Wenn Frauen ihre Zukunft selbst in die Hand nehmen

Parul Chhaparia

For every woman with a migration background in Switzerland, the search for a job and for financial stability is particularly important. Regardless of whether we come as a refugee, as an expat, student or wife, we long to be financially independent. We strive to acquire new skills, learn the language, fit into the system and, most importantly, find a job.

Despite all the challenges, we mostly succeed in finding something. It may not be our dream job, but it is something that brings us significant financial stability.

But what happens when this search is over? Is that all we have settled for?

In this series of articles, Lucify.ch introduces women who have decided to go beyond routine. They came here, studied, settled and now take responsibility for their future by following their heart’s desire.

Cristina-Andreea Moraru is one of these examples. Like many of us, Cristina moved to Switzerland in 2016 for love. She also stumbled upon the problems of financial dependency, language barriers and exhausted trust.

“I wanted to work because there was this pressure … the expectation that I would have to make money after I finished my studies. I wasn’t interested in being financially dependent … I knew that the language barrier didn’t make it easy to find something, so I looked for English-language jobs. As with many people in my situation, however, rejections remained ”, she shared her experience with Lucify.ch.

“After hundreds of rejections, a contract was finally signed with Google. “In the end it seemed that everything now finds its suitable place. Everything was wonderful … Nevertheless, after a few months I started to feel worse and worse. It unsettled me because I had got what I had worked hard for. But something was missing, ”she said.

“At that point, Cristina decided to take a break. „Everyone thought I went crazy even though my partner and friends really supported me a lot.“ She took time for self-reflection. “I spent a lot of time reflecting and I should have done that from the start. I started to realize what is really fundamentally important to me. Financial independence was part of it, as was my passion for psychological research. However, I am also an entrepreneur at heart. I realized that I was not following these important pillars and that was all that was wrong with me at the moment, ”she said.

“I built and built, but without being aware of my own worth. I thought I was making myself happy, but in truth I was just making everyone else around me happy. Then came the point where I decided to make myself happy from now on.

This decision was the beginning of her project idea “Worthful Women”. With “Worthful Women” Cristina began to design efficient job strategies, tailored to women who have moved to Switzerland with their partners.

“The idea for ‚Worthful Women‘ came in stages … I wanted to do something to empower women … when I looked more deeply into it I realized that I could just as well create something myself. There are so many women who have faced challenges similar to mine after I came here. With my academic background in psychology and through my personal experience, I realized that I can provide the appropriate solutions with my skills.

She interviewed women who faced the challenge of moving to a new country. “Building a new life takes time. While this is happening, there are times when self-respect gets kicked. Many of us then question their own worth. Value is something very personal … The fact that I exist, that I am lovable and that I deserve it … This is a very solid foundation to be remembered when there is a lot of negative things going on in life. That’s what ‚worthful women‘ is all about, ”she says.