TIME

The Germany Refugee

Situation

Lorena Buergi - 9 RJO

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 03  04  05

a short intro to The current refugee Political
Germany situation in stances
Germany - regarding
demographics & refugees in
inforgraphics Germany.

06  07  08
Real life Refugees are The public
stories - still people. opinion - a
Patience They are still nation that
Makayabu human. can't decide
Ngano

 09  10  11

So what? Quote from Citation and
Nelson sources
Mandela
 ABOUT GERMANY
Germany (officially the federal republic of Germany) is located in north-
central Europe and is surrounded by Poland, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
Austria, the Czech Republic, Belgium and France, with the Baltic sea located
to its north.

While the national language in Germany is German, English and French are
also widely spoken, with 95% of the population speaking German, 56% speak
English and 15% speaking French. Germany also has a very high GDP (Gross
domestic product) of 3.677 trillion US dollars, and a low unemployment rate
of only 3.1%, suggesting that getting a job within Germany is relatively easy
in comparison to other countries within Europe.

Germany has a population of 82.79 million people, as of 2018, and, out of

these 82 million people, roughly 12 million (or 14.8%) have migrant
backgrounds. The area of Germany is almost 358,000 km², which (for
reference) is roughly the size of Montana or a bit larger than New Mexico.
 THE CURRENT SITUATION

REFUGEE DEMOGRAPHICS Recent Statistics

WHO IS MOVING TO GERMANY? WHY?

Germany is currently home to refugees, asylum seekers and

immigrants from Turkey, Russia, Eritrea and many other countries as
well. However, most refugees in Germany are from Syria and have
escaped the Civil war there. According to the statistics from the
Germany Asylum Data Base, 46,000 asylum seekers located in
Germany as of 2018 are from Syria, 18,000 are from Iraq and 11,000
are from Iran.

While the reason for the migration to Germany may also link to
Germany's pull factors (such as having open borders and very lenient
asylum laws), push factors from Native countries also play a huge
role in the influx of refugees. These push factors often include
corrupt governments, unsafe environments, failing economy (little
work opportunity) or civil wars.

In the case of Syrian refugees, the 3,700 km journey to Germany can

often take several months, across both land and sea.
 THE POLITICAL STANCES
WHAT DOES GERMANY WANT?
There are several political parties, each with different political opinions.

The AfD (Alternative for Germany) is against all immigration, family reunifications and supports
the deportation of as many refugees as possible.

The CDU (Christian democratic union) opposes any upper limit for immigration (however the
sister party CSU suggests a 200,000 limit on asylum seekers per year), is impartial on family
reunifications and supports immigration laws that require you to get a job in Germany before
being able to get a visa. In regards to deportations, the CDU wants to increase the deportation
rate for rejected asylum seekers and tighten the rules for rejected asylum seekers.

The SPD (social democratic party) supports not having an upper limit for immigration, they want
to end the temporary prohibition on family reunifications for subsidiary protection recipients
and want to introduce an immigration law similar to that of Canada (regarding degree, job
experience and language skills).

The Green party also opposes an upper limit on immigration and will continue to support family
reunifications. However, they also support the idea of having stricter immigration laws and are
supportive of introducing immigration laws similar to those in Canada. The green party would
also like to introduce automatic citizenship to children of legal immigrants and would like to
make it possible for peoples whose asylum has run out to shift their status from refugee to
migrant, without having to leave the country to do so.

Similarly, the left party also opposes an upper limit on immigration and argue that even not
immediate family members should be allowed to move to Germany. Furthermore, they support
having an open border/no immigration laws and a complete stop to deportations.

Finally, the FDP opposes an upper limit to the number of migrants and supports the idea of
letting people file for asylum from abroad. However, they are impartial regarding family
reunifications and support the deportation of anyone who isn't granted legal permission to
remain in Germany. The FDP does, however, support a new immigration system similar to that of
Canadas and suggests that migrants should be allowed to file for German citizenship after 4
years of living in Germany.

(“Germany Coalition: Merkel’s ‘Political Party Poker’”)

 Real Life stories
MAKAYABU NGANO

Makayabu Ngano is a refugee from the

Democratic Republic of Congo that is currently
living in Germany. Even back in Congo, Makayabu
was working as a journalist, something that
eventually led to her having to flee the country
due to unspecified political issues. In a later
interview she stated that, to her, fleeing had felt
like leaving part of her body behind.

After fleeing Congo, she temporarily moved to

South Africa, however, she felt unsafe and
experienced a lot of xenophobia as well as
possible persecution. "I faced persecution for my
According to a video interview that Makayabu did
political activities".
with "Made for Minds", the integration course that she
had access to was one of her favourite things about
She and her husband tried to relocate back to the
her move to Germany.
DRC but faced arrest upon arrival. After being

"I really like the integration,

released, they both fled to Germany.

In March of 2008, Makayabu and her husband,

Gabriel, were granted refugee status in Germany. You must just learn the
After several more months and staying in 7
refugee camps, they were able to get an language and besides they
apartment and properly start their integration
course. just teach you how the
country is and how the
country is ruled. About the
culture, the area,
everything… Also, they make
you really feel at home.
The Integration act in Germany is in fact highly
complimented, and it seems that the German
government is making an active effort to integrate
refugees. Refugees and asylum seekers are beginning
to get better access to schools and educations, and the
German government has created 1-Euro jobs so that
refugees are still able to receive an active income while
improving their language skills and adapting to the
country, culture and economy. However, most of these
1-euro jobs are temporary, something that may lead to
issue for refugees that are not yet able to work full
(“Germany By Train”)
paying jobs.
 THE PUBLIC OPINION

A NATION THAT
CAN'T DECIDE
According to a German study, the views of German citizens regarding refugees have marginally
changed. Before 2015, 40% of German citizens were against increased migration.

However, since the massive influx of refugees in 2015, the previous percentage has increased, as 1 in
2 Germans now believe that Germany is unable to accept more refugees.

Even so, 65% of citizens see immigration to Germany as a possibility for economic growth, and 64% of
citizens have stated that refugees should be welcome as this will assist with Germany's ageing
population.

Germany's aging population

 SO WHAT?
By the end of 2018, the UNHCR recorded that However, even if we did not have this moral obligation,
there are currently 70 million people that have it is important to remember the economic, social and
been forcibly removed from their homes. This cultural growth that immigration can bring.
includes 25.9 million refugees, 41.3 million means that copy editing often takes the form of deleting
internally displaced people and 3.5 million asylum We see evidence
everything of thepoint
past an arbitrary abovein theon a daily basis. For
story
seekers worldwide. corresponding to the dictates of available
example, Britain's national food is chicken space on a tikka
page.
masala, a traditional Indian food. While Dubai does not
While 70 million is a very small number in terms of host many
Therefore, refugees,
newspaper it is made
reporters up ofto20%
are trained writeimmigrants
in
statistics in regards to the current world inverted pyramid style, with all the most important
and ex-pats and has a GDP of $102.67 billion.
information in the first paragraph or two. If the less vital
population (7.7 billion as of November 2019 details are pushed towads the end of the story, then the
according to the world clock), we have a moral, However, neither the
potentially destructive economic
impact possibilities
of draconian or moral
copy editing
ethical and social responsibility to support will be minimized.
obligations are most important. The most important
refugees and other displaced people. fact is that
The lead refugees
sentence arethealso
captures human,
attention and
of the deserve to
reader
be
andtreated
sums up as
thesuch.
focus of the story. It establishes the
subject, sets the tone and guides reader into the article.
 "To deny people their
human rights is to deny
their very humanity"
- Nelson Mandela
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