More than 27 million young people They leave their countries every year in search of better opportunities, but not all do so in the same way or face the same challenges, according to the UN. For many young Latino migrants, Europe This is a place where they can get a good education and a better future, but upon arrival many find a different reality; bureaucracy, precarious employment, fraud…

“I decided to come to France as an au pair. The life of an Au Pair is quite difficult. I thought it would be a cultural exchange with a French family and I would also show a bit of my culture, but there was nothing like that. Among my friends, we classify this as ‘modern slavery.’says Maria, a Colombian student living in Paris.

This is not the only case. Thousands of young people come to Europe along this route; work as a nanny in exchange for a small salary, a roof and a supposed cultural exchange. An easier way to get to Europe, allowing you to combine it with your studies, but for many young women it becomes hell: endless days, extra work that has nothing to do with looking after children, abuse…

The adventure begins even before you touch European soil.

In the case of France, before arriving, non-EU students, i.e. non-European students, must submit a number of documents and fulfill a number of requirements in order to be able to obtain a student visa. “One of the main requirements is to have around 615 euros per month in your bank account or show a total amount that is between 7,000 and 10,000 euros to demonstrate to the government that you can easily support yourself once you arrive in France. – says Maria and insists:

To this you must add the costs of the institution where you study, flights and additional expenses, it’s too much!

To obtain this visa you need about 15 thousand or 20 thousand euros.

The first filter that ends up being the deciding sieve for many students who are unable to raise money. Added to this are bureaucratic obstacles and their slowness, from which even students are not immune. “In June, I had problems renewing my visa at the prefecture. I was missing a document that I couldn’t have. It had to be given to me at the university, but they were on vacation. “I lived in France for two months without documents, with all the problems that entailed.”

Europe tightens immigration laws

2023 was the year when Europe has adjusted the entry door for immigrants more: more bureaucracy and less assistance. Germany, Italy, Poland…more and more countries are tightening their laws, and France is joining this list.

Last December, the country approved a new immigration law with support from the far right. A reform that has caused a serious crisis in the government, despite President Emmanuel Macron defending it as “necessary shield”

It is estimated that the number of foreign students in France will increase by 8% in 2022, for a total of about 400 thousand foreign students. As for Latin American students, their arrival in the French country has increased by 18% in recent years.

“Current government policies are designed to stop these migration flows, but what if we tackled the problem at its source? What are the disadvantages that force people to leave their countries of origin? For example, increase regular migration routes, try to allocate this EU assistance not to those countries that are recipients of migrants, but to develop programs for training skilled labor, agreements on international cooperation in the field of education for countries that send migrants,” explains Diana Cristancho, founder of FARO for migrants in France.

Not only France, if we open up the spectrum we will find other European countries that have tightened their immigration policies such as Hungary, with one of the strictest European laws and sanctioned by the European Union. Also, Slovakia And Polandwho disagreed with the new European migration policy, approved at the end of 2023, as too soft.

IN ItalyGeorgia Meloni’s government gave the green light to a regulation that would allow people with irregular status to be held in immigration detention centers for up to 18 months. In addition to signing an agreement with Albania to build migrant reception centers there with the intention of sending them outside Italian territory.