Refugees

War, Escape, Espelkamp

Espelkamp is a small town that was founded after the war from Displaced persons. However, as the new, predominantly Muslim migrants are received today? Volker Witting reported from Espelkamp.

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Saad fled from Syria because of the war. From the learners is very quickly become a teacher. In Damascus the stately Saad computer science student. In the refugee accommodation in the Eastern Westphalian town of Espelkamp, he teaches voluntarily other Syrian refugees in the German language.

He is already pretty good. His friends still have their problems: “What is the meaning of the centre?”, he asks in the class. Long Think and then the answer comes, however, from Saad: “city centre”.

The English classes are held in the rooms of the youth migration service of diakonia in Espelkamp. On the organized language and integration classes are not allowed to attend Saad and his friends, because their application for asylum is not accepted. Many of the refugees here. Without voluntary initiatives, without the help of the churches and self-help organizations, the situation would be dramatic, the boredom even more depressing.

However, Saad in the refugee town of Espelkamp feels in good hands: “The Espelkamp are very nice to us,” he says with a broad Smile. The other votes for him. But for Saad, one thing is clear: “I would like to live in a bigger city and study. Maybe in Bielefeld.”

Not just the navel of the world

Wasteland in Espelkamp – the abandoned shopping area of Wroclaw street

Berlin 330 Km, Moscow 1,800 Kilometers, Tokyo, 11.700 Km, Sydney 16,000 Kilometers. Who are the Breslauer Straße runs along, comes over to the steel framework that the community of interest of the Espelkamp company has build. On top of that, a steel globe emblazoned. In Espelkamp in North Rhine-is the navel of the world: 25,000 inhabitants, medium-sized industry, a well-known manufacturer for slot machines, super markets on the outskirts of the town not Westphalia.

Displaced Persons, Repatriates, Refugees Of War

Nice, it is not here in the city, which was once planned by the Nazis as the site for munitions factories on the drawing Board, and after the end of the war actually be razed to the ground. But then the war moved into displaced persons from East Prussia and Silesia in the poor huts and founded the new Espelkamp. The first “guest workers” and the beginning of the 90s, then Russia German immigrants followed.

“Espelkamp was for many repatriates, known as the Berlin,” said mayor Heinrich Vieker of the CDU. On the Breslauer street you can see the latest refugee generation. This time, they come from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. Insecure they scurry across the road. Many of the 500 refugees that came since last year, don’t know yet if you can stay in Germany.

At the beginning of the 90s, many ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and the (former) USSR

Grueling Uncertainty

“This uncertainty and the uncertainty about the own refugee status, for many, is just grueling,” says mayor Vieker. “To this mass immigration, we were not set up simply,” the CDU-politician in the small town. “We had to improvise.”

A former school of short-hand for the accommodation and as well empty apartments. Two container villages, proper equipped with modern washing machines, has become the new accommodation for refugees. However, for Vieker is especially important: “We try to accommodate the refugees on a decentralised basis, so that no Ghettos.”

Claudia poverty from the youth migration service of the Diakonie sees it left. She works in Espelkamp for decades with newcomers. The immigration movement this time was not bad. In the case of the Russian-German repatriates, and it had been quite in his League. “Espelkamp has something like that already for a long time no longer afraid. We are very well organized.”

Nazi graffiti was also

Nevertheless, there was at the beginning of the resistance against the Strangers, also in the multi-cultural Espelkamp. Unknown smeared the refugee accommodation crossing with a hook. Over a bridge railing hung a tarp: “No asylum, and Per NPD”.

Social worker, Anton Schick from the youth centre “Real Life” has made the following observation: “most of The opposition to asylum seekers there are, to my observation, after not “Biodeutschen”, but in the case of young people with a migration or Russian-German Background.”

But all in all it managed the refugee city of the migrants. Mayor Vieker, says: “We are fled. We have seen that. We have a particular sensitivity, with the refugee situation.”

Mosque, Church as moral support

Most of the migrants are Muslims. In a simple community house and the mosque of the Islamic Ditib community, you will find Stop, they can live their Faith and Worry about your talk. The municipality has, since 1977, was founded by immigrants from Turkey. The Friday prayer up to 500 believers. Refugees are welcome.

Before the war in Syria, the 13 – Year-old Abdalah fled –

Also Abdalah Alalousi came with his brother to the worship of God. Abdalah is only 13 years old, an unaccompanied refugee from the ostsyrischen Deir ez-Zor. The Boy wants nothing more than to finally have a reunion with his parents. “I want my parents to come to Germany,” he says in English. He would like to stay. Back in the war, in his home, he wants to. “But my parents and the papers for the entry are missing,” says Abdalah.

Waiting, uncertainty, boredom – mayor Vieker is aware of the problems. But the most worrying is the lack of professional qualifications of many of the refugees make it. “We just don’t have enough jobs here.” But also this Problem is overcome, the refugee city. If not, the Espelkamp, who else.