Germany is one of the best-functioning bureaucracies in the world, but it is without a doubt a bureaucracy, innately dependent on confusing paperwork at even the most basic levels. How much paperwork could it possibly take to rent an apartment for instance? Well, in addition to proof of income and bank account and proof of your right to reside in Germany, you may also need a credit check, proof of liability insurance and a letter from your last landlord that says you don’t owe them any money. Once you’ve got all this and whatever other miscellanea your landlord requires, you mustn’t forget to register your new residence with the police or city hall. Now file all those papers away in a memorable, accessible place in case an authority requests to see them, and repeat some variation of that process for your insurance, language school, for the unemployment agency or an employer, possibly even for your children’s Kindergarten and school.
The Bureaucracy of Hope is supported by a broad parallel state of NGOs and private citizens
Imagine coming in to a foreign country 2500 miles from your home, with no money, no assets, no grasp of the local language or even the alphabet. Imagine coming from a town with no bureaucratic infrastructure to speak of, never having seen a rental agreement or an insurance contract or a pre-school enrollment form. Imagine being handed a new piece of paper which you cannot lose for each new bureaucratic facet of your life in a language which you cannot read. This bureaucracy is a terrifying, stultifying burden on Germany’s newcomers.
On the bright side, the papers that refugees are receiving contain broadly positive messages, providing funds and assistance to people coming from desperate, hopeless situations. Germany gave them hope and this bureaucracy is by and large a Bureaucracy of Hope. And while this Bureaucracy of Hope is being overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of refugees, it is supported by a very strong community of volunteer translators and assistants, known by the general term ehrenamtlich (honorary/volunteer) – a broad parallel state of NGOs and private citizens.
Insurance companies have been among the most prominent villains
There are many organizations that give open, cost-free seminars to the ehrenamtlich refugee assistants of Germany. Religious and ethnic organizations as well as international NGOs all bring in experts on specific facets of refugee law and care, providing this parallel state with the skills necessary to be as effective as the bureaucracy itself.
At one such seminar given by Diakonie, the major German Protestant charity, one has the chance to learn of local laws confusing and confounding refugees. Insurance companies have been among the most prominent villains, raising insurance rates across Germany on landlords who house refugees, purportedly because of the increased risk of attacks on properties by right-wing extremists, despite those risks being minor and for the most part geographically identifiable.
At other seminars, one can learn about the fate of hundreds of African refugees who Italian police had given 500€ and put on a bus to Germany where they end up homeless and unaccounted for, or about the strange personal liability insurance laws that keep well-minded Germans, even ehrenamtlich helpers, from giving refugees rides in their cars.
Imagine that in the year you’ve been in this strange country the laws regarding your existence have changed twice already
At one such seminar on refugee law on April 26th at the Kurdish Community Association in Siegburg, Martina Lörsch, a lawyer from Bonn, explained the three massively different refugee laws that have been passed, implemented and then discarded since June 2015. She explained the EASY system and the “Königsteiner Schlüssel”, the BÜMA process, as well as all the different Dublin Regulations.
Imagine yourself once more in the position of a hopeful but confused refugee, where you don’t know the language of those way-too-many documents but everyone’s trying to help you. Now imagine that in the year you’ve been in this strange country, the laws regarding your existence have changed twice already and you’re told they’re changing again, but nobody can properly explain how. They’re still being nice about it, you’ve still got hope, but it starts to get more than confusing, all the way to frightening, doesn’t it?
Refugees deal with much hardship but also receive many rights
Coming back into the reality of the ehrenamtlich helpers, the key component of what Ms. Lörsch explained was the difference between the three classifications of asylum seekers in Germany:
At the top of the refugee chain is the classification Asyl. This is a rare classification, an individual who is personally threatened in their homeland and living in exile in Germany. This can be due to actions as a whistleblower or a journalist or a political dissident, or it could be far more personal, as with many Albanian asylum-seekers fleeing a Blutrache (literally “blood revenge”, a really metal word for vendetta).
Nearly everyone fleeing an active war zone, specifically Syria, is classified in the second group Flüchtling, or Refugee. Refugees deal with much hardship but also receive many rights. They are entitled to look for work or apply for unemployment and receive support for housing and childcare. They are required to attend language courses and integration courses. They also have the right to Familiennachzug, to bring their direct family members (spouses and under-18 children) into Germany from wherever they may be currently held.
Then there’s the third classification, subsidiär Schutzberechtigter (entitled to subsidiary protection). These people have most of the same rights as refugees, except they have no right to Familiennachzug and they are far easier to send back to their country of origin as soon as the German state has classified that land as safe.
