Do you ever have the feeling that when you look at this world you pity what a place it actually is? You realize that there are many things that are definitely wrong and you feel lost in all the diversity and complexity of all these problems? Well, that’s somehow what it felt like for me to write this article. I started it so many times, I was constantly rearranging the structure, overthinking what I actually want to convey. First, I just wanted to focus on telling you my story of my voluntary work in Germany. I used to teach refugees German lessons to help them with their start into a better life. But every day I watch the news and I get so upset about the refugee crisis and what is happening, especially back in my home country Germany that I just feel like I need to take this chance and say more. Since I only recently moved to Scotland I am somehow confused and even sad that it doesn’t seem to be a wider discussion topic here yet – and I can’t spot any refugees. As I am not a political expert, it is important for me to let you know that this is not an article to inform you about facts, but it is just an article on my personal impressions and experience.
You might know that there are millions of people losing their homes each day. People are living in war, poverty and most of all fear. They are desperate for help and therefore setting off on dangerous journeys looking for shelter. They can’t just book a ticket on an airplane and have a comfortable ride. They risk their life, see loved ones die before their eyes and run into the unknown. Many of these people are coming to Germany and sometimes I have the feeling that it is in some way splitting our country. Next to all those amazing people who help a lot, I also see so much hate, racism and people who are raising their voices against the government. I always ask myself why so many people feel threatened by refugees and how so many people can just look away and don’t want anything to do about the whole situation. Sometimes it’s even worse and people do get involved, but in a cruel way. I barely have any words to describe how those people make me feel. It is such an awful thing that there are masses of refugee camps that are brutally burned down by people who are full of hate. How can anyone be so full of resentment that they do everything they can to take away a warm place to sleep from someone who has lost everything? There is and there never will be any legitimate argument to justify such an action. Additionally, it is terrible to watch thousands of people protesting against refugees constantly. People who are scared that something will be taken away from them, people who judge all refugees and expect them all to be criminals. They are scared of unknown cultures, of different languages and of diversity. What they don’t understand is that it could be any one of us. These people weren’t wishing for a war. We are just lucky to be safely living in a European country. But who knows whether it will be safe here forever? Would you not want someone to hear your outcry? What makes us superior to the others, why do we deserve more than others? Being born in Europe is not an achievement and nothing to be proud of.
The sad thing is that I know how important these camps can be to refugees. It is not at all their final destination, but it is an important station on their journey. It is a place of hope and of relief. Reaching those camps means being alive and feeling safe for once. Or at least this is what it is meant to be like. As the child of a refugee myself, I have heard a lot of stories about what it’s like not to live in a safe and democratic European country. I have heard stories of misery, pain and war. And I have seen what effects these images can have on people. My father came to Germany many years ago as a political refugee from Iran. He wanted life there to stay light-hearted. He raised his voice against oppressors but in the end he was forced to leave everything behind, escaping from torture in order to survive. He left his family, his friends, his culture and all his possessions. How can you blame somebody who is fighting for human rights, who is fighting for his chance to live in peace and security? Can you imagine what it feels like to have everything taken away from you from one day to another? To fear for your life, to run into the unknown, to never know whether you will ever see your family again? I don’t think that anyone would do that for the fun of it. I always loved the way my dad used to tell us about his time after his arrival in Berlin. When he arrived in Germany he lived in an asylum camp with many other people. He didn’t own anything, he shared some small space with many others, he didn’t understand a single German word, but he was still happy. He was safe, he was given water and food and he always told us how he just used to walk around the city listening to locals and trying to pick up some new vocabulary. And guess what? He was ambitious, he managed to learn the language on his own, he blended in, and he eventually found a job and got married.
Many times we are tempted to take emotional distance from what is happening around us all over the world. We see pictures in the news but we are so used to it that we are not affected by them in the way we perhaps should be. They seem to be so far away from our own reality. A lot of people only start to care when the crisis knocks on their own door. When they are suddenly involved and the problem is literally sleeping in front of their homes. Also, we often see refugees just as masses of people, they become one big challenge. But we have to keep in mind that these people are individuals. Each one of them deserve a better life.
