The Latest at Goethe

Conveying the German language is the original and primary task of the Goethe-Institut. Now, “Language and Integration” has been added as a new sphere of activity. For good reason: two languages are enriching, as eight Berlin immigrants report in an audio slideshow.

Fatma Tut speaks Turkish just as well as Swabian. She learned the German dialect in her home town of Bietigheim, Turkish from her parents and while working in Istanbul after completing her business studies. There, she made use of her bilingualism to assist German companies in their contacts with Turkish business associates. Today, she consults Turkish businesspeople in Germany who wish to start up their own companies.

Audio slide show: Berlin immigrants in their own words

Artur Becker can tell a similar story. For him, too, it is beneficial to be at home in two cultures and multilingual. He grew up in Siberia, his father is Armenian and his mother is a Volga German. He now lives in Berlin, where he founded a PR agency and also works on the side as a wedding planner for Russian couples.

Tut and Becker are examples of successful integration, examples of how people can be part of and take part in social life in Germany fully without losing their own cultural roots. Tut and Becker are therefore also examples for one of the Goethe-Institut’s core themes.

Integration? Goethe? What does international cultural policy have to do with integration? When we think of the Goethe-Institut, we usually think its job is foreign relations, not domestic. “Yes, it really is something new,” explains Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, the president of the institute. “But, it’s less because of us and more because of today’s world.” It’s true that at one time the Goethe-Institut looked more to the outside, to the rest of the world. “Today we realize that ‘home and abroad’ are no longer separable.”

The integration courses are an example of this. The Goethe-Institut has been supporting this measure for immigrants for five years now. “To do so, we first needed to gain the interest of policymakers,” Lehmann reports. “They didn’t associate the Goethe-Institut with the integration programmes at all. In the meantime, though, we work closely with the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees to achieve optimal results.”

Last week, the Goethe-Institut and the Federal Office held the first Nuremberg Integration Meeting with the motto “Can successful integration be measured? The examples of language and education.” The central element of the Goethe-Institut’s commitment in the integration courses is the German test for immigrants, which has been taken at the end of the integration courses for almost a year. It was developed by the Goethe-Institut and Telc for the Ministry of the Interior.

“Children should learn two languages.”

Who but the Goethe-Institut, the president believes, is more predestined to input their special expertise in this matter? “I think it’s good when we clearly avouch socio-political positions; otherwise we’d be technocrats. We have so much knowledge about the integration models in other countries; why shouldn’t we take the approaches from Canada, New Zealand or South Africa and analyse, evaluate and assess them for our own needs? Only the Goethe-Institut is able to do this.” Not to mention, of course, its proven prowess teaching the German language. Promoting German as a foreign and second language is part of the core business of the Goethe-Institut.

The tests are only the beginning. “We are now beginning pre-integration at preschool age,” relates Lehmann. “Immigrant children should learn both their native language and German. Another example is our Imam programme in which we teach German to the Muslim clergy so that they are enabled to work actively for their congregation in Germany. In practice, therefore, the integration courses have an entirely positive impact.”

In addition, the Goethe-Institut is very involved in the German courses for spousal immigration. The obligatory courses introduced in 2008 are politically quite disputed. Wrongly, according to Lehmann: the fact that – unlike some politicians – the course participants themselves are enthusiastic about the courses shows that the decision was a good one. “And the allegation that the new law is an attempt to put a halt to immigration is ridiculous. Presently 80 percent of all students pass the course.”

The reasons for this are obvious. For one, the motivation among future immigrants to learn German is very high. Secondly, immigrants with basic German skills feel more confident in Germany. Moreover, the pre-integration courses convey to them some basic information about the rights and obligations of German residents. “By learning the language, the spouses coming later to Germany do not rely solely on the head of the family in every aspect of life,” adds Lehmann, “but can go shopping or to the passport office themselves. So, the courses also have an emancipatory effect.”

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