Last August, Thaïs Gautry moved into a flat in Maastricht with her French roommate. The Netherlands is the third country where Gautry has lived. Born in Niger, she lived with her parents and her brother, who is four years older than her, until she was three years old. “Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world”, says Gautry. “There is limited Internet access, our electricity often failed and sometimes the water was shut off. Fortunately, we always had some in storage.” Not ideal circumstances with temperatures above forty degrees. But her family was relatively fortunate, she says. “My mother worked in administration at a division of the European Commission. My father owned one of the most successful pubs in the region.”
When she was three years old, her parents separated. Her brother stayed with their father and she with their mother. “This is common in Niger. If I’d been a boy, my mother would probably have ended up alone.” Gautry was nine when the two of them left for Strasbourg, France. “In pursuit of a better life, but also because my father was trying to get custody of me.” Her mother could feel the net closing in. “My father knew a lot of people because of his pub, including powerful people. In Niger, this means you stand a better chance in court.”
Within a month, her mother found a job, a flat, and a school for her daughter. Gautry felt at home there and got good grades in primary school. She passed the entrance exams for the international secondary school in Strasbourg. The school prepared her well for Maastricht University: the language of instruction was English and it helped her get used to studying in an international environment. She is doing well at UM. “I put a lot of time and effort into my studies. I’m always reading and taking notes. I’ve passed everything so far.” And she has to, as she is studying at UM on the Jo Ritzen scholarship of the Limburg University Fund (SWOL), a scholarship for first-generation students. “If I don’t get at least 55 of the sixty ECTS, I will lose my scholarship next year.”
She calls her mother almost every day. “She didn’t get the chance to study at university, but I think she has a good idea of what being a student is like. My mother is smart and wanted to go to university too, but the professors in Niger were on strike when she finished secondary school. The strikes lasted for two years. She couldn’t wait that long. She followed vocational training and got a job. Shortly after that, she got married and became pregnant.” Her father was not the studying type, says Gautry. “My father was far too active to spend hours sitting in a room, reading.”
Her father passed away in 2019. “He was ill. He didn’t live a healthy life; mainly because of alcohol. I didn’t have much contact with him after leaving for France. We texted a little, but most of the news my mother and I heard about him came from my brother or grandmother. I didn’t always respond to his messages. I kind of regret that now. In March 2019, a few months before his death, he came to visit me. I didn’t quite open up to him. I was afraid of strengthening our relationship because I didn’t want to feel hurt when he went home again.”
Her brother lived with their grandmother in Niger for two years after their father’s death. In November 2021, he moved in with their mother. “A new start in France. I had already left for Maastricht by then. Last Christmas, we were together again for the first time in seven years. We ate a lot and talked for hours. We didn’t grow up together, but he really feels like my big brother. It was nice to talk about the loss of our father. He is looking for a vocational school at the moment.” The fact that her grandmother now lives alone in Niger does gnaw at her. “I’ve only seen her face to face a few times since I was nine, but I have a lot of contact with her. I don’t want her to be lonely. I hope she will move in with her sister.”
Some of the girls Gautry used to play with when they were children are married now or expecting their first child. That’s about the furthest thing from her mind right now. “After completing my bachelor’s degree, I want to get a master’s degree in International Law and then work for a large European organisation or the United Nations, for example. I want to promote global equality. The major differences between Niger and France feel very unfair to me. Differences in wealth, but also in access to health care, for example.” How will she go about this? She doesn’t know yet. “I’ve realised that I find contract law very interesting. Contract lawyers often work for large companies, finding legal loopholes so that they can’t get sued. I won’t say I’ll never end up there, but my current self would be a little disappointed if I did.”