Migration
 Migration stories: Between hope and despair

The photographer and artist Leïla Saadna met six humans from different backgrounds in Algiers, Algeria. She spoke to them about their individual experiences as migrants in Algeria and Europe.
A woman, Aicha looking out on the port from a terrace in Algiers. ©Goethe-Institut/Leïla Saadna

Migration2 min
 Aïcha, 28 years old.

I’ve been living in Constantine for 6 years. I came from Mali, for my studies. It was my family who chose Algeria. I wanted to go to the USA or Canada, but my parents wanted to send me to a Muslim country. For me, the important thing was to be free and independent.

Algeria
Frikia, a middle-aged woman with black hair, sitting in a café in Audin, on an evening in Ramadan. ©Goethe-Institut/Leïla Saadna

Migration2 min
 Frikia, 57 years old.

My name is Frikia, I was born in 1961 in Forbach in north-eastern France. My father left Algeria at the age of 19. After doing various different jobs, he came to live in this city and worked as a miner for the rest of his life. I can say that I had a wonderful early childhood: fields, nature, snow in winter. 

Algeria
Lamia, a young woman, at the window of an Algerian apartment overlooking the Port of Algiers ©Goethe-Institut/Leïla Saadna

Migration2 min
 Lamia Hamdis, 29 years old

I am a part of a collective history of immigration. In 2004, I left Algeria because my mother had made huge efforts to make another home for us in France. First she left alone in 2000. She got her papers, and a more or less stable situation. Then she came back for us 4 years later.

Algeria
An elderly woman, Hassina, has her arm around a young boy, Fayçal, they are standing on their balcony, facing the bay of Algiers. ©Goethe-Institut/Leïla Saadna

Migration3 min
 Hassina, 60 years old, Fayçal, 9 years old

My father was a diplomat. I spent my childhood in various countries, but we came home very often. My parents were activists of the National Liberation Front (FLN), and thus were deeply attached to Algeria.

Algeria
A man, Omar, facing the empty Martyrs’ Square, Algiers, on an evening of Ramadan. ©Goethe-Institut/Leïla Saadna

Migration2 min
 Omar, 29 years old

I’ve been in Algeria for 5 months. I came to file a request for asylum because in my country, Guinea Conakry, homosexuality is not accepted. 

Algeria

Photographer Leïla Saadna

Leïla Saadna is a visual artist and a director of documentary films. She has been living and working in Algiers for two years. After studying plastic arts in Paris, she oriented herself towards engaged and poetic film and artistic projects. Her working and research themes are post-colonial migration stories, the words and struggles of people affected by intersectional forms of oppression, such as racism and sexism, and in particular the experiences of women in a post-colonial context.

Photographer Leïla Saadna © Leïla Saadna