Upon viewing the document Ms. Lörsch’s immediate reaction was to blurt out “Skurril!” (ludicrous!)
These classifications are necessary within the Bureaucracy of Hope in order to keep it moving smoothly. For the most part it works. But what happens when you take hope away?
At this same meeting in Siegburg, Ms. Lörsch was presented a document that shocked both her lawyerly and human sensibilities. Some state-level administrations (UPDATE: The Leveller’s sources submitted one such letter from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany’s northernmost state, on the Danish border. However, at the same time the Leveller was publishing this article, major German news sources reported that this is not simply a disorganized trick from local offices but an organized policy coming from the highest levels) were sending out letters to new Syrian refugees declaring that of the three options, they had been labeled subsidiär Schutzberechtigter and the decision was unanfechtbar, unappealable. The director of the lecture series at the Kurdish Community Association, Dr. Ibrahim Mahmood, had brought one such letter received by a new Kurdish refugee to get Ms. Lörsch’s professional opinion.
Upon viewing this document Ms. Lörsch’s immediate reaction was to blurt out “Skurril!” (ludicrous!). An appeal implies that there was a court decision, which this was not. This was a local administrative decision, meaning an appeal would be neither necessary nor valid. This document was in no way legally binding and should be legally challenged, but a new refugee would not know this, they’d treat it as law as they are likely to do with all documents coming from official German institutions. An ehrenamtlich assistant wouldn’t know this either unless they’d had real legal training, which most have not.
“It frightens them, that they will be sent back”
This document was “a trick”, as Ms. Lörsch pointed out, to reduce the workload of the bureaucrats at the local migration office. There’s very little work necessary for cases classified subsidiär Schutzberechtigter whereas actual refugee cases have to be processed within 3 months (they rarely are these days, but legally they are supposed to be).
In an interview with the Leveller, Dr. Mahmood, the man who had presented the document to Ms. Lörsch, explained the deeper problem of the document, beyond the illegality and immorality:
“It frightens them, that they will be sent back. If the situation in Syria is said to be better in 6 months, regardless of reality, the EU and Germany would have the right to send them back. And they’re scared.”
This is not just theoretical, and it’s not just activists presenting this scenario. Marie-Sophie Guntram is a secondary school teacher with the organization Teach First Deutschland. In her classes she teaches, among others, the children of refugee families. Speaking to the Leveller, she describes the new life refugee children are being granted in Germany:
“At the fragile age of 10, they look back on shattered hometowns and childhood dreams … For them, coming to school every morning means much more than learning German and biology and English; it means that they get to be children again, without fears. School life gives them rules, routines and reliable relationships. Most importantly, they get to do what all children do: they make friends. So while schools cannot offer adequate therapy services, this we can offer, and this we are determined to give to them while they are here. Only this way, they can nourish their damaged emotional capacities and find ways to trust again – in other people, life, and in themselves.”
Imagine that you’re told you could be sent back, even if the people who burned your town to ashes are the ones in power
On the other hand, Ms. Guntram describes her students from what Germany calls sichere Herkunfststaaten, safe countries of origin, such as Serbia and Albania:
“[These] families who came to Germany … with the hope of starting over to get a shot at a decent life here, these families fear – on a monthly basis – that the letter arrives which states that since their home countries are safe countries of origin, they have one week to pack their bags and take the train to the nearest airport. If this happens, they will return to a life they gave up completely, meaning they will be homeless and without any realistic prospects whatsoever. How are they supposed to plan on attending the next field trip, the next big school event, the next grade?”
An integrated immigrant is regarded almost unanimously as a boon for a country, for the economy, for the culture. These people can be the most engaged residents in a community. Imagine yourself back in those refugee shoes, the frightened but hopeful ones, one last time. Now imagine that you’re told that your family can never join you, and that you could be sent back tomorrow if the situation is stable, even if the people who burned your town to ashes are the ones in power. Would you feel grateful? Would you feel like integrating into society, learning the language and the laws and the norms? Or would you feel frightened and insecure, would you feel cheated, would you feel stunted and resentful?
Lying to refugees, taking away their rights, just to make the jobs of some justifiably overworked bureaucrats easier, this is more than illegal, more than immoral, and more than simply unkind to refugees. It reduces the incentive to integrate and creates a culture of fear and insecurity, posing a danger to the whole of German, and European, society.
The article was updated on 5/26/16 to include reports from German news sources of federal implementation of this tactic, not simply local
Image: Joel Bombardier
