigrant women seeking to be more integrated into the labour market.Political insecurity / Dictatorship: The person needs to flee a situation of political insecurity, war or conflict (non-respect of rights, physical threats, persecution particularly against LGBTQI+, failure of democracy), they are asylum seekers/refugees
New Pact on Migration and Asylum
The Pact on Migration and Asylum introduces new rules for managing migration and creating a unified asylum system at the European level, focusing on supporting member states that are located at the borders of the EU and often encounter the highest arrivals of refugees and asylum seekers. The pact was voted on in April 2024 and has specific goals in mind:
- More effective procedures: introducing pre-screening upon arrival, enhancing border controls, and improving IT systems and procedures
- Schengen borders: improving application and controls of Schengen borders
- Solidarity and integration: supporting especially vulnerable groups and improving integration into local communities overall
- Resilience and partnership: handling migrant and refugee crisis effectively and improving international partnerships to reduce migrant smuggling and abuse
The pact aims at managing responsibilities more clearly, and enabling member states who have to face a high influx of migrants to handle the heightened arrivals with the support of the other member states and relocation. This was especially developed due to the migrant crisis during the last decade, with border countries carrying the heaviest burden and national asylum management systems overflowing. The New Pact was adopted by the European Parliament during the voting in April 2024.OEPRE - Opening schools to parents for children's success program
You decide to rely on the help of the free training programme OEPRE, to receive your training and improve your future in this new country.
Next
THinking...
Lying in bed, you cannot sleep. Today, you had to ask the village grocer for a new loan so you could prepare meals for your children. “This is the last time I will give you credit, Marie. Especially since you never pay me back,” he told you. You have a few hundred grams of rice left over for tomorrow's meals, but what about the days after? This situation cannot go on... You absolutely must find a job. Even if it is frightening to start a new life somewhere else,you think it would be better for you and your family to leave Senegal to improve your living conditions.
The correct answer Is...
Run away from the police
When the border guards stop you, you struggle furiously. To control you, they beat you violently, but you manage to escape and flee. You have succeeded to cross the last sand wall in the Western Sahara.
Next
Help the community
You want to set up development projects in your home village in Senegal while remaining in France. You prefer to develop your projects in your country of origin, so you know your customers.
Next
French culture and socialising
In France, people's lifestyles can be illustrated around the art of living. This means that they enjoy culture, eating out, shopping and visiting museums. When it comes to eating habits, the French attach great importance to lunchtime. It's a convivial time to get together and talk. Lunchtime is a sacred moment! As well as eating habits, there is also the famous aperitif hour, which is a time specific to France that even people abroad sometimes don't understand.
Politeness is also deeply rooted in French culture: kissing, saying thank you to someone, apologising and saying “bon appétit” are real social rituals. Most people in France use “le vouvoiement” which is a unique feature of the French language. It is the polite way of addressing someone instead of using the pronoun ‘tu’. In France also the debate is considered as an “art de vivre”. The French are keen on debating about anything and everything, and to tackle serious subjects such as current affairs, society, politics and ideas. Political debate has always been at the heart of French life.
The correct answer is...
The inability to get an appointment at the prefecture can quickly tip a person into illegality.Applying for a residence permit can be risky, because refusal to issue or renew a permit increasingly leads to the issue of an ‘Obligation to leave French territory’, or even a ‘Ban on Reentry to French Territory’.
New Pact on Migration and Asylum
The Pact on Migration and Asylum introduces new rules for managing migration and creating a unified asylum system at the European level, focusing on supporting member states that are located at the borders of the EU and often encounter the highest arrivals of refugees and asylum seekers. The pact was voted on in April 2024 and has specific goals in mind:
- More effective procedures: introducing pre-screening upon arrival, enhancing border controls, and improving IT systems and procedures
- Schengen borders: improving application and controls of Schengen borders
- Solidarity and integration: supporting especially vulnerable groups and improving integration into local communities overall
- Resilience and partnership: handling migrant and refugee crisis effectively and improving international partnerships to reduce migrant smuggling and abuse
The pact aims at managing responsibilities more clearly, and enabling member states who have to face a high influx of migrants to handle the heightened arrivals with the support of the other member states and relocation. This was especially developed due to the migrant crisis during the last decade, with border countries carrying the heaviest burden and national asylum management systems overflowing. The New Pact was adopted by the European Parliament during the voting in April 2024.You decide to accept the woman's offer for accommodation
You are not sure you can trust her but it is the better option you have for you and your children. You have more time not worrying about finding an accomodation and manage to find a better payed job at school. Your children can go to class but are not considered as “real” pupils (they can't pass exams for instance) because they are not Mauritanian. They face discrimination and do not feel well at school since they are foreigners and do not speak Arabic. Despite this situation, you hope that your new job will help your children to get a better education.
