Millions Germans open their heart to refugees and help them

[Melech 9,900]

"Arson attacks and unruly protests against the 450,000 refugees crowding into Germany this year have dominated the headlines as the country struggles to cope with a record-breaking influx of asylum-seekers fleeing war, violence and famine. 

But there is another story in Germany that is getting far less attention: 

The millions of Germans who are opening their hearts and homes to help the tired, poor and huddled masses from the Middle East, Asia and Africa find shelter and perhaps a new life in a country that won't stop trying to atone for its Nazi past.

The tensions between opponents and helpers of refugees in Germany, which is taking in more than any other European Union nation, is a microcosm of the struggles over the issue dividing Europe and especially at the flashpoint of violence in Calais.

This veritable German ghost town of Kerpen-Manheim - all but abandoned after utility RWE bought it to tear it down for a future 400-meter deep open-pit mine - has become a temporary home for 80 refugees from Somalia, Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia. 

Local authorities rented some of the condemned buildings from RWE to shelter refugees until their cases can be examined, a process that can take months or even years. It is one of the myriad of creative solutions Germans have come up with to handle the crush of refugees – twice as many as the 200,000 last year.

ARSONISTS VS HELPERS 

"It's always small numbers of extremists setting fires who get the attention," community leader Wolfgang Esser told Reuters in Kerpen-Manheim, where most of the 1,000-year-old town's 1,600 residents have already left the shuttered red-brick buildings.

"But the truth is that there are lot more people in Germany working against the arsonists and anti-refugee protesters. There are a lot more people in Germany eager to help refugees."

One of the countless unsung volunteers in Germany, Esser has been collecting furniture, clothing and household goods donated by other Germans to distribute to refugees. He also organizes youth soccer and sports for the children of the newcomers. 

"Sport is the best vehicle for integration," he said, noting some volunteers are teaching refugees German while others here help them deal with the maze of German bureaucracy.

The sight of asylum-seekers laughing, riding bicycles or waiting for a rare bus on the tidy if empty streets of Kerpen-Manheim mark a striking contrast to scenes of smoldering, burned out refugee centers in towns such as Troeglitz and Remchingen.

Some 150 newly erected shelters have been attacked, damaged or destroyed this year - often by arsonists bent on keeping refugees from being sheltered in new quarters in their towns. Swastikas were painted on one shelter that was burned out in Vorra. 

"We've seen the number of attacks on refugee housing rise considerably over the past year and we're concerned that this number will continue to increase," Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the government's domestic security BfV agency, told Reuters. "We've also seen the propensity to turn to violence rise."

Maassen said the far-right is trying to whip up fears about Germany being over-run by foreigners in a bid to revive its own fading fortunes.

"We've seen the far-right extremists on the wane for years," he said. "They're trying to exploit the refugee situation to become politically relevant again."

GERMANY A HAVEN FOR REFUGEES

Germany has a long tradition of welcoming refugees, in part a response to its Third Reich past when 500,000 Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis fled. They found shelter in more than 80 countries. After World War Two, Germany took in some 13 million displaced persons and refugees fleeing west from Eastern Europe.

Another 1.8 million ethnic Germans from Russia and Kazakhstan have moved to Germany since 1990 as well. 

"It's not a problem at all that refugees are coming in - they're all welcome here," said Rafael Massimo, 18, one of the few hundred locals still in Kerpen-Manheim, near ex-Formula One champion Michael Schumacher's home town and west of Cologne. 

"There are enough empty houses and anyone who needs a place can come here," he added.

Johannes Lambertz, a 49-year-old carpenter who donated furniture from his parent's vacated house, said helping was "obviously the right thing to do." 

"The only trouble is that there are no shops left here. They have to take a bus to get anything."

Just as hostility to refugees can take many forms - from skinheads shouting abuse to the middle classes complaining about the affect on house prices - support for them also comes in a myriad of ways.

Hannelore Kraft, the state premier of Germany's biggest state, North Rhine-Westphalia, said 150 civil servants had come out of retirement to help refugees get settled and protected.

In Hanover, a bishop set up a small flat next to his office now used by two refugees from Afghanistan. In Berlin, an elderly couple took in a 37-year-old man from Ghana. And a 20-year-old who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban decapitated his brother overcame his fear of water to become a lifeguard in Munich."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/06/us-europe-migrants-germany-idUSKCN0QB0FV20150806

 

 

[Chic 20,830]

How sweet of them! 

[Didymus 34,380]

I wish my country would take Germany as an example on this topic. Recent research has shown that Belgium is one of the least tolerant countries in Europe towards immigrants.

I wish there were more citizen-organized & supported initiatives like this. Not just for this issue but for other issues as well.

[MyQueen 2,409]

Where is no war in Bosnia, Kosovo od Albanija sonthey are not refugees

3\4 people who are coming in Evrope are economy migrants

 

 

[hmm 979]

Glad that Germany is showing a good example to the rest of Europe  

[lego 44,165]

Where is no war in Bosnia, Kosovo od Albanija sonthey are not refugees

3\4 people who are coming in Evrope are economy migrants

 

 

They obviously came in the 90s when there was war and ethnic cleansing. 

German government is not stupid, they know where is war. Also there is such thing as asylum based on political persecution.  

Economy migrants from Europe moved to Austria, Germany, Sweden etc already in the 70s.

 

 

[Barbados 1,004]

Glad that Germany is showing a good example to the rest of Europe  

Germany still has a neo nazi problem tho, along with Ukraine

[Melech 9,900]

Germany still has a neo nazi problem tho, along with Ukraine

I think of all countries in Europe, Germany has one of the less Neo-nazis. There is not even a right party in the parliament. 

