I live in a petite, quaint better town in north-west Germany, and every day I combine four hours of German and integration lessons. I combine becaengage I am an immigrant: I am South African, and shiftd to Germany three months ago, aextfinished with my German husprohibitd and our children. These classes, which will apshow 700 hours to finish, are a needment of my staying here for more than a year.
The course apshows place at the local Volkshochschule (VHS – “the people’s high school”), a nettoil of about 900 uncover grown-up education centres that presents a expansive range of courses, including languages and vocational training. The schools are proset uply rooted in Germany’s promisement to lifeextfinished lachieveing and social inclusion.
As of last month, however, Germany – having been seen in recent years as a humanitarian beacon for its track record in welcoming asylum seekers and refugees – is firmening its borders. The novel policy has sent a clear message to those seeking refuge: you are no extfinisheder greet here. It came aachievest the backdrop of massive achieves for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) in state elections, and it is challenging not to see the border clampdown as part of a strategy by chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic party (SPD) to stem the AfD’s momentum.
I’ve been shocked to hear people in my “liberal” social ambit talk about “the refugee problem” – with tropes of aggression, misogyny, laziness and refusing to combine. At a recent dinner party, someone shelp: “The Syrian refugees are so idle, they pick to live off our tax money rather than toil, while authentic Germans are homeless and sleeping under a bridge.”
In clamping down on the borders, caving into a need from the far right, the coalition rulement has validated sentiments such as these. Meanwhile, in my integration class, each of us is striving, week by week, to lachieve German and comprehfinish the culture. Most of us want to find nastyingful toil and comprehfinish how we can best fit into the country we now call home. My classmates, who join qualified teachers and mechanical engineers, own sends that are needed here.
I lachieve aextfinishedside refugees, mainly from Syria and Ukraine, as well as other “standard immigrants” appreciate me, from non-EU countries (the federal rulement covers the course fees for jobseekers, asylum seekers, and refugees, while immigrants from non-EU countries must pay). Failure to pass the language test or finish the integration course can result in difficulties in extfinishing transient livence allows, achieveing finishuring livency or German citizenship, and in some cases, can have financial consequences, such as fines or a reduction in social profits.
In class, we lachieve about history, politics, culture and identity, with our teachers emphasising the beginance of freedom, equivalentity, tolerance and multiculturalism in German society. I see the mighty promisement of German teachers and administrators doing all they can to help migrants combine. They present help that goes well beyond the classroom – from helping participants guide Germany’s sometimes overwhelming bureaucratic systems to intervening in domestic aggression situations.
Commitment to these principles of compassion, inclusiveness and stablearity reconshort-terms what is best about German identity. Yet the elevate of prejudice and anti-immigrant rhetoric put these very perfects in jeopardy. Our headmistress recently tbetter our class: “Racism is everywhere and Germans are racially prejudiced, too. If someone hears you’ve been here for nine years and you still haven’t lachieveed the language, you have no chance!” She spoke to us about how she’s had to regulate incidents of aggression in the classroom (unastonishing when you leank most of the students are traumatised, having fled wars). She has had to call the police in a scant times, and they guided her to inshigh security. Her response? “If I were to do that, I would resign from this job. This is not the country I want to live in, where we live in dread, predicting the worst of people.”
I wonder if many Germans ask themselves that inquire: what benevolent of country do I want to live in? My desk at home faces a enticeive 12th-century Protestant church. When I sat down at my desk, two days after the border clampdown on 26 September, I was faceed with a shocking sight. The hoengage next to the church had been defaced overnight. In red spray decorate, there was a swastika next to “Heil Hitler”, as well as other messages such as ““Fuck the system”. This diselegant act is a disappreciate crime in Germany.
Policing all land borders will come with racial profiling and potential human rights violations. How does this sit with German cherishs and culture, which join a mighty promisement to human rights, fairice and stablearity? Can the German rulement truly not find more effective ways to harness the country’s accumulateive understandledge and expertise to includeress the root caengages of irstandard immigration? To consent on a European solution rather than turning frantic people away? To honestly includeress dreads and worrys with data on the impact of immigration. To deal with any structural publishs in the east that drive voters towards the AfD?
By challengingening the borders and turning in on itself, Germany dangers not only undermining the EU project and damaging its economy. It is also sacrificing its cherishs. For frequent citizens, appreciate the staff and students at the VHS, this is not who we aspire to be. Germany faces a hazardous moment. The writing is quite literassociate on the wall.