Of Asylum Seekers, Refugees and People Looking for a Better Future

What can I tell you about volunteer work with refugees in Germany?
It’s hard. It’s frustrating. It is sometimes futile. But it is the decent thing to do.

Not All Asylum Seekers are Created Equal

I live in a village in northern Germany. “Our” refugees mainly come from the Balkan states like Albania. Albania has recently put on the list of “safe countries of origin” — a bureaucratic term meaning countries which are considered free of religious or political persecution — the two grounds on which anyone has the fundamental right to get granted asylum in Germany. Which means that people coming from these states have very slim chances of getting asylum.

There are of course always exceptions, but in most cases this means when you start helping these families, you know that they won’t get asylum and will have to leave Germany after their case has been through the legal system. Which could take up to two or three years at the beginning of 2015.

Strangers in a Strange Land When They Come …

The hardest part is that they come with their whole families, full of hope for a better future. And then are stranded, helpless to a high degree: they don’t speak the language, the culture is different (although still European and less different than Germans in general believe) and the legal system is different. And they have nothing to all day, just wait.

They often don’t understand what would grant them the right for asylum. And often they do know that they have only the slightest of chances, but try anyway because they’re looking for better lives. Just like all the Europeans did that emigrated to the Americas.

… But Also When They Leave

For me, the even harder part are the children. They had no choice in leaving their home country. And even if the asylum process goes fast, they are here for at least two years. Two years are a lot for children, especially if they are at the (pre-)school age. After two years, they will speak German; they will have new friends; they will have only foggy memories of their old life.

If they can stay, that’s not much of a problem. But if they have to leave, the children are the ones who suffer most. We had families here that had to leave — and their daughters and sons were crying their hearts out.

Fleeing War is Fine. Looking for a Better Life Less So

It’s different for Syrians. They come from a nation at war (with itself and others) — a reason we Germans intuitively understand as legitimate for leaving your home, for taking refuge elsewhere. The Second World War with all its consequences is still quite fresh in our public conscience.

“Only” looking for a better life on the other hand is something we have a harder time wrapping our heads around. Perhaps because we Germans tend to play it safe, on average preferring a predictable tomorrow to taking a risk for a better one. Perhaps a luxury born out of our wealth and generally well working social net. Perhaps born out of mentality that often rather seeks consensus than risk standing out.

We also don’t view Germany as an immigration country, although de facto it is one. We have no consistent immigration laws or policies; there are dozens of ways in, but all opaque. Perhaps we would be better off if we had a clear stance on immigration, giving Albanians for example a clear way in instead of making them take a very bad gamble as asylum seekers.

Background: The Refugees’ Bureaucratic Journey in Germany

The German bureaucracy is thorough and therefore slow. When you arrive in Germany and declare that you’re seeking asylum, you’ll get transferred to a reception camp. You’ll get help filling out the asylum forms. You’ll get medical examinations and if necessary help. In theory, you should also get some basic lectures in German and all your paperwork should be done before you get sent to a community to live in.

In practice, you’ll get either transferred so fast that there is no time for language lectures and completely finishing the paperwork — which puts quite an organizational and communicational strain on the communities they get sent to.

Or, because of the rising number of refugees, your stay at the reception camp becomes much longer than intended because there are just too few places prepared in the communities around the country to house all those new people.

(Don’t get me wrong, we have the money and the space and the public will to care for all the asylum seekers that are currently coming and probably more. But it takes time to adjust the system, to ramp up the capacities. And our aforementioned thorough bureaucracy becomes a bottleneck. It’s there to guarantee fair treatment and living conditions, but that takes time. So there have to be exceptions for the rule for the time being, but deciding and implementing them also takes time. Our thoroughness is one of our greatest strengths, but it can make us inflexible.)

After you’ve filled out your forms, you’re officially an asylum seeker and become “tolerated”. A technical term meaning that you have no legal right to stay, but won’t get deported either. And as long as you’re tolerated, you’ll have the right to basic social and medical services. You’ll get an apartment to stay, your medical bills will be paid and your kids can go to kindergarten and school. But you get told in which community in Germany you have to stay and you have no say in it. Within the community, you can choose where you want to live and the community will pay for your apartment (within reason, of course). And you aren’t allowed to get work for the first 15 months of being tolerated, greatly contributing to the feeling of helplessness.

Sooner or later, your case will be decided and you either have to leave the country within four weeks or get granted asylum. And getting asylum means you have the official right to stay in Germany, can choose where you want to live and can try to get work.

It’s the Decent Thing to Do

What has all this to do with volunteering? It sets the stage and it provides the reasons for why volunteering is hard, frustrating, sometimes futile, but ultimately is the decent thing to do.

It’s hard because of the language barrier, because of the bureaucracy and because you can’t help but see yourself reflected in the suffering of the refugees.

It’s frustrating because it seems there’s so little you can do. But don’t be deceived, it means a lot to the people you help.

It can be futile, especially if you’re working with people you know won’t get asylum. But still, those people also suffer.

Even if you think the adults are here for the wrong reasons, they are still human beings. And their children are just victims, with no part in the decision, just having to deal with a situation they often cannot understand.

So, yes, ultimately it is the decent, the human and humane thing to do. Everyone who comes here has their reasons. Some reasons might appeal to us more, like fleeing from war, from bloodshed. Others may sound frivolous to us, like looking for a better future. But it’s all part of what makes us human.

Want to Stop Feeling Helpless? Here’s How

There are three things we have to do:

One. Make sure those who leave their country survive the journey and are treated with decency and in humane ways.

Two. We have to provide aid for those still living in their torn countries.

Three. We have to find a cure for what ails these countries. Or rather, help them to find their own cure.

That’s a tall order, so the question is “What exactly can I do as a single person?” You can donate. Money, time and things. And most importantly, you can keep an open mind and open heart, trying and trying again to approach all this driven by our shared humanity, not driven by fear.

Here’s a list of things to start you off. Please recommend others.

If you want to donate time:

• If you have asylum seekers in your town, ask around if the town itself or any clubs or associations could need your help.
• Become a mentor, a godparent for a family of asylum seekers. Visit them regularly, listen to them. This alone helps more than you might imagine.

If you want to donate money:

• Migrant Offshore Aid Station: dedicated to preventing migrant deaths at sea
• The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): providing water, mosquito nets, tents, healthcare
• International Rescue Committee: improving living conditions by setting up camps
• UNICEF: The UN’s children’s charity is providing life-saving supplies such as clean water, medicine and psychological support.
• Médecins Sans Frontières : an international, independent, medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid.
• International Committee of the Red Cross: not specific to the refugee crisis in Europe, but still helpful. Also consider finding out what your national Red Cross organization does and needs.

If you have any factual corrections or want to recommend additional resources, please leave a comment. I will gladly add them to the text.
Thank you.