Frankly ... integrated  A Country That Helps

When times get tough, people close ranks and help one another out, as Sineb El Masrar has observed in Germany lately in the wake of the war in Ukraine. This helpfulness gives hope for humanity in difficult times.

Here in Germany, we are now closely following the war in Ukraine happening just a few kilometers away, on a wide range of different media channels. The international alert and geographical proximity understandably make us far more anxious than other trouble spots do elsewhere in the world. For some communities in Germany, who themselves once fled crisis regions like the Middle East or Hindu Kush, this form of selective sympathy can sometimes seem ignorant and racist. But the fact is that people who feel personally concerned by what’s going on, whether owing to personal ties, family members affected or other forms of identification, will automatically be more responsive to human suffering there. There are about 130,000 Ukrainians living in Germany alone, many of whom are very worried about family members and friends in Ukraine. So the level of concern among Germany’s residents often correlates with their own history of migration and displacement.

A history of helpfulness

But this certainly doesn’t mean that the population’s willingness to help is limited. At a time when many are still wracked by the corona virus crisis, people all over the country are getting involved. And it’s not the first time if you look back on 2015 and 2016, for example. Roughly 1.5 million people, mostly from Syria, as well as from Iraq and Afghanistan, found refuge in Germany during this time. That was the most recent mass migration to Germany caused by war and destruction, but there have been plenty of others in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany: I would like to remind everyone of how thousands of Vietnamese refugees fleeing the cruel war in Vietnam around 1975 were taken in and integrated here. Kurdish refugees also found refuge here from brutal persecution in the 1980s and 1990s, as did Iranians fleeing the Islamist regime after 1979. The people of Germany – most whom have no history of migration – have always shown a willingness to share their Western prosperity.

Time and again, people have put their ethos of helpfulness into practice. Many have housed individuals or whole families in their own homes. Many have spent time and energy assisting with administrative matters as well as medical appointments – thereby shouldering some of the burden on minors, who are often called upon to put their newly acquired language skills to use translating arduous official paperwork for their families. These are stressful situations for little kids and adolescents to cope with by themselves. Other volunteers have given German lessons, helped with homework, or integrated children in sporting activities. As simple and unimportant as it may seem, many have helped by simply listening to their stories and drying their tears.

Gleams of hope

Current efforts all over the country now go to show that helpfulness and compassion don’t die out under a capitalist system. Modest efforts to help refugees to some measure of justice, even in small, often limited ways, may be naïve, but it’s these very acts of kindness that give hope and allow our faith in humanity to grow and flourish. Especially whenever rulers disregard their responsibility towards human lives. Wherever fear and anger give way to dark despair, it is the kindness of strangers that strikes a spark of hope in all of us – especially in those who simply need safety and support. Which is why they should be able to turn to their neighbours for help. These small ways show that striving for freedom and democracy is not a naïve endeavour, but a constant promise of hope and humanity.
 

March 2022