The world is currently seeing its biggest movement of European refugees since World
War II.
Germany alone is taking in more than 300,000 Ukrainians who are fleeing war – and that
number is expected to rise dramatically.
This is a refugee crisis of a much larger dimension.
2015 was a training exercise to be very blunt.
And people are comparing the current Ukrainian refugee crisis to that of 2015, when many
of the refugees arriving in the country were fleeing war and terrorism in Syria, Afghanistan,
Iraq and Eritrea.
On social media a lot of discussion has centered around the different reception the two groups
received: and some users say it’s because of racism and xenophobia.
But since 2015, Germany has made the integration process for new arrivals easier.
Let's take a look at what Germany has learned from the past, what needs improving – and
what other countries can draw from this.
One lesson that Germany drew from the previous refugee crisis is to integrate newcomers as
quickly as possible.
That goes for both language and culture.
I think the speed of the reaction this time is impressive.
The networks and civil society that have been mobilized reflect that.
There were a lot of institutions that learned.
Since 2015, Germany's Federal Agency for Migration (BAMF) has become one of the largest asylum
agencies in the world.
Initially, BAMF got a lot of criticism for not processing applications fast enough and
for not offering enough language and integration courses.
But after hiring more people, digitizing procedures and modernizing IT systems, there are now
a lot more integration classes for new arrivals available.
And that's especially important given the demographics of Ukrainians who are fleeing
to Germany right now.
This is a refugee movement of largely mothers and their children.
So everybody knows that issues of schooling and education are absolutely central from
day one.
The good news is that schools have also learned from their experiences in 2015.
Back then, they were still working on ways to teach and integrate child refugees who
could not speak a word of German – and on such a large scale.
So they started so-called "Willkommensklassen" – or welcome classes.
Here, children who had just arrived in the country would initially be given German lessons
and taught how the education system works.
Then, they were integrated into regular classes with other German children their own age.
Several schools in Berlin are already offering welcome classes for Ukrainian children, like
here in Berlin's Wedding district.
I really like the school, because the system of education in Ukraine and Germany are completely
different.
So we talk more - usually when we are in Ukraine, we read and write more.
Now, the city of Berlin wants to establish 250 welcome classes – which would accommodate
over 2700 Ukrainian children.
But what about children who fled to Germany from other parts of the world?
Another vital lesson learned from 2015 was the importance of finding adequate housing
for asylum seekers, which was a massive task when the refugee crisis hit Germany back then.
Many new arrivals were placed in crammed asylum centers – and some had to live like that
for years.
Well, a group of Berliners wanted to change that by
providing them with a safe space – a private room, and a chance to meet locals.
So they founded an NGO that finds rooms for refugees in shared apartments across
the country.
Obada Alsabough fled from Syria to Germany in 2015.
After living in mass accommodation and then in an apartment with other refugees organized
by the state, he finally managed to get a room in an apartment with local Berliners.
That was all thanks to Zusammenleben Willkommen – which means "Living Together Welcome".
He says the experience completely changed the way he integrated into society.
Having contact with Germans who help, who provide advice and who offer support is crucial.
The goal of policy in Germany and in Europe should be to avoid mass accommodation.
But the concept doesn't work for everyone, and the structures aren't yet in place to
make this happen on a large scale.
As a small-scale NGO, Zusammenleben Willkommen has been operating for 7 years now.
They've already successfully placed recently arrived Ukrainian refugees in local apartments.
In fact, there has been an increase in room offers since Russia invaded Ukraine.
But some potential hosts have shown a preference for hosting refugees from Ukraine over other
countries
of origin.
A big hurdle for refugees to find jobs in Germany
in the past has been that employers are often reluctant to recognize overseas qualifications.
Although more than half a million asylum seekers have managed to secure a job in Germany in
recent years, it hasn't been an easy journey.
Many say they had to wait for years, not being allowed to work or move cities until all the
bureaucratic red tape was dealt with.
While others say they have taken on jobs that they’re highly overqualified for.
To
be able to work is crucial.
And this, of course, was a big problem with the previous arrivals of asylum seekers, because
asylum procedures took a long time, because some were rejected but remained anyways and
then spent years in limbo, not knowing what they could do.
That is a very bad policy, not just for them, but for German society.
And that's something politicians decided to change this time around.
A week after Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Council agreed on an unprecedented step: Ukrainian
refugees were no longer required to apply for asylum in the EU.
Instead, they would be automatically recognized as refugees.
This meant they were given the right to work in their country of refuge right away – a
privilege Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi refugees didn’t have when they entered Europe – and
still don't have when they arrive today.
An army of volunteers has also stepped up to make the employment process for Ukrainians
arriving now even smoother.
One of them is Marcus Diekmann, who founded a job portal for Ukrainian refugees in order
to connect them to employers faster.
And the demand
is huge.
But the job portal, called Ukrainian Job Aid, has also received criticism.
That's because it apparently addresses Ukrainian refugees rather than all refugees in Germany
- and because offers like this weren't available on the same scale
in 2015.
And there are more signs that people are stepping up to help refugees in need.
One quarter of Germans already actively volunteered for refugees back in 2015, the majority in
associations and initiatives that exist until today.
Now, estimates show that the number of volunteers has grown.
I remember in 2015, there was a huge mobilization in Germany for many, many months and in some
cases for many, many years, to help Syrian refugees, Afghans, Gambians.
The difference is that this is a conflict next to Europe.
And so the media attention is much bigger.
Everyone knows what's happening in Mariupol and in Kharkiv and in Kyiv.
Secondly, the people who are coming now can only come to the European Union.
There is no country in between.
Some advocates hope that
the enthusiasm Germans have shown towards helping Ukrainian refugees in recent weeks
will continue.
And, that it will translate to all refugees, regardless of where they come from, their
race, religion, gender or age.
Let's not forget, we only have this war for seven weeks.
After seven weeks in 2015, those who were skeptical were not very loud.
The real test will be in four months when there might be two and a half million refugees
in Germany - a number that we've never seen before.
When we have a shortage of kindergarten, of schools, then the test will be if German society
will show the same empathy as now and I hope it will.
And I think we should focus on sustaining this because there hasn't been a refugee crisis
like this in Europe since the 1940s.