Next
The correct answers are...
You decide to try to enter france irregularly
You know visa procedures can be long and do not want to wait. By taking this decision, you know that there are huge risks in taking migration routes as a woman and that you will be illegal. You know that there are boats from Morocco that will take you to the Canary Islands (Spain). To do this, you need to travel to Tarfaya, in the south of Morocco.
Next
Did you know?
Most migrations are transborder (see UNHCR). In 1989, there was a conflict between Senegal and Mauritania that led the two countries to have very poor diplomatic relations for years. The situation is calmer now and Mauritania became in the past decade an important transit but also host country for migrants.
Migrants in Morocco
Morocco has become step by step a staging post and even (often by default) a destination country for migrants. And the management of migratory flows is subject to a difficult balance between integration actions and policies and border security management.
Arriving in Morocco as an illegal immigrant means facing constant risks of repression from Moroccan policies .In fact, there are often police raids and discriminatory arrests. The treatment is quite brutal: arrest of asylum seekers and refugees without checking their papers, detention, forced removal to remote areas near the Algerian border, or to isolated areas in the south, near Tiznit, Errachidia, Benguerir, Beni Mellal and Marrakech. Many of them had to walk for several kilometres before reaching the first town from which they could try to return home. For example, the Oulad Ziane neighbourhood is a place of recurring tensions, with racist remarks and physical violence. Women are often the victims of exploitation and trafficking networks, and all kinds of violence, including sexual violence, persist. In addition, access to healthcare services is difficult for these groups of people, even though front-line services are, in principle, free.
You want to apply for a visa
You know visa procedures can be long but you do not want to take the risk to be illegal and to endanger yourself by taking migration routes.
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Education: The person wants or has to move away to attend certain studies and educational opportunities. This can also include professional training opportunities for their job.
The correct answers are...
The correct answer is...
- Immigrant women seeking to be (more) integrated into the world of work
The club was born out of the realization that many migrant women find it difficult to enter the job market. Thus, it aims at supporting immigrant women seeking to be more integrated into the labour market.You want to go back to senegal
“Mommy, I want to go home. I want to go back to Senegal and be with my friends” your 12-year-old daughter keeps telling you. Completely discouraged by the discrimination your children face at school, you decide to follow your children's advice and return to Senegal in the hope of finding better prospects than in Mauritania.
Next
You decide to take your kids with you
You migrate with your family and take the risk of being illegal because you don’t have your ex-husband’s approval to leave the country with your children
Next
The correct answer is...
- TRUE
Despite common belief, the vast majority of so-called illegal immigrants do work and pay taxes to their host country.You ask your cousin for help
For you, returning to Senegal is out of the question, but with limited prospects for you and your children in Mauritania, you are thinking of hitting the road again and heading for another country, ideally Europe. Therefore, you decide to call a cousin who lives in France and ask her questions about life there. She explains to you that by doing the same job as you in Mauritania (home help), she earns a lot more money than you (€1,500/month in France versus €120/month in Mauritania). Moving to France has two major advantages for you: there is no language barrier (you learned French at school) and it represents the best way for you and your children to improve your lives. After careful consideration, you decide to move to France with your eldest daughter and send the younger two back to Senegal. You will try to ask for a family reunification once you have secured your situation in France.
Next
The correct answer is...
The geographical position. Mauritania's geographical position, and in particular its proximity to the Canary Islands, makes passage more accessible, thanks in particular to less rigid controls.
OEPRE (acronym for “Opening schools to parents for children's success”) is a free training program for newcomer and non-EU allophone parents, involving them in their child's schooling. Training sessions take place in schools, middle schools and high schools, on weekdays, at times that enable as many parents as possible to attend.
The correct answer is...
