Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

Nazar Al-lamy, originally from Iraq, wants to rebuild his life in a foreign country thousands of kilometres away from what was once home. Standing beside the two bunk beds his family calls home at an exhibition hall-turned-temporary shelter run by the charity Malteser Hilfdienst in Berlin, he held up his phone with a photo of him and his six-year-old son – killed by the militants in Baghdad in 2012.

The dream is to be accepted into German society, move into an apartment and find a job to support his family.

Tens of thousands of refugees like him fled war and devastation to land up in Germany, with the federal government estimating that the country would have taken in a million just this year.

While sources from the German Foreign Office indicated that the government is still in "crisis mode" in handling the refugee influx since August, the situation is relatively normal, with Germany's experience of migration after the two world wars, and during the East-West divide.

As wars in Syria and Iraq rage on, the tide of refugees may not wane. The German government indicated that there needs to be a better European Union-level response regarding borders and refugee distribution – something the countries have yet to achieve.

But officials admitted that the real challenge will come in the next decade, in the form of integration. When families like Al-lamy's settle into cities and towns that are predominantly of European ethnicities, would they be able to integrate?

The German government currently grapples with registering and screening its refugees due to the large numbers, yet at the same time is trying to plan longer-term measures to deal with the still-hidden problems of social discord if the new population fails to integrate and be accepted in mainstream society.

But much of the support is reliant on NGOs, and even more so on the German Willkommen-skultur – the welcome culture. In other words, it will depend on how accepting and proactive the German people themselves are towards the refugees.

"Integration is the biggest challenge of the future – the big task," said Norbert Seitz, director general of the Department of Migration, Integration, Refugees and European Harmonisation at the Ministry of the Interior.

The current number of refugees is roughly similar to the numbers after the second world war, he said, but this new group come from cultures and backgrounds very different from the general German population.

Seitz said that there are language and cultural classes for refugees upon registration, and schools for the children. The major hope is that some could take up jobs in three months after their status has been recognised.

The ministry will increase its federal office staff from 3,000 currently to 7,000 next year, to deal with the refugee situation.

"[The refugees] come with great cultural diversity and they are very diverse [among themselves] ... but we've seen a huge willingness to help [in the community] and a huge amount of volunteers."

There are nonetheless fears, said Seitz.

"When small municipalities of 1,000 people suddenly receive 1,000 refugees there is worry and fear," said Seitz, who warned that such insecurities could be manipulated. "These fears ... there are forces that try to exploit [the fears]."

Seitz admitted that the fears had been intensified after the Paris bombings.

The trick is to start integration as early as possible, said Seitz, which meant language and culture classes for refugees, as well as moving them into society and out of camps as soon as possible.

Currently when a refugee arrives in Germany, they are put into first-contact centres where they had to stay for three months. The regulations have recently changed to six months – criticised by some as unnecessary and detrimental to early integration.

"The lesson can be learnt that, in the long term, integration benefits the whole country," said Christoph Tometten, policy advisor of parliamentary group Alliance 90, also known as The Greens, which would mean giving the refugees the right to move, the right to work and equal treatment with nationals once their statuses are confirmed.

He had called the lengthened time at first-contact shelters to be "useless", and unconducive to integration policies.

In the northern German and former East Germany city of Schwerin, there are 2,000 to 3,000 refugees of which 90 per cent are Syrian.Half of them will be redistributed across the state of Meckelenburg-Vorpommern.

With a population of 100,000, Schwerin's inhabitants include roughly 7,000 from a migrant background, mainly from Vietnam, Ukraine and Russia.

"We are a little bit proud of our policy and our history. We can handle a million, or two million. But three or four million could be a problem," said Andreas Ruhl, second deputy of the Lord Mayor and head of the Department of Finance, Youth and Social Affairs.

Ruhl indicated that the possibility of finding a job would be crucial in whether refugees would stay in Schwerin, and whether they could integrate into society. Schwerin is facing the problem of a fast-ageing population, but the unemployment rate stayed at 9.9 per cent.

More than 90 per cent of the new arrivals will have problems getting jobs immediately, he added.

"This is a challenge for us, and we don't have any solutions yet," he said. "We're afraid that integration would take years."

He said that the flow really started in September, with the country still working on it.

But despite the anxiety, Schwerin has more than 5,000 volunteers helping refugees.

