Let me first say, that I am very honoured to be here with you today at this 10th African Cultural and Democratic Dialogue. 

It is really an achievement to celebrate and I want to congratulate especially Obiri Mokini, who is the driving force of this enterprise. I don’t know if I was present at all the ten ACDDs, but probably at most of them. 

So thank you and all the best for the next ten ACDDs. 

I was asked to talk about the challenges and opportunities for refugee integration in Germany. When I first read that title I was thinking about the order of the two words – why not opportunities first to be more optimistic and then the challenges? The more I thought about it the more I came to the conclusion that the order is a good one after all. There are a lot of challenges to overcome, flight is full of them and it doesn’t end with the arrival in a new country, as much as we all wish it did. But, like during the journey you have to tackle the challenges and find or even create the opportunities. So let’s talk about the challenges first. 

How many of them there are depends unfortunately on where you come from. The German system is build like this and I don’t see any signs of a change. If you are from Ukraine or Syria you have a lot more opportunities than when you come from an African Country. The regulations concerning the Aufenthalt / stay in Germany are a reflection of this. It leads to frictions among refugees, it is not fair and hard to accept. Very important for me is to realize, that a Ukrainian mother with three children and the husband far away in the field is not responsible for this. She didn’t invent it. It is a task for the politicians to change it. People from Africa often also flee from war and suppression. Maybe in the far future the Ukrainian model can be the way forward for all the people coming here in search for safety and a better future, regardless where they are from. 

Nevertheless some challenges and some opportunities are the same for all refugees. 

The biggest one is the current political climate. 2015 almost 900.000 refugees came to Germany. The party AfD – Alternative for Germany used these topics, migration and integration, for their own political purpose and put it front and center in all their activities and propaganda. 

What we can see now is that they not only succeeded in getting more and more support and votes for their own party, almost a third of the votes in Brandenburg in the election a month ago, but also that they influenced the whole discussion about migration and integration in this country and provoked a continually and gradually evolving shift to the right in German politics. 

I am still stunned and shocked how willingly and naïvly the established parties followed the lead of the AfD and talked about nothing else than migration and integration as if in this country we have nothing else to worry about. They just don’t get it that this not only is the absolutely wrong strategy but also that they are contributing to an atmosphere of racism and growing right-wing tendencies among the German population. 

This leads to a more restrictive lawmaking and an intolerant and hostile climate towards refugees and migrants generally. A new law establishes that so-called Dublin refugees will no longer get any money and only the basic necessities for surviving. I would never have thought something like that to be possible in this country. 

I wish with all my heart that at one point they realize their error and how dangerous it is for all of us. It is not yet too late but time is running out, I’m afraid. In Brandenburg it led to a situation where after the election the road to a government is very unclear and maybe even impossible. 43 percent of the voters gave their vote to a populist party. It is even worse in the states of Saxony and especially of Thuringia. Let’s hope for the best and prepare for the worst. 

This rather bleak situation adds to all the challenges refugees face anyway – coming to terms with a totally new and unknown system, being maybe forced to live in a Heim, process all the things that happened during the journey to Germany, being in a situation in which you are dependent on other people, missing your family and friends back home and so much more. 

If your application for asylum is rejected you face all that follows – going to court, being threatened with deportation and feeling helpless. It might take a great effort to get up in the morning, find your footing and not fall in despair. 

That’s where the opportunities begin. 

You do have the opportunity to improve your chances, to find your way into a positive future here in this country. You can influence this more than you think. The only person really interested in your future is you yourself. So start fighting for it.

First of all – don’t wait until your stay is decided. Get active, fight, create the opportunities you may otherwise not be given. If you succumb to all the difficulties, which would be totally understandible, don’t get me wrong, you cannot show that you are willing to be a part of this society. I am convinced that you can do it – you made your way into Europe, into Germany against all odds, you showed your strength, your courage and you can build your future on this experience. 

This brings me to the second point and anyone who knows me knows what’s coming: the language. The German language is a challenge and it is an opportunity at the same time. The German language is not easy, the grammar is a real sucker and the articles Der, Die, Das can throw you off the course all by it’s own. Nevertheless – if you want to stay in Germany and find your way, you cannot do it without learning the German language as well as possible. 

The Germans, I am sorry to say, expect you to speak their language and fluently at that. You can earn trust and respect if you do and be cast as an outsider if you don’t. So – it is worth the effort and after a while, I promise, it will get easier. Find a course, do it on the internet, read, listen, speak – you are in the country where everyone speaks the language and there are a thousand ways to learn it. It requires perseverance and discipline and you will find that this is a great gamechanger. I really urge you to go out of your comfort zone and learn, learn, learn. 

The language is your entrance into so much and it is especially important for the work you are doing. If you don’t speak it well your work will stay underqualified and there will be no perspectives of development. If you speak German better you will be able to work in more qualified positions.

