The anguish of Ukrainian refugees in the Grand-Est. Several dozen of them, particularly in Meurthe-et-Moselle and Moselle, are ordered to leave their social housing by the prefecture because they are not “sufficiently integrated”. They received a letter to this effect. It is not a wave, because there are nearly 62,000 Ukrainian refugees in France according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, but the announcement mobilized associations helping Ukrainians.
In Moselle, more than 1,700 people were welcomed, according to the department. This is the case in Metz, at the Ukrainian Center where, supervised by volunteers from the ELU association (Echanges Lorraine Ukraine), they take French lessons to promote their integration, between hope and worry.
The letter arrived at the beginning of October, says Valentina. “I was shocked,” she adds, still moved. The letter, sent by a local accommodation association, an intermediary between the State and Ukrainian refugees, informs him that, due to lack of professional integration and “empowerment”she will have to leave the 4-room apartment in Metz in which she lives alone with her four children, by October 31. “I have no solution, it’s very difficult to get another apartment, I don’t have a work contract,” she laments.
The future in France, where she arrived shortly after the start of the war, is uncertain, worries Valentina. Her impressive level of French, which she has been learning since September at the Ukrainian Center in Metz, shows her desire to get by. “Every day I have a French course, I have a medical assistant diploma in Ukraine, I have a lot of experience, but it doesn’t work here. Validating my diploma is possible with an exam , then I can work as a nurse or medical assistant.” And pay the rest of his rent of almost 1,000 euros. Valentina just asks for a little time. “I need at least six months, I think. My goal is really to feel like I belong to French society.”
Thanks to the mobilization of several associations, the threatened families obtained from the prefecture the ability to stay in their accommodation until March 31, the end of the winter break. A reprieve, deplores Annie Vuagnoux, head of the Ukrainian Center in Metz. “Today, we have managed to suspend everything, that leaves us a few months to try to find solutions, but it will pass very quickly and these people are already worried, and say to themselves: ‘Me, in Ukraine, I I have nothing left. My children are in school, well integrated, what will happen to us?'”
Svetlana, who lives with her 17-year-old son in Rombas, about twenty kilometers from Metz, has made her decision: without work and without a solution by April, they will return to live in Donetsk.