Ruhl said the strategy is to avoid camps and tents. The city has mobilised a network to put refugees in the 200 empty apartments across town – a decentralised accommodation system so to help refugees integrate. The city pays the flat-owners roughly &;500 (HK$4,213) a month as rent.

"We don't want a ghetto," added Ruhl.

At a "welcome cafe" – a meet-and-greet initiative by the community – volunteer Salim Belaroussi, an Algerian migrant who came to Germany 19 years ago, said townsfolk have split opinions towards receiving refugees.

"It's about half and half. There are fewer foreigners here because it was part of the former-East. It's more hostile to foreigners but it is already better than before," said Belaroussi. "I worry about [the refugees] fitting in of course, which is why I'm here ... I hope that with more people from different origins in Schwerin, people will get used to it."

Germany is not completely out of the woods yet, as the influx of people will likely continue in the next two to three years.

The government is trying to accelerate the registration and process times of applications. While the policy and mechanism is set by the federal government, implementation and on-the-ground situation differs across the 16 states.

NGOs and non-profits working to set up shelters are feeling the strain.

At the Malteser Hilfsdienst in Berlin, there are 1,000 people they call "guests" staying at their shelter. Of those, 30 per cent are Syrian and 30 per cent are Afghan, with others from Iraq, Iran and Pakistan as well as four Eritreans and two Vietnamese. There are 200 that are under 18 years old, and 460 men.

Apart from a communal space with a cafeteria, sleeping quarters are divided between families and single men.

"When we were told to start this shelter, we had just three hours [to set it up]," said Asia Afaneh-Zureiki, coordinator for emergency shelters. .

The shelter opened in mid-October. They have 40 employed staff and 100 volunteers.

There are issues among the asylum seekers, she said.

"They are living under stress. They are waiting [to be granted] asylum, and the process – from registration and so on – is frustrating," she said, adding that especially the long waits at the Landesamt fur Gesundheit und Soziales (LaGeSo) takes its toll on a lot of the asylum seekers. "They stick together – the Syrians with the Syrians ... we need to deal with clashes all the time."

"We see the potential of migrants and keeping migrants in the country," a source from the Foreign Office said, adding that in the long run they would need to implement a strategy to slow down the flow and control borders again.

German graduate student Susann Pham Thi, 22, believes in paying it forward.

Born to Vietnamese migrant parents, she grew up in Germany and is now attending Humboldt University in Berlin to get a masters in Southeast Asian studies.

But in the beginning of the summer, she started a football workshop and a dance workshop for refugee children, which took off and became popular.

"I see how the government has a lot of programmes for the grown-ups to help them settle in Germany, but there isn't a lot for the children. They are put into schools, and sometimes they are not taken care of," she said. "Which is why I started the workshops."

She wheeled her bike to a football pitch, and was immediately greeted by an Afghani boy with a huge smile on his face.

"I call her my mum," said the boy, 14. The two chattered away, while watching a group of boys play football.

Pham Thi then went to a side building to make the boys hot tea.

"We don't talk about [the boys'] stories here. I don't know most of their stories actually," she said, while pouring the tea into big plastic flasks.

"I think it's sometimes better this way, because everyone is on the same level – there is no pity. It's really about friendship."

However, she was able to account one story – a boy from Eritrea had to walk through the Sahara Desert as part of the two-year-journey to Germany. The boy worked in Syria washing clothes in order to get enough money to travel.

During the journey, the boy's best friend died from thirst, while he was caught and thrown into prison, with a pregnant woman travelling with the pair, who gave birth in prison. They eventually got to Berlin, and Pham Thi met them.

"This is one of the hardest stories I've ever heard," she said. "I just want to provide them with some perspective – to build up their own identity," she said. "Just... leading them. It's not me helping them... that is why I don't ask them about their private lives. I want to know, but it's for them to tell."

The number of boys that come to the football workshop fluctuates, sometimes a dozen or more, while at times more than 30, she said. There are 10 regular volunteers with the organisation she started, doing these workshops.

The issue of minors – some travelling alone – is a problem, officials indicated.

"The number of unaccompanied minors has increased tremendously," said Norbert Seitz, head of the department within the Federal Ministry of the Interior dealing with refugees, migration and integration. "They are often used by their families to make their way to Europe, to apply for reunification."

Seitz said in a special programme in collaboration with the UNHCR this year, the government received 20,000 Syrian nationals with states admitting an addition 17,000 nationals. Of those, 100,000 of them applied for family reunification.

Seitz said integrating the unaccompanied minors is a major problem.