So work is another opportunity. Germany as so many other so-called Western countries has an extreme shortage of workers and skilled workers. People born here alone cannot fill this gap and that’s your chance. Look for work, get help if you need to find work and do it. There are also laws that allow you in time to get a permanent stay like the Ausbildungsduldung. Your employer might help you or your colleague – you never know. 

If you want to do an Ausbildung, an apprenticeship, you need B2. Otherwise you will not be successful because apprenticeship in Germany means work and school together. You work and you go to school. So you have to be able to understand and read and write. Many refugees unfortunately fail because of the language. They are top in the practical part but cannot cope with the school. 

There is another opportunity which in my opinion often is regarded wrongly especially by the African community and unfortunately is not recognized accordingly. What I have in mind is the counseling for migrants and refugees, in German Migrationsberatung. There are a lot of full-fledged people working there with expert knowledge of the law and the system who can support you in many ways. Not all of them, of course, but in my experience the majority. Use this offer we have in Brandenburg. They can point you in the right direction, give good advice and if necessary bring you in contact with the right people. They cannot serve your stay on a silver tablet but be one part of achieving it in the end. 

Another opportunity is volunteer work. Volunteer work for good causes ranks very highly in Germany. There are not that many things I am proud of concerning this country, but the civil society surely is one of them. 

Over decades there came into being a lot of different small and big associations and organisations that fight for their causes, for the rights of patients, for culture, for nature and so much else. It is a very lively scenery with a lot of people who are sincerely committed to their field, invest their time and do a lot of good. 

It is very much respected if you do voluntary work and it can be good for you in many ways. It helps you learn the language. You get into contact with other people – maybe you find friends or people that can support you in different ways. You get your mind off other maybe not so pleasant things. Maybe you can learn new things or find something that really interests you. 

By the way – already before 2015 and more so after, a lot of people in Germany and also in Brandenburg started to work with and for refugees. These initiatives are your natural partners and they are more than happy if refugees themselves participate on equal terms in their work and are not only in the role of receiving help. 

There are many different areas in which you can be a volunteer. Not the least important is a migrant organisation, a topic we will hear and learn more about during this conference. 

Migrant organisations first of all fight for the interests of their own community or for refugees and migrants in general. Most of them are ethnically orientated. They offer a space to come together, to reassure, to support the children and parents and to do a thousand other things. 

And they build bridges into the German society. They organise meetings and festivities, reach out to other institutions, organisations and people. They offer opportunities. If you join them, engage yourself in the work and contribute to the common cause. The success of migrant organisations depend on the people willing to contribute their time, ideas and active support. You will learn important things, feel fulfilled and as with all the other things I mentioned there can arise new opportunities you didn’t even expect. You can get to know someone who can help you, you find friends, someone might know something that helps and so on. 

We have roughly 50 migrant organisations in Brandenburg, quite a lot of them established by migrants and refugees from African countries. There is one thing I sincerely wish for, and again, who knows me knows what’s coming, sorry. 

My big wish is for the migrant organisations in the Land Brandenburg to come together and built a network to fight for the interests of all the migrants in our state. We desperately need such a network as a counterpart for our politicians and political parties. If someone with my pallid complexion goes to them they listen only so much. But if someone with darker skin is talking to them they have a harder time to do nothing, say nothing, decide nothing. They are a lot more on the defensive. Let’s use it.

If the migrant organisations don’t come together now, in this terrible political situation, it is also you that are responsible what happens in the future. And soon, I am very much afraid, it can be too late. I don’t want to exaggerate but I am truly worried about the situation worldwide and in my small corner here in Brandenburg. And if Donald Trump gets reelected it will get even worse. 

So – come together and work together. Someone has to do the work at first, carry the rest with him or her. I’m ready to help but the initiative has to come from migrant organisations and the people working in them. When I look to Sachsen-Anhalt, our neighbouring state – they have such an organisation and meanwhile they employ 50 people and are an important partner of politics. Isn’t that worth a try also here, in Brandenburg? 

Coming to a conclusion, there are many challenges and many opportunities. It relies on you which will be greater in your own life. We are, after all, our own masters of our own destiny. Don’t forget what you already achieved in having come here all the way. I admire you for that and am sure that not a lot of us spoiled people here in good old Europe could have done that. It is a great pity and even a shame that not more people recognize this and act accordingly. 

There was a book in my rebellious student times with the title „You have no chance so use it“. It became a motto for looking at things and life in general. In the practice of my physiotherapist there was a caricature on the inside of the door with a stork having a frog in its mouth which in its turn was strangling the stork with its two hands. I will never forget the surprised eyes of the stork realizing that something unintended and unexpected was happening. Underneath was the phrase „Never give up, Niemals aufgeben“. For a long time and sometimes even now I very much identified with the frog and I think „Never give up“ is a pretty good motto to live on. 

Thank you very much for your attention.