After two years in Cape Verde, Annalisa returned to Italy at age 12 and was placed in a literacy programme for migrant children because her Italian had slipped. At first this made sense to her, but the next year she and the other migrant children were put back into it despite their good Italian, and she missed out on other subjects. She felt that migrant children were not expected to learn the same things as their classmates, and the sense of injustice grew when migrant students were advised to attend technical school while others were pointed towards classical and scientific tracks. At university, as one of the first in her family and one of few in the Cape Verdean community to study, she felt the pressure of representation. She asks why talent is lost when young people stay stuck in the place society assigns them, and why migrant youth had so few role models. A workshop introduced her to "iParticipate", a second-generation initiative reaching out to migrant youth. She joined it and began working to empower young people.