- Casablanca
It houses the Oulad Ziane neighbourhood where there are recurring tensions, with racist remarks and physical violence present.Seine-Saint-Denis
Seine-Saint-Denis is a department north-east of Paris. Although it is one of the smallest départements in France, it had a population of 1,701,072 in January 2024. Seine-Saint-Denis has welcomed a large number of inhabitants, following the rural exodus, the independence of the former French colonies and the labor needs of industry. Housing needs were often met by the construction of large housing estates: there are many in the department. Seine-Saint-Denis has a large immigrant population, making it one of the country's most mixed departments.
Family life: The person moves away to marry or for family reunification...
Did you know?
Most migrations are transborder (see UNHCR). In 1989, there was a conflict between Senegal and Mauritania that led the two countries to have very poor diplomatic relations for years. The situation is calmer now and Mauritania became in the past decade an important transit but also host country for migrants.
Women’s entrepreneurship Club
The club was born out of the realization that many migrant women find it difficult to enter the job market. They face particular problems linked to their gender, their immigrant status and/or dequalifications that confine them to employment sectors that do not correspond to their skills. This is why migrant women's associations have developed collective dynamics to overcome their individual constraints. The Club "Entreprendre au Féminin" (transl. Women’s entrepreneurship) brings together associations, women with economic projects and/or those undergoing retraining, enabling migrant women to discuss their projects and obtain useful information and tools to implement them, while taking into account their specific needs. To facilitate the overall process of inclusion for immigrant women, the club focuses on access to employment through the development of initiatives (associative, economic, etc.). It also aims to identify the skills (social, informal) of immigrant women to help them integrate into the world of work, by mobilizing the resources of the "Cité des Métiers". In addition, to enrich the sessions, professional speakers are occasionally invited to present existing schemes.
Your decision is made!
You take the bus to Nouadhibou, on the Atlantic coast, in the hope of catching a boat to the Canary Islands (Spain). You have two main possibilities to reach El Hierro island (the archipelago's southernmost island):
People wishing to apply for asylum in France face a real obstacle course. The asylum application procedure is long, and not all applications will receive a favourable response.
Migrant population in France The foreign population living in France is 5.3 million, or 7.8% of the total population. It is made up of 4.5 million immigrants who have not acquired French nationality and 0.8 million people born in France of foreign nationality. Source: INSEE, 2023 population estimates. According to the IOM: 281 million international migrants in 2022. Welcoming migrants in France Migrants in France are welcomed by temporary accommodation facilities. At the beginning of 2024, the dedicated reception facilities had 119,732 places. According to the OFII (French Office of Immigration and Integration), it is 97% occupied, 75% of whom have an asylum application under consideration. The number of asylum seekers benefiting from reception conditions was 146,000 in December 2023, compared with 127,132 in May 2018.
Jobs in high demand
In France, we talk about "jobs in high demand" to refer to professions:
- where there are more job openings than qualified or interested candidates to fill them;
- that are hiring the most and offer good prospects for the years to come.
Each year, a list of jobs in high demand is drawn up for each region. For example, in 2024, in the Ile-de-France region, the jobs most in demand were in the building and public works, para-medical, medical, electronics and electrical sectors.Since 2 April 2024, the President of Senegal has been Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Your new life
You become increasingly familiar with your surroundings. Through work, the social center and your cousin's friends, you get to know French society and its peculiarities (“la bise”, strikes, the importance of meals and gastronomy, stinky cheeses, etc.). Taking part in an event organized by an association of African women, you meet an employee, Bintou, working at Grdr, a French organization which carries out development projects in migrant-sending, transit and host countries. Bintou explains to you that in Europe, Grdr works for the socio-economic integration of migrants and supports them in carrying out projects in their country or territory of origin. In particular, she is in charge of the Club “Women's entrepreneurship”, which she invites you to join.
An overview of the Senegalese population
In 2023, the population of Senegal was 1.812.690. The total land area in Senegal is 196.710 per km². This land mass is around 36% the size of France. This makes Senegal the 25th smallest country in Africa and the 88th smallest in the world. Just under half the population (50%) live in cities. The median age in Senegal is 19.3 years.
Nouakchott - Mauritania
The current population of Mauritania is 5,022,441. Mauritania is an islamic republic. It is a denominational (Muslim) multi-party state. Regarding languages, we distinguish the official language, Arabic, three national languages, Pulaar, Soninke and Wolof, and French, a former official language which is still the language of working, education and administration. The median age in Mauritania is 21 years old in 2020. Mauritania's population is made up of Moors, Fulani, Soninké and Wolof. Nouakchott has been the capital of Mauritania since 1957 (previously the capital was Saint-Louis). Nouakchott has a population of 958,401 and a surface area of 1,000 km2. The population is mostly concentrated in Nouakchott, which accounts for 26% of the national population.
