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Letter to Africans, about Migration to Europe
Why so many people in West Africa want to go to Europe? For a better life? That is usually an illusion, because realities for black people in Europe are in most cases different than shown in African TV.
If it would be easy to go, West Africa would have only few black people left, and foreign companies would take over West Africa for their resources. But it will not happen, because Europe is getting more extreme with closing the borders for poor people, and deporting poor people with foreign origin to other african countries.
All countries in the world also have poor people, even the richest countries. Some people in Europe sleep on the street and are begging for food, mainly white people, and others are struggling to survive. And in cold countries and countries with social isolation like in Europe, life is much more difficult for poor people than in West Africa.
The culture in Europe was in the past much more similar to West African culture, than african people can imagine, but because of the industrialisation and the emancipation of the woman, the culture has changed very much. Now the families are only small families, parents only living with their direct children together, until the end of their education. After that the children leave the family, and the parents live alone. That means old people are very alone in Europe, not being together with young people, nobody from the family caring for them. And young people, after their education, are responsible for everything they do and decide themselves alone.
Therefore the education in Europe is very different than in West Africa, it is not for becoming someone who serves the family and every older person in the family, but for learning independence, for leraning to decide and do everything in life oneself.
That means in times of difficulties, no relative will help one in overcoming any problems one faces. Therefore the European countries have developed social security insurances, to make it possible for people to get help. That is not a luxury, as many african people think, it is a necessity in that kind of lonely life. But before one can get help, one has to pay every month a contribution to all the many social insurances, and also pay the tax to the government. The wealth does not come from the government, the wealth comes from all people working and paying their contribution, which is a third or half of ones earnings from work.
And because everybody in Europe has to work, also all the woman, the children are only after work with their parents, during the day they are in kindergardens (places to play for all children). That means the relationship of family members is much less strong in Europe, because nobody sees any family members during the day, only at night. Because of that, people are used to be alone, to live alone, and therefore need their own private space and time, where nobody else interferes with anything.
For people used to be together with others all their life, living in Europe is only for money, only for working, and it is like a sacrifice of all social connections, if one does not create a subculture with other Africans in Europe, which many do. But creating that sub culture as foreigners in another country, meaning not integrating with the local culture, will create conflicts with the local population. Therefore now many european people are more and more hating foreigners, wanting all foreigners to leave Europe and are even beating them some time.
In european culture it is not accepted to have another wife or another girlfriend somewhere else, or to have children that live with some other relatives. But it is very normal to never marry, but still live together like a couple or a family. And many people in Europe never have children, because they don't have time and money to raise them.
And don't believe that everybody in Europe is rich, the life standard there is much higher than in Africa, but that needs much more resources, which are coming from poor countries, and that makes life in Europe very expensive. People usually pay half of their salary from work alone for their rented home, which is often only one room in a shared flat (only the rich can own a home in Europe), and food and clothes are also much more expensive there. Therefore for most people in Europe, their money is finished every month just for living, and only some rich people have enough money to travel, for example to Africa. That is why you see in Africa only rich white tourists, the normal people from Europe have no money to travel to Africa. Only if one changes the Euro to F cfa, and uses it in West Africa, it becomes much money, because here life is cheap.
Why does the information about life in Europe for black people does not arrive in Africa? Most people who tell me that they want to go to Europe for work, have already relatives of their family in Europe. But they do not get information about how life is there, or how to get there, from them. They ask me instead, but i know only from my experience how to get to Africa, and how to get the documents needed for that. I don't know how life is now in Europe, i have left my country nearly 30 years ago. If the African relatives in Europe do not want to give information to their family members in Africa, it is either because they used illegal methods, which they don't want to talk about, or they used an agent or agency, that did everything for them, and they had to pay a lot of money for the agent.
All the information about going legally to Europe, including visa and work permit application, is written on the embassy website, one can do everything oneself and the process is not expensive. Usually one needs a skill certificate in a job, which is in demand of workers in Europe. But if one can not read, or does not know the language, people pay very much money for agents to do it for them, lagally or illegally. But be aware, that if you pay an agent to do it illegally, you will loose everything and risk your life on the way to Egurope. If the agent does it legally, you will become a slave of him, he will keep all your documents until you have worked for many years, paying him back all the costs, that means your work salary is taken by the agent.
Also African people living and working in Europe, often have a very hard life, working all the time to be able to send back home some money for their families. But because usually one needs all the money just for living oneself, they can become angry at their families, always demanding more money, living an easy life in Africa, while they work very hard every day in Europe. Work in Europe is very strict, one can not do anything else during work time. And even the white european people can not accept their wife just being at home, because one persons salary is only enough for one person, not for two. That means, after coming home from work, one has to cook food for oneself, eating outside is too expensive.
And the experience of the different culture in Europe will change you, specially because the traditional european culture does not exist anymore, now it is a modern culture with very different modern values, that are in strong conflict with traditional values in life. That means, if you ever come back to Africa after many years, you will be a different person. But most West African people are coming back very soon, because they don't succeed to get a long time visa and work permit. But because it is very difficult for them to come back to their home as a failed person, they often go to another african country, or are deported from Europe to another african country, without being able to choose where.
Stop dreaming about Europe, it is not paradise, and according to your african values (of african culture), life in Europe is morally totally wrong. Start developing your own country, make your own country the place that you want to live in, it is possible, but it needs a lot of work.
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