Mon 22 May 2006
Realising that I’m not up-to-date on what’s going on “back home” (in my birthcountry) I’ve been following the news on Deutsch Welle a bit more closely.
The articles have really shocked me in the past few weeks. Though maybe that’s the aim of good reporting to focus on shortcomings and keep a country or region (or whatever the focus-point of the reporting) on it’s toes. But I’ve really been asking myself whether as an immigrant I’d choose to go to Germany with everything going on there.
Following the education discussion on my blog I was quite sadened to read that it’s official: German schools trail significantly in immigrant education. Why after so many years of educating immigrant children alongside of native kids does the German education system still not manage to support those kids properly?
The second things that has absolutely shocked me is that my home-state of Brandenburg was labelled as a racist no-go zone for people with dark skin.
Why would immigrants choose to live in Germany with all this going on? I certainly started to think that this country I’m still calling ‘home’ seems somewhat unattractive and after reading the current DW articles I’d think twice whether there might be a more hospitable place to go to.
May 30th, 2006 at 7:42 am
I think a lot of people move to Germany as economic immigrants or asylum seekers and don’t really realize what’s going on before it’s too late. They don’t have access to all the media that we have and believe they’ll have a better life here. And it’s probably hard to get into another country after you’ve landed in the one you chose originally. In the past few weeks there have been many more incidents of racial violence and just violence in general - there was a report of a 12 yr old (Turkish) school boy in Berlin punching a teacher in the face so hard that she’s in the hospital with a broken nose and possibly a cracked skull.
May 30th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Yes, that’s one aspect I hadn’t even thought about really. Asylum seekers would not have the same access to media that we do and therefore they wouldn’t have the same amount of information available.
The other thing that I was thinking though is that your impression of a place is so strongly shaped by the information given to you that the media really has a huge influence in shaping our thinking and hence one person will get a totally different idea than another simply because of the different new/information providers that they choose.
June 1st, 2006 at 4:35 am
Yeah, but I also think that a lot of people are rather naive and think that the grass is always greener, the economic benefits will outweigh any negative things etc.
I think a lot of economic migrants fail to realise that the cost of living in Germany (or Australia or any other western country) is so high that they will be second class citizen for economic reasons. Most of the people who experience problems with racism or prejudice are doubly disadvantaged in that they are uneducated, have low paying job with little respect, don’t speak the language of the country and are therefore forced to live in certain areas and under conditions that most Germans would be appalled by. This naturally creates resentment among the teenage children of migrants.
In the meantime, native Germans (or Australians) think that the immigrants are stealing all the jobs and taking money from the government.
Unless you are well-educated and can therefore get a well-paying job, you are going to be marginalized by society. This is true if you are native or an immigrant. Immigrants just have a heap more problems which interact with this to create racism and resentment.
June 3rd, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Yes, it seems like immigration is such a difficult thing that I haven’t really seen it done well. There just seems to be soooo many problems associated with it. Though, I’ve heard that Canada is a huge migrant nation. Would be interesting to find out, whether they’re doing it better than lots of other countries.
June 27th, 2006 at 1:22 am
I feel like an immigrant in my own country (USA). After living in Germany for so long (28 yrs) and coming back here, I have plenty of problems to find a decent job. I ‘thought’ I was educated enough, and have gathered enough work experience, even if it was usually always for a short amount of time, but I feel able to work almost ‘anything’ with limitations of course, but I’ve worked in sales, as administrative assistance, in warehouses, as a tour guide for the USO, as tour managers, as an un-official translator, as a child care giver, in concessions stands… I feel like one of those ‘poor’ immigrants, or as a second class citizen. Should I go back to Germany then? Or try to stick it out here? I had to leave my husband behind, because I was one of those persons who had enough of Germany, and their crude way of life… I lived in Hessen for the whole duration of my my residency. I was there when the wall was still up, and I was able to meet East Germans, due to the fact that my husband had/has relatives living there. I found them to be the ‘better’ germans, not to be discriminative, but I did see a huge difference between the two sides. A HUGE difference! I also found that the teachers from the East were more interested in their pupils than the West. In the West you became a teacher so you could become a Beamte, and then you had it ‘made in the shade’.
July 12th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
I always thought that it must really be awfully hard to come back to one’s ‘homecountry’ and discover that it’s not really ‘home’ anymore and maybe not even welcoming towards you.
I really feel for you!
I’ve never lived in ‘the West’ so I don’t really understand what about the way of life there made you leave Germany, but I do know that lots of people from the East have moved to the West as they thought there’d be better opportunities for them.
Hmmm … don’t really understand!
July 12th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
[...] Aldona left the following comment on my post “Would I go there?” I lived in Hessen for the whole duration of my my residency. I was there when the wall was still up, and I was able to meet East Germans, due to the fact that my husband had/has relatives living there. I found them to be the ‘better’ germans, not to be discriminative, but I did see a huge difference between the two sides. A HUGE difference! I also found that the teachers from the East were more interested in their pupils than the West. In the West you became a teacher so you could become a Beamte, and then you had it ‘made in the shade’. [...]
September 19th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
The education system does it’s best with its limitations. I am a black American living here with my German husband. The system does it best to handle immigrants. The question to ask is who is having problems. Are the Asians? Are the Italians? You will find the biggest problems with the eastern Europe contries and the Turkish.
My son has just started gymnasium and his school has a nice mix of kids.
Just for the record. I would still homeschool if allowed.