[Barbados 1,004]

I think of all countries in Europe, Germany has one of the less Neo-nazis. There is not even a right party in the parliament. 

I was talking to my swedish friend and she was saying they're becoming an increasing problem in those areas

[faux 2,190]

Germany still has a neo nazi problem tho, along with Ukraine

Ukraine? 

[Melech 9,900]

I was talking to my swedish friend and she was saying they're becoming an increasing problem in those areas

Sweden is way more right leaning than Germany.

 

[TiphEret 1,320]

I wish my country would take Germany as an example on this topic. Recent research has shown that Belgium is one of the least tolerant countries in Europe towards immigrants.

I wish there were more citizen-organized & supported initiatives like this. Not just for this issue but for other issues as well.

Really? I would have not think that, I assume Norway or Denmark would be the least tolerant, about Denmark because its rules are the strictest when it comes to immigration and regarding the last elections...

But Belgium has still tensions between flamand and wallons though? Do you think it makes it worse towards immigrants? 

[Didymus 34,380]

Really? I would have not think that, I assume Norway or Denmark would be the least tolerant, about Denmark because its rules are the strictest when it comes to immigration and regarding the last elections...

But Belgium has still tensions between flamand and wallons though? Do you think it makes it worse towards immigrants? 

I didn't even think about that, but it's definitely possible. Most immigrants definitely are in Flanders and they already feel like they're being sucked dry by Wallonia, so maybe immigrants are the canvas where that frustration is finally projected upon 'cause it's a victim we can actually reach.

It definitely also has to do with the rapid visual change. Major cities have been clearly "colorized" (to the extent that there seem to be more colored people than white) and Belgians, in my experience, have a really hard time with accepting that most of those colored people are fully Belgian now and do not even really deserve the label immigrant anymore. Most of us are entirely convinced that the "immigrants" show a dramatic lack of willpower to work and contribute to society, even though they never showed interest in actually observing proof for that. There have also been famous incidents in Brussels where white women are openly insulted or more kindly annoyed if they don't dress conservatively enough.

So there are big problems with groups of color in Belgium but Belgians really excel in a complete lack of interest in how they arose/arise and how context offers a middle ground. They are definitely scapegoats here. "Adapt or go back to your own country (even if you're born in Belgium)" is the unspoken law and many people think that the clash of habits, traditions and mental constitution is just too great to even make co-existence possible. We also suffer from a lack of colored role models outside of sports. It all contributes to a growing racism that, thankfully, isn't translated into violence. Yet. Though it has more to do with racism indeed, most people think it's an immigrant problem and refuse to accept the Belgian identity of the newer generations if they're not stereotypically integrated (basically being white in everything but color). And it of course has a direct effect on (the possibility of) future immigration.

Could definitely be an overreaction to the already experienced inferiority and suppression in the whole Flanders/Wallonia conflict. Thanks for giving me that idea.

[TiphEret 1,320]

I didn't even think about that, but it's definitely possible. Most immigrants definitely are in Flanders and they already feel like they're being sucked dry by Wallonia, so maybe immigrants are the canvas where that frustration is finally projected upon 'cause it's a victim we can actually reach.

It definitely also has to do with the rapid visual change. Major cities have been clearly "colorized" (to the extent that there seem to be more colored people than white) and Belgians, in my experience, have a really hard time with accepting that most of those colored people are fully Belgian now and do not even really deserve the label immigrant anymore. Most of us are entirely convinced that the "immigrants" show a dramatic lack of willpower to work and contribute to society, even though they never showed interest in actually observing proof for that. There have also been famous incidents in Brussels where white women are openly insulted or more kindly annoyed if they don't dress conservatively enough.

So there are big problems with groups of color in Belgium but Belgians really excel in a complete lack of interest in how they arose/arise and how context offers a middle ground. They are definitely scapegoats here. "Adapt or go back to your own country (even if you're born in Belgium)" is the unspoken law and many people think that the clash of habits, traditions and mental constitution is just too great to even make co-existence possible. We also suffer from a lack of colored role models outside of sports. It all contributes to a growing racism that, thankfully, isn't translated into violence. Yet. Though it has more to do with racism indeed, most people think it's an immigrant problem and refuse to accept the Belgian identity of the newer generations if they're not stereotypically integrated (basically being white in everything but color). And it of course has a direct effect on (the possibility of) future immigration.

Could definitely be an overreaction to the already experienced inferiority and suppression in the whole Flanders/Wallonia conflict. Thanks for giving me that idea.

That's very interesting but I feels that I could put "France" or "Denmark" instead of Belgium and the situation is pretty much the same. However something that strikes me and my friends (French ones) is that when we were kids or maybe that's because we were so young, racism wasn't that open and big, and it was very clear in my school that racists jokes or insults were unacceptable. I wasn't living in a paradise, there were this sort of ghetto where a lot of kids from immigrants grew up and they weren't the kids you wanted to get in trouble with but the social background was more the "issue" than people's color or origin.

Now you will find more and more people saying that maybe Marine Lepen isn't "completely wrong" and also the kids from immigrants that have now grown up (around my age) have a very hard relationship almost an indentity crisis when it comes to their country. Like you can hear some of them saying almost hateful that they aren't French , yet they have lived here their whole life and I think it's because they are always pointed out and always the scapegoats and at the end you just want to say "f*ck you", it's horrible to feel open rejection from the country you are born. Their hatred is feeding violence and gives reason for "French" to hate on them which is very hypocrite because if in the first place they wouldn't discriminate them, this wouldn't even happen....

[Alii 2,039]

Germany still has a neo nazi problem tho, along with Ukraine

How could there be neo-Nazis in Ukraine?