First steps to do for a comfortable life in France

Last activity 28 February 2017 by emibouvart

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emibouvartNew member24 February 2017 15:42:40

Hi,
I'm Emily. I come from Manila and moved to the north of France in 1985 to get married to my French fiancé.

As a migrant in France, the first thing I did was to study seriously the french language. Talking in correct French is very important. I went to the university to learn French grammar, its structure, the vocabularies, the expressions, pronunciation and intonations. I may have kept a slight tagalog accent, but my french is good. It helped me communicate with my french family. I was even able to teach and help my children with their homeworks. After some years, when my children were grown up enough, I looked for a job. It was difficult to find one that I preferred. But through perseverance I landed an office job after working in different jobs.

After 32 years in France, now I have a stable life, thanks to a good government system here and of course, the early preparations that my husband and me had done before our retirement age.

Life is very beautiful and full of wonders!

STEFFIFIViP25 February 2017 18:17:06

11022

Excuse me, but, 32 years ago, all was easier, especially for job. Since, there has been the crisis and a growth of unemployment (10%)...

emibouvartNew member25 February 2017 20:21:12

Hi Steffifi.
I agree with you that there is economic crisis now.
What I'm pointing out are those filipinos working in the office. Most filipinos are domestic helpers. Of course we can be proud of it because it's a decent job. But the question is ; do filipinos choose to be domestic helpers or do they do it because there is no other choice of job in France for filipinos?

STEFFIFIViP27 February 2017 20:27:27

11022

Because they can't do nothing else, given that it's very hard to get a work visa for a non-EU/Schengen citizens... And we must say that the most of them are without papers/illegals... But they have reputation to have good workers, serious, honest and who know take care of children. And actually, there are a lot of Fillipinos in all over the Europe who are housemaid, au pair, babysitters, housekeeper in hotels, etc...

emibouvartNew member28 February 2017 06:47:51

Yes that's right. Most of the Filipinos working in France have good reputation as workers.
Many domestic helpers in France and other countries often are degree holders, college graduates. And most of them send their salaries to their families in the Philippines. They would not mind living in shared small flats, or small and uncomfortable "chambre de bonne". Their major aim is to save money to be sent to the families.

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