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Stoyanka comes from Bulgaria ; she was born in 1977 at Sliven and came in Greece for the first time in 2003. At the time of the interview her worked as a 'Helper in a restaurant kitchen'.
Interview date: 15/03/2006
Researcher who did the interview: Alexandra Siotou
Subfield of the interview: Labor
Stoyanka came to Greece three years before the time of the interview. During the communist period her father was in the army and her mother was a teacher. Stoyanka studied in the Gymnastics Academy of Sofia. When she finished her studies she returned to Sliven, but she did not manage to find a job in gymnastics. So, she worked in a garments´ factory. She describes her work there and notes that she did not like it. That is why she decided to come to Greece, where her mother was already working. She gives important details on how the organised network of trafficking works and on the practices followed by employment agencies in Greece. She talks about her first job in Athens where she had to take care of two children and do all the household work. Then she talks about her second job in which she had to take care of an elderly lady. She talks about her earnings, her free time and the Christian Orthodox customs she has learned here. She notes that she always believed in God and still does; however, she wasn´t really aware of religion´s deeper meanings. She left Athens when she met her fiance who was living in Volos. Nowadays she works in a restaurant kitchen. She is very pleased with her salary and enjoys social insurance benefits. The most important thing for her is that she is no longer working as a live-in domestic helper. She intends to stay for some years in Greece, make some money, and return with her fiance to Bulgaria where they want to set up their own business.