The level of education is particularly low for girls, which is partly explained by the relatively high number of child marriages and early pregnancies. The gross enrolment rate in higher education was 4% for women in 2020, compared with 8% for men.
The correct answer is...
In schools. Training sessions take place in schools, middle schools and high schools, on weekdays, at times that enable as many parents as possible to attend.
Arriving in France
It was your first time on a plane, and your children were very excited! But when they arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport, they were quickly taken aback: everything was so big, everything was so gray, everything was moving so fast, nobody was smiling... Luckily, your cousin welcomed you at the airport, otherwise you would have been lost, especially on public transport! Your cousin took you in for a few weeks in her apartment in Noisy-le-Grand, but between her husband, her children and yours, there was not enough room. So you decided to leave her place, and found refuge in emergency shelters in the Paris region. This situation was far from comfortable, especially with your children, but it is gradually improving… Thanks to your cousin's network, you have found a job as a care assistant in a caring home. The pay is decent (1,400€/month), which enabled you to obtain social housing in Seine-Saint-Denis. Your children attend the social center and you all take part in the activities and events on offer. This enables you to meet people (often in the same situation as you) and get to know local organizations.
A few months later...
After several months in Paris without working and without having succeeded in obtaining a residence permit, you have found a job as a care assistant in a caring home, thanks to your cousin's network. The pay is decent (1,400€/month), but your job is undeclared. Therefore, you do not benefit from any social protection (unemployment insurance, pension contributions, medical cover), which is compulsory in France.
New school
At the start of the new school year, you manage to enroll your daughter in secondary school. She's delighted to be back at school! Unlike in Mauritania, her integration into the class is much easier, as she quickly becomes close to students of Senegalese origin. The situation is more complicated for you. You have trouble understanding the French school system. Grades, correspondence notebooks, class councils, remarks, detention hours - all this is a far cry from what happens in Senegalese schools! And even if you get by in French on a day-to-day basis, you find it hard to understand technical terms and often feel a lack of legitimacy (or even shame) when dealing with school staff. You would like to get more involved in your daughter's education to help her succeed. You have high hopes for her academic success. You discuss this with your cousin and her friends, who suggest 2 avenues: the OEPRE and the Grdr.
The Common European Asylum System (CEAS)
Starting in 1999 until 2020, the European Union has worked on the CEAS to establish a common asylum system that would be valid in all EU member states.The CEAS is governed by 5 deciding instruments and 1 agency:
- EURODAC regulation: Supports the Dublin regulation, further giving law enforcement in all EU member states entry into the fingerprint and information database of migrants to handle prevent, identify, and investigate serious crimes, such as terrorism
The main agency behind the CEAS is the European Union Agency for Asylum. The Agency's main purpose is improving the application of CEAS and its regulations, and providing assistance to the member states in the assessment of asylum applications. In 2020, the CEAS was reformed through the New Pact on Asylum and Migration, with the goal of improving the efficiency of procedures, and to improve solidarity, responsibility, and partnerships with third countries and/ or non-EU countries.New Pact on Migration and Asylum
The Pact on Migration and Asylum introduces new rules for managing migration and creating a unified asylum system at the European level, focusing on supporting member states that are located at the borders of the EU and often encounter the highest arrivals of refugees and asylum seekers. The pact was voted on in April 2024 and has specific goals in mind:
- More effective procedures: introducing pre-screening upon arrival, enhancing border controls, and improving IT systems and procedures
- Schengen borders: improving application and controls of Schengen borders
- Solidarity and integration: supporting especially vulnerable groups and improving integration into local communities overall
- Resilience and partnership: handling migrant and refugee crisis effectively and improving international partnerships to reduce migrant smuggling and abuse
The pact aims at managing responsibilities more clearly, and enabling member states who have to face a high influx of migrants to handle the heightened arrivals with the support of the other member states and relocation. This was especially developed due to the migrant crisis during the last decade, with border countries carrying the heaviest burden and national asylum management systems overflowing. The New Pact was adopted by the European Parliament during the voting in April 2024.You will prevail!
