Discouraged, she moved to Padova, and finally
to Camerano, where she married and had her two children, in 2001
and 2004.
She asked Town Hall how many immigrants lived in Camerano.
After discovering it was more than 100, she thought
she would fit in and that opening a call center would help others
like her. In February 2006, she opened the business with her husband
Cletus. But along the way, she became disillusioned.
In the larger cities where Okwuike had lived, there was a higher
concentration of immigrants than in the small town of Camerano
most of whose population was born in Italy.
“Perugia is used to foreigners. Padova also
has a lot of foreigners, but Camerano is a small city and when
they pass you by they look at you and want to know, ‘Who
is this?’ ‘Where are you staying?’ ‘Why
did you come here?’ ‘What are you doing?’ I
don’t understand,” said Okwuike.
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