Soumaila Diawara was the leader of a far-left wing youth movement in Mali in 2012.
Three years later he was granted asylum in Italy, where he now works as an interpreter for a prefecture in Rome.
He also teaches school kids about migration and has published two books of poetry in Italian.
"Europeans need to know that the problems of Europe are not due to Africa, or that the problems in Africa are not due to Europe," says Diawara.
"The problem is due to a system that ...
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.