After careful consideration, you decide to stay in Mauritania where you and your children have a roof over your head, where your children can go to school (even though it is far from easy for them) and where you have a job and can earn some money. You keep working hard in Nouakchott in the hope of being able to pay for your own place and for your children's education.
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Information about Nouadhibou and the Nouadhibou-Canary Islands journey
Between January and March 2024, 12,400 migrants reached the Canaries, compared to 2,200 the previous year. More than 80% of these boats passed through Mauritania. Nouadhibou, a coastal town in Mauritania, has become a migratory crossroads, sheltering around 30,000 migrants out of a total population of 140,000. Indeed, the migratory route to the Canary Islands is increasingly passing through this country, despite the European Union's efforts to stem the flow. Arrivals on the Spanish archipelago have risen sharply since the beginning of the year, with many departing from the coast of Mauritania. Many attractive factors make Mauritania a strategic choice for migrants. Its geographical position, and in particular its proximity to the Canary Islands, makes passage more accessible, thanks in particular to less rigid controls.
You want to start your own micro-enterprise
You want to set up your own natural cosmetics micro-business in France. You know that if you develop your micro-business, you'll be able to increase your skills and take on different challenges and that your status will remain precarious. You're also keen to promote the benefits of natural cosmetics from Senegal.
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Seine-Saint-Denis
Seine-Saint-Denis is an attractive department with different support and services. For example in the solidarity area, since November 2021, the Department has had a new public policy tool to combat discrimination: the Departmental Observatory against Discrimination and for Equality. Social assistants are on hand in all the city's neighborhoods to help residents. The "Maison de la solidarité" is open to homeless people and families in great difficulty. Exceptional assistance for people experiencing temporary difficulties has also been set up. The department also boasts a large number of cultural and social associations. It has several sports clubs belonging to federations approved by the Ministry.
You decide to decline the kind offer
You will try to find another way because you are not sure you can trust her. You manage to register children at school and put a lot of hope in it, especially in finding accommodation with the help of the school. Despite all your efforts, your children are not considered as “real” pupils (they can't pass exams for instance) because they are not Mauritanian. They face discrimination and do not feel well at school since they are foreigners and do not speak Arabic.
Next
The Senegalese flag is influenced by its status as having been one of the oldest French colonies in Africa. With some intellectuals wanting a flag that combines European and African values, they opted for a similar tricolour to the French flag. After achieving autonomous status in 1958, influence from the Sudanese Republic (today, Mali) and finally independence as its own country in 1960, Senegal kept the tricolour design and added the green star, as a symbol of hope and the major religions of the country.
You decide to migrate alone
You migrate alone because it is easier to cross the Mauritanian border without your children, even though you will miss them very much and that it breaks your heart so deeply.
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Economic / Social safety net: The person moves away to access better socio-economic prospects (decent employment, increase in living standards) to improve their life quality or to support for the needs of the family remaining in the country, etc.
Two years go by...
You have been in France for 2 years now, and you have met a Senegalese man who moved to France almost 10 years ago. After a few months of romance, you got married and moved into his flat in Noisy-le-Grand. As well as making you happy, your marriage has facilitated your integration into French society, since your husband is involved in several solidarity organizations. Thanks to him, you discover the Club “Women’s entrepreneurship” workshops implemented by the French NGO Grdr.
“Sexual and gender-based violence may be exacerbated by policies aiming to restrict migration, or to increase control of borders, which can push women into adopting dangerous routes to arrive in their country of destination. Women suffer sexual violence in border areas, where they are blocked by various actors (smugglers, police officers, soldiers and civilians lurking around the camps) who abuse their bodies. They are often dependent on the goodwill of the men who control the blockades and border crossings, and are forced, in a more or less coercive way, to have sexual relations in order to be able to continue their journey. Those who refuse are generally detained longer in border areas. The violence suffered by women on the road to exile and in the country of arrival is often not recognized, unlike the violence produced in the country of origin (excision, for example). A large number of women who have fled gender-based violence in their own countries, and in particular sexual violence, have also suffered it on the road and on arrival [in Paris], due to a lack of accommodation.” Elsa Tyszler, sociologist.
Migration routes of women
Worldwide, 48% of people who decide to migrate are women. Although they account for almost half of all migrants, women are particularly vulnerable on migration routes: they face a higher risk of gender-based violence including trafficking, sexual exploitation and forced marriages.
