Month: December 2023
Interview – Insights on integration in Romania
Interview – Insights on integration in Romania Please tell us a little bit about yourself Anastasiia My name is Anastasiia. I’m from Odessa, Ukraine. I’m 38, married with a child. I like to travel and have visited a lot of interesting places. Like to watch people and learn new cultures. Worked at the Medical University for 15 years at the department of Foreign languages. I have a lot of relatives and friends. I’m an open-minded, communicative and responsible person. Have a lot of experience working with people and teaching. How did you arrive in Romania? Did you come alone or together with your family? I came to Romania in December 2022 with my husband, daughter and our dog. My daughter and I were in Ireland before, but decided to move closer to our homeland. My husband joined us. How were you greeted by the Romanian community? I had a good experience with Romanian volunteers that I met in May 2022, when I first came to Romania. First I crossed the border with Romania on a ferry. We were met by wonderful hearty people from the Red Cross who made shelter in Isakcha and greeted Ukrainians. They helped us to get to Bucharest where we had a flight to Dublin. When I rejected the Irish Protection and came to Romania in December it wasn’t easy to collect all the information and receive Temporary Protection here. We found different resources online with explanations of where to go and how to organize our documents. What difficulties did you encounter? First of all is a language barrier. I was sure that it wouldn’t be a problem to communicate in English, but lucky me, I often face people who don’t speak English, especially in day-to-day life. Second problem was accommodation. It was difficult to find a flat. We changed several places. Hopefully, we found a nice owner and have been renting a flat for a year. And the last difficulty is laws and procedures which are not usual sometimes and take too much time to solve. How was your integration process for you and your family? I easily found an educational hub for my daughter. Unfortunately she doesn’t receive a complete education in Romania. She doesn’t know Romanian well enough to study in local schools and we decided to continue her education online in Ukrainian school and offline here in the hub for socialization. She also plays basketball in a local team with Romanian children. And visits different clubs here. As for me, I found a job one month after my arrival in ARCA Romanian Forum for Refugees and Migrants in a position of translator. And now occupy the double position of a translator and database operator. How did ARCA support you particularly? I work in a good team. My colleagues are very supportive and always ready to help. We often eat together and share differences in our cultures. One of my colleagues, Mihaela, helped to find a place for my daughter in a basketball team. My daughter participates in different events which ARCA performs, not because she is my daughter, but as a beneficiary of ARCA’s Club. And we also received some financial help as well as other beneficiaries of ARCA. The most that I appreciate is that ARCA gives me the ability to help Ukrainians. We receive a lot of requests from our beneficiaries and try to solve their issues together. What did you find valuable in Romania? Romania looks like my Ukraine, similar culture, history, religion, traditions and weather. For me it’s valuable that I can watch movies in the cinema in English. Nature is valuable to me and I like to travel around Romania and visit its authentic cities. And I appreciate that Romania accepted so many Ukrainians, but I’m disappointed that the Government doesn’t fulfill its obligations regarding EU support programs. What are your plans for the future if returning to Ukraine would not be an option? Do you think about staying in Romania or going to another country? I was always a person who made plans and tried to achieve them. But our War in Ukraine taught me that everything could be damaged in one second. Now I don’t make plans in advance. I live in a flow. Until I have a job here I feel safe, because I know that I can pay my rent, bills, and food. Until circumstances don’t push me to the next step I won’t plan. My favorite quote is “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go harmful. I’ll think about that tomorrow.” by Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind. The current article is part of a series of communication materials with the overall objective to increase awareness around migration-related issues through #constructive narratives. The project #UkraineNow is co-financed by the European Union through Erasmus+. The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the content, which reflects only the views of the authors. The Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
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