Text and photos: Marie-Anne Dayé
Adventurous and curious by nature, Ndeye Arame Dieng dreamed of discovering Quebec, far from her native Senegal. After a two-year recruitment process, she finally set foot in Sept-Îles. But her arrival quickly turned into an ordeal that seemed insurmountable. But her perseverance paid off.
The mother of a 14-year-old girl adopted when she was a year and a half old, Ndeye Arame was working in Dakar as a scrub nurse in a hospital operating theatre. She was keen to try her hand in Quebec, until her father’s illness made her reconsider her plans. Despite the sad turn of events that followed, she finally made the decision to come to Quebec.
Leave everything behind… for this?
Arriving in Sept-Îles at the end of September 2023 with a closed work permit, she saw her project turn sour. She suffered abuse at the hands of her employer, who wanted her to sign a contract offering a lower salary and giving her tasks different from those initially planned, among other things. Shortly afterwards, she was fired. “People usually say that when you come here, it’s your honeymoon. Unfortunately, I still haven’t experienced it,” she laments. With the help of the Alpha Lira Center, she applied for an Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers (PTOTV), which she received almost two months later. She also filed a complaint against the employer with the CNESST. Meanwhile, she had no income, had to borrow money from friends and find temporary accommodation.
“Psychologically, I wasn’t well because I was alone, I had nowhere to go. A friend told me to meet him in Val d’Or, and he paid for my ticket. I stayed there until my situation stabilized. I couldn’t tell my family. They were counting on me. I couldn’t tell them I was in trouble,” says the 38-year-old.
“I lost my job back home, I lost it here too, I had no family, I only had friends, I had nowhere to go, I was forced to leave the apartment to look for somewhere else. If I’d known it was going to be like this, I’d never have come here, because I was quite at home. But I had given my word when I was recruited, so I couldn’t back out,” she continues. Living in a small town has both good and bad sides, according to Ndeye Arame. On the one hand, the community is close-knit, so she quickly found support, but on the other, it can be difficult to find a job when things have gone wrong with an employer, she believes, because everyone knows everyone else.
Fortunately, the CNESST recognized the employer’s wrongdoing and, after long months of waiting, Ndeye Arame received the compensation and apology she was expecting.
“It’s not the money I’m interested in, it’s more my credibility,” she says.
Events that leave their mark
Although Ndeye Arame has found two new jobs in Sept-Îles – she works as a dental assistant Monday to Friday during the day in a dental clinic, and two evenings a week and Saturdays in a big-box store – the experience has left her feeling a little apprehensive. With her PTOTV due to expire in November, she doesn’t like the idea of getting a closed work permit again with her new employers, even if it’s necessary. “I’m afraid of what’s going to happen to me afterwards, like it did last time,” she says.
Experiencing these difficult emotions far from home is quite a challenge for Ndeye Arame. “On June 21, it was the anniversary of my father’s death and I wasn’t even able to be with my family to say the prayers. But we’re trying to keep a positive attitude,” she says. She would like her daughter, who she misses “like crazy”, to come and join her soon. In the meantime, she relies on this Sept-Îles community, which has become another family for her.
