Remote work gives time to eat

She-Migrator series by Oana Maroti

It´s been years now since only one of us has a job and sustains the other, we keep switching, even if applying, formation and searching goes on and on.

We are both over 40, I am an immigrant and my partner is mixed and local, born in this city. We both have similar problems with work, to put it that way. We have both suffered incredible social exclusion at work, even if what can happen to an immigrant woman can sometimes surpass the worst movie script. We have difficulties and do not have much, but love and try to protect each other.

I finally got my approval to work in my field of study, using my degree, a process that took years, and now, in theory, I can apply for a job related to my line of development, because I worked too long in unqualified positions, but it is only a theory, because I am in Catalonia and I am obliged to pay and show a Catalan language degree in order to apply.

Today, my partner works from home, sharing the big desk with our beloved office cat. I´m searching for a Catalan podcast to increase my knowledge while cooking a fancy, economical meal.

I have to say that there is a serious internal fight when making the effort to integrate a language whose people are not showing any interest towards accepting any of us, immigrant Spanish speaker or native Spanish speaker, but mixed, not full Catalan. We try to speak and the interlocutor changes the language or makes faces and puts their hands on their ears as they do in France, therefore the communication intent gets dissolved in a bad behavior gesture. We struggle more with the attitude and lack of logic, as we both see language as a way of facilitating communication, and we already speak the national language. If you live here or are born here, even if you don´t want to the local language will stick to you.

Anyway, my pair found a job in Castellano after taking tests in Catalan and he is working three shifts, that take your energy away, and are a nightmare for the organism.

I´m preparing a plato combinado with what we have and making it delicious, to bring some comfort to this busy day. My pair usually eats in front of the computer while working, and today, he is at home at least and eats. At the office, the days go by, and taking a lunch break is not as easy when you are left to work almost alone.

We have both lost kilos and have health problems because of work. Yet, each medical appointment lasts a lifetime, so the system forces us to work through pain and then explain this discomfort in another language. Everything bureaucratic is selective in terms of language here, even basic human rights accessibility.

For me, it is difficult to digest what is happening because I was trained at university on inclusion and I also studied work-related disabilities. I was attracted to the Spanish system because, in theory, they have a less intrusive program of activities linked to development, but it seems that this does not apply to adults, who are left to suffer, because the colonialist mentality is still visible, interfering with our opportunities and hindering development.

It´s hard in 2, in 1 almost impossible, the system swallows all efforts and money, as an effect of non-inclusive education, that forms an impenetrable, closed system, inside the European one.