“Gender influences reasons for migrating, who migrates and to where, how people migrate and the networks they use, opportunities and resources available at destinations, and relations with the country of origin. Risks, vulnerabilities and needs are also shaped in large part by one’s gender, and often vary drastically for different groups. The roles, expectations, relationships and power dynamics associated with being a man, woman, boy or girl, and whether one identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or intersex (LGBTI), significantly affect all aspects of the migration process, and can also be affected in new ways by migration.” - International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Your journey
When you arrived in the Canaries, you spent several weeks in an overcrowded reception center, where you were accompanied by a Spanish NGO who organized your transfer to Galicia, in northern Spain. Thanks to this organization, you were able to find several odd jobs: grape-picking in wineries, dishwashing in a restaurant, cleaning in hotels, etc. Once you had saved enough money, you carpooled across the Pyrenees into France from Santiago de Compostela, and spent a few nights in Toulouse before reaching Paris. In Paris, you were welcomed by your cousin, with whom you live in Noisy-le-Grand. You sleep on the sofa bed in the living room. Although you trust her, you find it very difficult to tell your cousin about your journey because it makes you anxious. At night, you relive the most stressful situations you may have faced, waking up panicked and sweating. Your cousin tells you that you are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which is unfortunately common among migrants who have been through difficult situations... With her support, you dare to go to a migrant aid association, which puts you in touch with a psychologist, in the hope of overcoming your trauma.
First things to do when you arrive...
Once in Nouakchott, your priority is to feed and water the children. So you settle down in a small restaurant to rest and regain your strength. While eating, your son asks you: “Mom, what are we going to do now?. “Where are we going to stay?” your eldest daughter asks. Just then, an elderly Mauritanian woman who has been watching you for some time approaches your table. “I bet you are Senegalese and you want to get to Europe. Your journey is likely to be long and perilous... I would not have suggested it to a man, but if you wish, I can welcome you and your children into my home, and in exchange you can take care of the household chores. That way, you won't have to worry about your accommodation, and you will be doing the old lady a favor. What do you think?”
The correct answer is...
Many children do not have access to school. The level of education is particularly low for girls, which is partly explained by the relatively high number of child marriages and early pregnancies. The gross enrolment rate in higher education was 4% for women in 2020, compared with 8% for men.
Participate and work together
You accept your friend's proposal and start a cosmetics business with her. You know that starting your own business can be difficult and risky, but you are confident that it will be worth it.
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After a day of wandering in Guédé, during which you felt vulnerable and alone, night has finally fallen. You meet the smuggler who drives you to Donaye a small village on the banks of the Senegal river from where you take a pirogue to cross the border. On the boat, you are afraid since you cannot swim, but fortunately, you arrive in Mauritania safe and sound. On the banks, your smuggler calls a Mauritanian “colleague” to drive to Nouakchott. You arrive in the capital of Mauritania in the early hours of the morning, reassured that this first stage of your journey has gone off without a hitch…There, your priority is to find a place to live and a job to earn money. You enter a restaurant to eat and regain your strength, and in the course of a conversation with the manager, she offers you free accommodation in exchange for your help with household chores and the children.
Your journey
You do not want to take any risk with your children, especially without their father’s authorization. You make the decision to leave the country alone, even if it breaks your heart to leave your children behind. You share your plans with your sister-in-law, whom you trust blindly and who agrees to entrust your children. You promise to send her money as soon as you are settled in Europe, so that she can continue to provide for your children's schooling. One evening, after school, you tell your children that you'll be leaving the next morning, after their aunt has picked them up. Your children are in shock, cry and beg you to take them with you, but you stick to your decision. As planned, after heartbreaking goodbyes with your children, you hit the road very early the next morning. You walk the 25 kilometers to the Saint-Louis (the nearest big city) bus station from where you take a bus to Guédé, close to the Mauritanian border. You arrive in Guédé late in the afternoon and spend the evening looking for someone to take you across the Senegal river to the other side of the border. You find a smuggler who can get you across the border the next evening.
Your Journey
It has been a long journey to Noisy-le-Grand, where you are now settled with your daughter. The pirogue crossing from Nouadhibou to El Hierro was particularly traumatic for both of you. You know that you were very lucky during the crossing, as many do not survive and can spend days adrift without food or water. When you arrived in the Canaries, you spent several weeks in an overcrowded reception center, where you were accompanied by a Spanish NGO who organized your transfer to Galicia, in northern Spain. Thanks to this organization, you were able to find several odd jobs: grape-picking in wineries, dishwashing in a restaurant, cleaning in hotels, etc.
