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Katya is a young mother of five children, living in a self-built house near Barcelona, Spain. As a young, optimistic woman who had recently graduated from Art college, she originally left her home in Belarus with her husband in search of asylum and a brighter future. They chose Barcelona because they had relatives there, with the idea that this would make things easier for them. Although they were denied asylum, they continued to live and work in Barcelona as illegal migrants, and Katya gave birth to two children while the whole family was living in a sublet apartment. Katya’s husband died unexpectedly when the children were just 5 and 4 years old, and the mother and children were unable to pay the rent.
Katya, unable to return to her country of origin, was stuck in a dead-end situation with two small children that needed to go to school, be fed, clothed, and loved. The only choices available to her led the family to a lifestyle often incompatible with regular social structures and attitudes, and which necessarily relies on charity and help from social services.
After homelessness, Katya met her present partner and they lived in a squat for four years, where their three daughters were born, her youngest in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown in Spain. Finally, they have constructed their own home on a plot of land offered to them by the landowner in exchange for overseeing the grounds. Their home is furnished only with what they find as discarded furniture, as well as clothes, and any other objects they need. Charity still plays a fundamental role, although Katya’s partner finds irregular jobs that help out with living expenses.
Their lifestyle, and how they have slowly improved it is, in itself, a fascinating story. However, the real drama is not about how they survive their day-to-day, or even the amazing talent that Katya has to provide a warm environment or to ensure the children go to school every day. Sons and daughters of irregular migrants are, automatically, in a complex and irregular situation themselves. In Spain, children in a-legal situations such as this, are provided with school, free food at school on a grant basis basic and health care. All of which automatically disappear when a child turns sixteen, no matter how well they are doing academically, or otherwise. In Spain alone, there are approximately 147.000 underage undocumented girls and boys who have little or no opportunities because of their irregular situation.
It is Katya's dream to be able to legalize her children's citizenship before they reach 16, so that they may continue to study and have the same opportunities as other children, but she has little or no chance unless the laws change drastically in her favor, which is unlikely. In the meantime, she maintains a daily struggle to secure normality for her children within unlikely surroundings.
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