IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy of Caritas Stuttgart
By Dale Gavlak
STUTTGART, Germany (CNS) — A young African mother calls for
help to the Caritas staffer at the refugee dormitory as her toddler quickly
scurries down the hallway, giggling. Unaware, Syrian and Iraqi refugees huddle
outside under an awning, busy texting, as the rain pours down.
Caritas social worker Lisa Maisch said it’s all in a day’s work
as she and others at the facility juggle many responsibilities, including
providing care and support to refugees fleeing conflict and economic
deprivation, who are often traumatized. At other times, Caritas workers find
themselves having to give a motivational push to refugees to improve German
language skills and pursue job prospects as a means of better integrating into
a new life in the country.
“We are on the one hand social workers who give advice.
On the other, we are also responsible for managing the facility,”
explained Maisch, who began working with Caritas in September 2014, a year
before hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa
flooded into Europe, with about 1 million landing in Germany.
As German Chancellor Angela Merkel seeks re-election for a
fourth term of office Sept. 24, her policies on immigration have come under
fresh scrutiny. Not all Germans are happy about the huge influx of foreigners
from very different cultural and religious backgrounds; others are supportive
of Merkel’s actions.
“People live in a tight, narrow place here,”
Maisch, 31, told Catholic News Service. She spoke at the facility of stark
concrete dormitories on the outskirts of Stuttgart, the affluent home to
Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Bosch.
“Because of the insecurity of their legal status and
the long time spent in the facility, some people are frustrated and feel
pressure,” said Maisch, whose holds bachelor and master’s degrees
examining social integration for refugees. “Arguments can start with
neighbors in the facility, over small things like cleaning or noise, but it
quickly quiets down.”
Approximately 8,000 refugees live in and around Stuttgart,
and Caritas cares for 3,000 of them. They are considered “asylum
seekers,” hailing from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Gambia, Eritrea,
Somalia, Nigeria, Togo and Benin. The German government will determine their
final status.
The Caritas facility in the leafy Mohringen district has 243
beds in three buildings, where two or three people share a clean, but cramped
49-by-15 room.
“Occasionally there are disputes, but well less than
the public think,” said Antonia Hacker, who works with Maisch at the
facility. “Here, we have different nationalities, different cultures,
different religions.”
The application process to be considered a refugee with
permission to stay in Germany can take up to three years and includes bureaucratic
hurdles, causing much anxiety to those involved.
“We are really emotionally involved, having built near
daily relationships with these people during this period, even though we, as
individuals, are looking after a caseload of 60 or more people,” Maisch
said.
“It’s a big challenge for us to explain to them what is
written in a rejection letter telling them to go back,” she said, adding
Caritas helps find lawyers to make an appeal, if that’s what the applicant
wants.
She said a man from Gambia recently sat in her office and cried,
fearing he and his wife would always be displaced and never would be settled.
“They are questioning these things every day. It’s
really hard for them to cope,” Maisch said.
“Everyone has a reason for coming to Germany. It’s
difficult for those who are further traumatized by the journey just getting
here,” Hacker told CNS.
The 27-year-old Stuttgart native started her involvement
with Caritas in 11th grade, helping homeless people, and became a staffer in
2015, aiding refugees after completing a university degree in social work.
“For instance, Germany has switched so many times
between citing Afghanistan as an ‘unsafe’ or ‘safe’ country, so it’s hard for
people to keep learning German if they don’t know if they will be allowed to
stay,” Hacker explained.
She said family reunification has its own difficulties. The
German government has not permitted the reunion of a 19-year-old Iraqi girl
with her mother, who has refugee status, because the girl is considered a
legal adult in the West. However, a single woman her age would
not be allowed to live alone in the Middle East.
“These kinds of things are difficult for me to
understand, and I can’t explain it to the people,” Hacker said.
“Sometimes I get angry and call the officials asking them why, saying they
are family. But the authorities say she is over 18.”
Although their colleague, Joachim Glaubitz, said he deals
exclusively with those refugees who are allowed to remain in Germany, he sees the challenges with family reunion.
“Refugees are afraid for their families, constantly
thinking about them. This can make it difficult for them to get a good
start,” Glaubitz, Caritas refugee counselor in Heilbronn, just north of
Stuttgart, told CNS. “They always ask me to make it faster and to help
them. But it’s not possible to make it faster.”
“Successful integration depends on the individual and
where they are living in Germany. Language learning skills make it easier to
find a job. There are problems, but many good examples, too,” Glaubitz
added.
Caritas also helps refugees with job applications, work and
internship placements, locating housing, language classes, and integration
courses as well as trauma counseling.
“These people have a lot of patience. They say, ‘Thank
you for letting me be here. Please leave me here because I am safe here. Thank
God, I can be here.’ I am surprised by the atmosphere,” Hacker said.
“They are happy, thankful and good.”
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