Flight, refuge, migration

Refugees at German Schools Ideas on Integration

Migration researcher Aladin El-Mafaalani Photo (detail): © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons) Many schools in Germany are still struggling with the task of integrating refugees. In our interview, migration researcher Aladin El-Mafaalani explains why this is, and what could be improved.

Discrimination in schools Better marks without a headscarf

Not everyone is equal: children of migrant origin often experience discrimination at school. Photo (detail): © Gorilla/Fotolia All children are supposed to have equal educational opportunities – that sounds good in theory. In reality, however, many pupils of migrant origin experience discrimination. A number of initiatives in Berlin are committed to changing this.

Culture of Welcoming Library Services for Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Knowledge and encounter Photo (detail): © Robert Kneschke - Fotolia.com Arriving in a new country with a different culture and language confronts all refugees with a challenge. To make their arrival easier, libraries in Germany offer many different services and so contribute to a culture of welcoming.

Art Academies and Migration “In art there are no borders”

Video Shoot 2016 | *foundationClass at the Weißensee Academy of Art © *fC The obstacles to university-level art studies are considerable. With special programmes, art academies in Berlin and Leipzig support artists who have fled from conflict zones, and in doing so place reliance on unconventional perspectives in their instruction approaches.

Picture books about refugees and foreignness Explaining issues gently but without sugar-coating

Yabancılığı birlikte aşmak: "Saida'nın bize geldiği gün"; Photo (detail): © Peter Hammer Verlag New picture books from German publishers introduce children to themes relating to refugees, war and xenophobia.

An interview with Firas Alshater “It's not my dream job, however, to be a refugee”

Firas Alshater © Jim Naughton “Who are these Germans?” This is the question Firas Alshater asks on his Youtube channel called Zukar. Check out this interview with the Syrian filmmaker who lives in Berlin and find out his views on acceptance, on what a home country and humour means to him.

The New German Media Makers “Give everyone a voice”

Only every fiftieth journalist has non-German roots Photo (detail): © agnormark - Fotolia.com “Bring more diversity into the media” is the motto of the New German Media Makers. In an interview, their Deputy Chairman, Chadi Bahouth, explains why the perspective of immigrants gets the short end of the stick in media coverage and how the association wants to change this.

Foreign Cuisines “Taste is as versatile as identity”

Eating is a sensitive experience Photo (detail): © SolisImages - Fotolia.com Pizza, cappuccino, doner kebab – it is hard to imagine Germany these days without any foreign cuisines. Maren Möhring, a cultural historian, tells us whether food can bridge the gap between different cultures.

Where to? 21 questions on flight and migration

The new issue of the cultural magazine “das goethe” just appeared. It’s all about refuge and migration plus a questionnaire answered by internationally renowned intellectuals in more than forty countries. Read here about what moves Alexander Kluge.

Private aid for refugees Under the banner of humanity

The Sea Watch underway; Photo (detail): © Sea-Watch A group of men and women from Brandenburg refused to watch idly as people die in the Mediterranean. With their ship Sea-Watch, the helpers rescue refugees from the deadly trap.

Asylum and refugees Refugees Welcome – german documentary films

“Land in Sicht” (i.e., Land in Sight) (2013), by Antje Kruska and Judith Keil – intercultural misunderstandings, sometimes comic, sometimes tragic Photo (detail): © Basis Filmverleih Several politically committed films take a nuanced look at those people for whom the flight into the unknown is often the only alternative to marginalization, violence or death in their own homelands.

Enriching Culture Refugees Open Doors, a Long Way from Home

The Munich-based “Kino Asyl” project Photo (detail): © Max Kratzer They establish magazines, make films and organize festivals: many refugees make an active contribution to the cultural scene in Germany.

Refugee authors Writing – or not – in exile

Aboud Saeed Photo: @ mikrotext How persecuted and displaced writers in Germany fight for a new life in literature – and how much strength and luck this requires.

Migration The city as an engine of tolerance

Major cities are cultural contact zones and transit spaces, places of uncertainty and the foreign. The dynamism of change arising from this constitutes the essence of urbanity and is what lends metropolises their stability and attractiveness in the first place.

Refugee organizations No choice, but a voice

Refugees in Germany have founded numerous organizations through which they struggle to achieve recognition of their rights. Their activities are invariably based on the call for more independence through networking.

Germany @ Canada 2017 Germany: Where the refugee flood is a solution, not a problem

Doug Saunders speaking at a Goethe-Institut Toronto event, 2016 Photo: Goethe-Institut Toronto / Toby Wang What about all those tens of thousands of Syrians, Eritreans and Iraqis who don’t end up bobbing lifeless in the Mediterranean or steered at gunpoint back to the southern shore? Where do they wind up? A reflection on the situation by Canadian journalist Doug Saunders.

Focus: Flight, refuge, migration