Google translated version from The Spiegel article “I belong to the Underdogs, not to the Germans” by Simone Utler.
Simon Woldeab was five years old when he fled with his family by civil war-ravaged Eritrea. In Germany, the 36-year-old has found a new home. However, he does not feel really as a German.
Frankfurt am Main – About the issue of integration Woldeab Simon has stopped thinking long time ago. Until once, when the native of Eritreans was waiting with his wife in a fashion store in front of a dressing room, an elderly woman pushed past her husband to them and said loudly: “You do have nothing to do anyway and get the money thrown after you.” Woldeab abruptly turned in the cabin and said, “Then we take a dressing room together.” The couple moved away full of anger.
Woldeab, 36, who lives in Germany since the age of five, went to school and studied Industrial engineering. He has worked for ten years as a management consultant and a doctoral thesis on product differentiation in the energy sector. Although he had been in the circles of the consultant the only Africans, but: “I have no problems because of my race and my heritage, ” Woldeab says, smiling. Especially in this industry include travel in particular. Such encounters as the front of the dressing room are extremely rare.
But since late summer, since the theses Thilo Sarrazin, Simon Woldeab think more often about how he feels at home in Germany. Is it integrated? As before, he answered that question with a nod. “I feel well rooted, have German and Eritrean friends want to spend my life here and not to emigrate if I have enough money.”
No, in subways or on the street he would not be harassed or stared, did not have the feeling of being unwanted. “But perhaps this is also to the fact that I’m staying mostly in Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt.”
More than 300 kilometers on foot
When he came to Germany Woldeab did not even have a birth certificate. In 1979, the then five-year-old fled with his mother, his older brother and other relatives and friends before the civil war in Eritrea. For several weeks they marched, mostly at night because daytime military aircraft were on the road. More than 300 kilometers they put back in the capital Asmara through mountainous country, the low level and in the Sudan. Saudi Arabia, they came to Germany, where they had friends and their problems as political refugees were granted asylum.
Woldeab remembers his first day in Germany, it was very cold, despite the blankets that they had got on the plane. He remembers the first few weeks, as he admired by other guys in the Frankfurt train station, the escalators up and down and drove the model railroad. “For us children it was like an adventure. “
While the majority of Eritreans remained in Frankfurt, the Woldeab were housed in northern Germany, two months Puttgarden, two months Neustadt, then Kiel. “Back then it was difficult, but in retrospect I would call it lucky that we had no community – so we had to learn German.” In Frankfurt there are very many compatriots who have not made their way – perhaps because the integration conditions were suboptimal due to the number of Eritreans living there.
“Language is the key. This will open many doors, ” says Woldeab in flawless German. Even if someone prune after the first glance – “as soon as I spoke the first set, I would be perceived very differently “. German is his native language and he uses it skillfully, sometimes charming, sometimes ironic, always eloquently. Tigrinya, the language of his ancestors is, it is not quite as easy on the lips. He uses it with his parents and the community, even with his children so they grow up bilingual.
“Negative, negative, negro”
The family had then been well received. Perhaps it helped that Eritreans do have a dark skin but European facial features bear, perhaps the fact that many of them Christians, and names like Simon, David, Alexander and Moses, or that Eritreans are very ambitious, in general, asks is Woldeab.
At school he was mostly fine for me. Except once, in the ninth or tenth grade in physics class when the teacher about positive and negative electrical charges said. As a classmate had called the whole hour, “Negative, negative, negro. ” After the hour it had been beaten in the schoolyard, says Woldeab and grins: “But that can not be taken seriously.” Just as the scene when he traveled with his Abi-class England, and asked one of the classmates at passport control at the airport: “Man, where did you get that her German passport”
Since 1990, Woldeab German citizenship – but not really feel as a German, “I am not Eritrean, I live in two cultures. ” He loves to celebrate the joy of the Africans, their generosity and flexibility. He also had many points in African loose and relaxed. “But when it comes to the profession, I am very efficient and targeted.” The desire of the Germans to do everything and control structure is sometimes too strong.
But then he comes to problems with the integration to speak, for which he blames not the people in this country, but the politics of the eighties. “The door was never opened properly under the Kohl government gave it to German and foreign -. and I was very clear to foreigners, the underdogs, just not to the Germans.”
“Integration is give and take”
If they would in the youth not included by the system, then later get the feeling no more. “It’s not really but still wounds, but maybe something like scars.” Meanwhile in Germany was much improved, says Woldeab. And it sounds almost envious, or at least wistful when he spoke of his two cousins, 15 and 18 years old, says. “They grew up in a time walking around the young people of all nationalities for the soccer World Cup in Germany jersey and feel rather than German.”
“Integration is give and take.” foreigners learn the language, organize themselves here, and understand the laws in the German mentality. The Germans and the state would have the newcomers but also shows clearly that they are welcome. “You need to provide a positive feedback, showing that foreigners are an asset, because they bring different ways of thinking and ways of life and a certain potential that can be accessed for the benefit of all.”
Woldeab will play its part. During his studies he became involved in an Eritrean youth group and tried to teach boys and girls to do first, what’s coming, and then to drink tea – not vice versa as usual in Africa. Later, he organized events for young people with immigrant backgrounds and told of his own career, to make it clear: “. There are hurdles, but that may take you”
In the current debate provides an opportunity Woldeab. “Perhaps the Germans are now taking true that we are a multicultural society.”There have already been a break. “Figuratively speaking, we pulled the Germans and foreigners, even from two apartments into a WG. Now just have to accept another roommate or two and abide by the rules. “
Speaker Biniam Kiflai (SPD Hannover) pleads to expand native-language class programmes. According to Kiflai, for children it is both an advantage for integration and finding one’s identity. Scientific studies conducted by UNESCO, show that children who first learned their native (family) language, obviously better master the country’s official language.
Sudan – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched an information campaign in Sudan on the risks of irregular migration as part of a broader effort to tackle key migration issues in East Africa and the Horn of Africa.
A boat carrying around 80 migrants to Italy was intercepted on Monday by Libyan patrol boat which brought them back to North Africa, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