Once you had saved enough money, you carpooled across the Pyrenees into France from Santiago de Compostela. Arriving in Paris, you were welcomed by your cousin, with whom you live in Noisy. You sleep with your daughter on the sofa bed in the living room. Thanks to your cousin's network, you have found a job as a care assistant in a caring home. The pay is decent (1,400€/month), but your job is undeclared. Therefore, you do not benefit from any social protection (unemployment insurance, pension contributions, medical cover), which is compulsory in France.
Culture / Emancipation / Identity: The person wants to achieve cultural emancipation, discover and build their own identity, is curious about the world, and has a desire to discover something new and different in their life. They want to encounter new people and discover new cultures and sides to themselves.
Grdr implements activities designed to contribute to the social and professional integration of immigrant women, as well as skills-building sessions for social players on subjects linked to women's migration, interculturality and language learning. Socio-linguistic workshops aim at creating exchange spaces for migrant women who need to practice spoken French, find out about and understand the codes of French society, their rights in France and the workings of the institutions they encounter in their daily lives. Local services are invited to take part in the workshops to get to know each other better.
Grdr’s association's socio-linguistic workshops
You decide to rely on the help of Grdr to enhance your understanding of the country you are in and to find your footing in France. You hope you will be able to connect to other people and find friends here who can understand what you went through.
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UNDOCUMENTED PEOPLE IN FRANCE
Undocumented migrants are people who do not have a residence permit.
“The term ‘undocumented’ says nothing about the diversity of the people concerned. They include women and men, singles and families of different ages and nationalities, people whose parents and siblings may be French or legally resident. People who have been in France for varying lengths of time, sometimes for a very long time: 15 years, 20 years, over 30 years... People who, until recently, had a residence permit... Nor does it say anything about the reasons for their exile: a bleak future, love at first sight, the attraction of our culture, persecution in the country of origin, war... Nor does it say why or how these people became ‘undocumented’. [In France], since 1986, [22] laws on immigration, asylum and nationality have changed the right of residence for foreign nationals. This avalanche of legislation has made the right to regularisation considerably more complex, while producing procedures that are increasingly unpredictable and exclusionary. Not only have the criteria for regularisation become increasingly restrictive, but certain situations that a few years ago gave entitlement to a stable residence permit now come under the heading of ‘exceptional admission to residence’. Not all prefectures ask for the same documents, and many require proof that is not provided for by law. An equally illegal but very common practice is to systematically question the authenticity of civil status documents provided by the country of origin. In this administrative maze, applying for a residence permit can be risky, because refusal to issue or renew a permit increasingly leads to the issue of an ‘Obligation to leave French territory’, or even a ‘Ban on Reentry to French Territory’. This implies the prospect of placement in a detention centre and then deportation, or if the person remains in France, the impossibility of submitting a new application even if his/her situation has changed.”
Extracts from “The making of undocumented people” - La Cimade
Don't take the risk
You think the proposal is too risky, you are afraid of losing too much by launching your business now. You refuse your friend's proposal and keep your job as a care assistant. Even if it is not declared, it allows you to send money to your family, and reassures you that you are not putting yourself and your husband in financial difficulty. You are involved in the local community with your husband, through several international solidarity associations. This commitment brings you joy, but you miss your family terribly. Unfortunately, without a residence permit, it seems impossible to bring your children to France under the family reunification scheme.
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Nouakchott - Mauritania
The current population of Mauritania is 5,022,441. Mauritania is an islamic republic. It is a denominational (Muslim) multi-party state. Regarding languages, we distinguish the official language, Arabic, three national languages, Pulaar, Soninke and Wolof, and French, a former official language which is still the language of working, education and administration. The median age in Mauritania is 21 years old in 2020. Mauritania's population is made up of Moors, Fulani, Soninké and Wolof. Nouakchott has been the capital of Mauritania since 1957 (previously the capital was Saint-Louis). Nouakchott has a population of 958,401 and a surface area of 1,000 km2. The population is mostly concentrated in Nouakchott, which accounts for 26% of the national population.
The level of education is particularly low for girls, which is partly explained by the relatively high number of child marriages and early pregnancies. The gross enrolment rate in higher education was 4% for women in 2020, compared with 8% for men.
