My name is Yassine (name changed), I am 38 years old, originally from Sfax, married, father of a little girl, and I have been living in Vienna for six years.
When I left, I was not seeking a brilliant life. I was seeking a bearable life. A life that does not wake me up every morning with that exhausting question: how am I going to make the month, the house, the needs, the unforeseen, the dignity hold?
In Tunisia, I was already working. I had experience, hands accustomed to machines, to maintenance, to technical emergencies, to long hours. But I could no longer turn my work into stability. In Sfax, I did what many men do quietly: I tried to reassure mine with incomes that didn’t even reassure my own sleep anymore.
I did not leave to discover Europe. I left because at a moment, staying had become another form of risk.
Sfax behind me, Austria ahead of me
I left Sfax with a simple yet heavy idea: earn better to protect more. A friend already settled in Austria told me about an opportunity in technical maintenance. I sent my CV, underwent interviews, waited for responses that seemed to hang over my entire life. Then a contract came.
I arrived legally, with proper papers, a precise job, a clear objective. I did not come to take advantage of a system. I came to keep my family standing.
At first, I left alone. My wife and daughter stayed in Sfax. Those were perhaps the hardest years. I slept in a simple room, I ate without pleasure, I counted everything, and every euro saved immediately went back to Tunisia.
During this period, I sent between 700 and 900 euros per month. My absence made sense. It cost a lot in human terms, but it served something concrete.
When my situation stabilized, my wife and daughter joined me. I believed, at that moment, that the hardest was behind us. In reality, another fatigue was just beginning.
My work, my salary, and what remains after the month is paid
Today, I work as a maintenance technician in a logistics center on the outskirts of Vienna. I take care of technical installations, of refrigeration systems, of small breakdowns that become big if we do not address them quickly, of machines that do not forgive error or delay. It’s a job of vigilance. You must be present, precise, calm, even when everything around you is moving quickly.