So why don’t we give everyone the chance to live a peaceful life? I was always convinced that every single person is capable of shaping the world by even the smallest of actions. Sure, we all have our personal problems, maybe struggling with loads of university work or barely having any free time due to extra shifts as a waitress to be able to pay off student loans. But I am convinced if you are really bothered by the world around you, you can always take action. Even if it’s just in the way you look at people, share a smile. For me it was always clear that I wanted to use that chance. Even before the refugee crisis began and before it was all over the media I decided to become active myself, to do something and to help somehow. And I will tell you that this was one of the best decisions I ever made. You will never regret choosing to help others. I heard about a project where refugees were being taught German for free and since I am studying to become a teacher and also studying German I thought this was the perfect role for me. I come from Trier, a city right at the western border of Germany and many refugees arrive there each day as it is a kind of pick up location for them. People arrive in Trier and are distributed to other parts in Germany from there, so it is for many the first impression they will get of living in Germany.
The whole project was set up by volunteers, mostly students, some of them were working in the asylum camps and were encouraging the people thereto come and join our German lessons. We only had two class rooms so we always split the groups into beginners and intermediate (which were still beginners, who just knew the very basics). We didn’t have a lot of space, we didn’t have a lot of material (we often created worksheets on our own), but our classes were still very popular. And we even managed to teach every day, writing newsletters where we told each other roughly what we worked on, so the next teacher could catch up on that on the next day. Many of the refugees came to the classes by foot, so on cold, rainy days there were not as many students and sunny days were often very crowded. It was sometimes very challenging to stand in front of up to forty males from different countries, each with a completely different background. Some were doctors or engineers, they were perfectly fluent in English and very fast in learning. And some were farmers for example, who didn’t know English at all. Heterogeneity in normal classrooms is a joke compared to the situation there, but still, I loved it.
(“Project Arriving” (Projekt Ankommen) in Trier, Germany)
I will always remember the overflow of feelings that came over me after my first visit in the classroom. The first time I taught was actually being very spontaneous. I was supposed to just have a look and watch another teacher, but on that day we had so many new people coming in that I decided to take a smaller group of those who didn’t know any German so far to the office and to teach them some basics. And I do have to say this was not at all easy. All of them spoke different languages to begin with. So if there was someone who was good at English they were mostly not able to translate the sentences for everybody. So I just used my hands and feet. Repeating the easiest sentences many times and I was filled with joy whenever I realized that they actually finally understood what I was talking about. There was one boy that I remember in particular. He was around 17 and spoke a language that no one around was speaking. He sat there, really quiet, head down and seemed to be afraid and misplaced. I remember that I was so proud of him, despite the fact that he could talk to nobody, he took the effort and came to class.
(“Germany airplane” made by one of my students)
I loved to see how ambitious everyone was in general. Everyone who came there, came there voluntarily. They came there because they were motivated and willing to blend in with the rest of the society. They really wanted to learn something. And despite the enormous diversity in the classroom I always had fun and we shared a lot of laughter during the lessons. I always tried to involve everybody. I let them repeat several sentences, sometimes ten or even more times until everyone got them right and I tried out many different teaching methods. For me, it was always important to let every single one of them know that I appreciate their presence and it was my goal that by the end of each lesson everyone felt like their knowledge was wider than before. We often shared a cup of tea and sometimes the refugees showed me pictures of their families. When I walked out of the building I was overwhelmed every single time. It was great to be a part of it and for me it was clear that it was not just me who gave something to them but they gave me something in return.
I know that we don’t live in wonderland, I know that there are a lot of refugees coming to Europe right now and that we can’t just let apartments for everyone magically appear. But watching millions of people drown is not the right way to deal with the problem and spitting at those who are already here certainly not either. We have to see that this is not about what is mine or yours. This is about human beings like you and me. And we can’t just let them down.