Women’s entrepreneurship Club
The club was born out of the realization that many migrant women find it difficult to enter the job market. They face particular problems linked to their gender, their immigrant status and/or dequalifications that confine them to employment sectors that do not correspond to their skills. This is why migrant women's associations have developed collective dynamics to overcome their individual constraints. The Club "Entreprendre au Féminin" (transl. Women’s entrepreneurship) brings together associations, women with economic projects and/or those undergoing retraining, enabling migrant women to discuss their projects and obtain useful information and tools to implement them, while taking into account their specific needs. To facilitate the overall process of inclusion for immigrant women, the club focuses on access to employment through the development of initiatives (associative, economic, etc.). It also aims to identify the skills (social, informal) of immigrant women to help them integrate into the world of work, by mobilizing the resources of the "Cité des Métiers". In addition, to enrich the sessions, professional speakers are occasionally invited to present existing schemes.
Cooperate with the police
Exhausted by the journey and its twists and turns, you decide to cooperate with the police.
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Detention
You stop struggling with the police. The border guards take you to a detention centre. After 48 hours in detention and several hours of intimidation and interrogation, they release you. Fortunately, the detention centre was in Boujdour, on the other side of the berm you were trying to cross. From now on, if you want to move around Western Sahara and Morocco, you will no longer encounter physical borders. You have nowhere else to go... Returning to Senegal or Mauritania is not an option, nor risking your life again by crossing the Atlantic. You are stuck in Morocco. As a black migrant woman, life in Morocco is difficult. You face racism from the locals and you live in a very precarious situation. You are morally and physically exhausted. You have lost all taste for life, have no perspective, and you feel completely lost.
Although ashamed of your situation, you decide to confide in your family. You tell them what you have been through since you left home. You tell them that you feel guilty for having invested so much money in this trip, but that it was all for nothing. You do not know what to do and you are hoping they will give you some advice. As you would expect, your family provides you with comfort and unconditional support. This call does you a lot of good and encourages you to stay in Morocco and fight to improve your life and that of your children. Especially as your situation and your ‘failure’ are the talk of the village, you want to do your best to make your children proud of you.
You decide to try to enter france irregularly
You know visa procedures can be long and do not want to wait. By taking this decision, you know that there are huge risks in taking migration routes as a woman and that your actions will be illegal.
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Undeclared jobs in France
Working illegally, with money given from hand to hand, or with borrowed papers, the vast majority of so-called illegal immigrants work and pay taxes. Particularly exploitable because they have no legal existence, they keep whole swathes of the economy running at low cost. This is particularly true of seasonal and domestic workers, as highlighted in a 2024 report by the European Parliament's Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, which points out that the situation of these people has worsened in recent years. The public authorities are not fooled by this exploitation of labor. Indeed, even if illegal immigrants are excluded from the legal labor market, they sometimes have to prove that they have worked legally in order to be regularized. In short: on the one hand, the administration forbids them to work; on the other, it requires proof of employment to regularize them.
The Common European Asylum System (CEAS)
Starting in 1999 until 2020, the European Union has worked on the CEAS to establish a common asylum system that would be valid in all EU member states.The CEAS is governed by 5 deciding instruments and 1 agency:
- EURODAC regulation: Supports the Dublin regulation, further giving law enforcement in all EU member states entry into the fingerprint and information database of migrants to handle prevent, identify, and investigate serious crimes, such as terrorism
The main agency behind the CEAS is the European Union Agency for Asylum. The Agency's main purpose is improving the application of CEAS and its regulations, and providing assistance to the member states in the assessment of asylum applications. In 2020, the CEAS was reformed through the New Pact on Asylum and Migration, with the goal of improving the efficiency of procedures, and to improve solidarity, responsibility, and partnerships with third countries and/ or non-EU countries.The correct answer is...
Many children do not have access to school. The level of education is particularly low for girls, which is partly explained by the relatively high number of child marriages and early pregnancies. The gross enrolment rate in higher education was 4% for women in 2020, compared with 8% for men.
Environment: The person has to move away due to a disaster situation and/or hazards linked to the geographical nature of the territory (landslides, etc.), climate changes (drought, floods, storms, etc.).
You want to apply for a visa
You know visa procedures can be long but you do not want to take the risk to be illegal and to endanger yourself by taking migration routes.
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