Ukrainian Conflict Uproots Students, Including Moroccans, Seeking New Opportunities in France

For these students and young professionals, aged between 20 and 30, nothing will be the same again. They hope to find training and work "as soon as possible". Oussama and Mehdi are among the Moroccan students who preferred to join other European countries rather than return to Morocco.

Both 23 years old, they were enrolled in the final year of a master’s degree in architecture and management at the University of Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine in terms of population. They left the city on the second day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They had taken the train to the Czech Republic, then Germany, before ending up in France at this accommodation center since April 14.

Mehdi remembers it as if it were yesterday. "I was woken up by bombings at 5 a.m., on the night of February 24. I went to the window. I understood that the war had begun." He refused to inform his parents, but very quickly the media and social networks took care of it. "I was afraid of worrying her. Finally, with social networks, she was quickly informed. Today, my university is destroyed," he says bitterly.

He who came to Ukraine to study architecture for five years was in the process of validating his final year. He hopes to find an equivalent in Cholet. "Why not at the Fashion High School to study art?" For his part, Karim, 26, arrived in France with his mother. In Ukraine, they lived in the city of Sumy (263,000 inhabitants). He worked as a cashier in a supermarket. He hopes to "quickly" find work.