What happens to the migrants after they get to Germany?

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Ahmed and his family came to Munich from Syria. He is carrying his young cousin.  He came to Germany “for studying, good work, and to get married and have a baby from [a] German.”

Austine arrived in Germany six months ago, and he’s more anxious than many of the newer arrivals. He’s 28 and from Nigeria.

“I’m worried about what the government is going to do,” Austine says. He didn’t want to give his last name. “Are they going to send those people back? What are they really saying?”

The European Union has approved a plan for how to distribute 120,000 refugees throughout its member countries. But that’s a small fraction of the 800,000 or more migrants and asylum-seekers that are expected to arrive in Germany alone by the end of 2015.

Many of them are driven to the country based on rumors that it is the most welcoming country in the European Union for foreigners. One recent Syrian refugee arriving at Munich’s busy central station this month expressed his hopes for his future, saying he came to Germany “for studying, good work and getting married and having a baby.”

Crowds of migrants await medical checks soon after they arrive in Munich.

Crowds of migrants await medical checks soon after they arrive in Munich.

Credit:

Dave Blanchard

While many migrants feel elated when they finally do reach Germany, uncertainty quickly takes over for those seeking asylum here. Most recent arrivals don’t speak German, which makes it hard for them to follow the debate over their future. And they often have to wait months, if not years, for their applications to be processed. During that time, they can’t work — something Austine wants to do.

“We want to be able to do something in Europe,” he explains. “To be able to sustain life … I love Germany and I want to work. I want to pay my tax. I need a paper to work.”

Austine knows people who have waited for years to get their papers in order, and he fears that could be his future.

“People thought Europe is like heaven,” he says, with a laugh. “They have been disappointed. You can still work your dreams out,” saying the key is to be patient.

But sometimes patience isn’t enough.

Lejnez Lulaj is from Albania, where he couldn’t find a job for five years. Unlike many of the newer arrivals here, he speaks German well. Back home, he’d heard that if he was fit and able to work, he’d be welcomed in Germany. But when he arrived here in Munich, the officers processing his entry told him otherwise.

“We have no chance for asylum, as Albanians,” he says he was told. On the other hand, “People who come from all over — Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Morocco, Nigeria — have the chance to stay here. But Europeans have no chance. That’s not right.”

The German government has been extremely reluctant to accept economic migrants from the Balkans. It’s even posted YouTube videos to tell them not to come, because 99 percent of asylum seekers from those countries are rejected. But Lulaj didn’t see those videos.

Now he’s living in a dorm room with people from other countries. And he resents the non-Europeans who stand a better chance at staying in Germany.

That’s just one of the many cultural issues in the places where migrants are being housed.

Migrants board a bus at Munich’s central train station. It will take them to a temporary camp, where they will begin the months-long asylum application process.

Migrants board a bus at Munich’s central train station. It will take them to a temporary camp, where they will begin the months-long asylum application process.

Credit:

Dave Blanchard

Anna Lena Goedecke directs an organization that provides shelter for unaccompanied children. She says even among young migrants, cultural differences can create tensions.

“Sometimes the girls and the boys are taking their conflicts from home here to Germany,” she explains. Two boys who are from rival tribes in Afghanistan, for example, won’t leave those cultural differences behind. “They are in Afghanistan not good friends and they here are also not good friends.”

Another concern among some recent arrivals is that the focus on the migrant crisis takes the attention off what’s causing the influx — particularly the ongoing war in Syria.

Abdalrahman Saket is from Aleppo. He has the picture of Alan Kurdi — the 3-year-old Syrian boy who drowned crossing to Turkey — as his Facebook cover photo. But Saket says people need to look beyond what’s happening in Europe.

The people talking about the migrant crisis are forgetting “all about what [ISIS] did in Syria and what the Assad regime did in Syria with the Syrian people,” Saket says. They focus on the people who drown trying to cross the sea. “The sea, yeah I know, many people dead by the sea. But also in Syria ... around about 200 person dead every day.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 5,000 people died in Syria in August alone, or about 167 per day. And they caution that the true number is probably far higher. The International Organization for Migration estimates around 2,500 people from Africa and Asia died at sea crossing to Europe in the first eight months of this year.

Saket still gets frequent updates on Facebook about the carnage that the Islamic State is carrying out in his home.

“Ten days ago, they cut my friend’s head,” he says. “Why? Because he’s smoking and don’t pray. I think this is not a reason to kill him.”

Despite the horror that many Syrians are fleeing, one of the most difficult issues for them is the feeling of homesickness.

Kameron Abdula arrived in Germany a month ago. He paid thousands of dollars to hire a smuggler to get his family to Europe. He carried his one-and-a-half-year-old for miles, as his six-year-old and eight-year-old walked with his wife at his side. Now he’s waiting to start his new life, and considering the fact he may never see his home in Syria again.

“I still remember the beautiful days,” Abdula says, “but it’s gone with wind, I think. The whole thing is gone with wind.”

An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Alan Kurdi. We sincerely regret the error.

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