Migration Processes in Central and Eastern Europe - Multiple Choices

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Refugees in Central and Eastern Europe
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closely involved with providing psycho-social counselling
for many of the refugees. Six hundred traumatised
Bosnians mainly from Srebrenica have been supported and
treated through this centre. The centre has also been a
basis for 45 psychotherapists from Berlin who have worked
with the refugees on a voluntary basis. Several self-help
groups also operate as a part of the centre, one of them
being the one that I attended regularly on Fridays, which
was chaired by three psychologists and partially funded by
an EU grant (EMZ 2002 report).
The space where this organisation is housed
reflects the committed struggle to helping the refugees
fight the cruelty of the German system: from the art work
made by refugees and displayed on the walls, the everyday
lunch prepared by the refugees for the employees and the
guests (for a small fee), to the activities promoting work by
or with the refugees. I was impressed by the energy of the
team that provided legal counselling by offering advice,
directing people to right institutions, helping them fill out
their forms, assisting them in writing letters of appeal and
helping them find representatives that would begin legal
processes for the refugees. The German language classes
held daily for a 7 Euro monthly fee by committed language
teachers allowed refugees to have the possibility to learn
the language. The bursting activities at this centre revealed
that the civil society sector had been fully engaged in assisting
the Bosnian people in dealing with the bureaucratic
procedures imposed on them by the German state.
The churches were also actively involved in
providing different services for the refugees. The Methodist
church in Kreuzberg, for example had sheltered an elderly
couple in their seventies who received Abschiebung on the
church premises. They slept in an adjusted apartment in
the basement for many months with the church making
exceptional efforts to protect them. The church members
provided daily food and the priest even went to Bosnia to
check that if the authorities caught the couple and deported
them, there would be a decent nursing home where they
could be placed.
Many of the children of the refugees, who did not
have the right to attend a university due to the Duldung
status, managed to enter college due to the generosity of
German sponsors. Prior to entry at the university, the young
refugees would return to Bosnia voluntarily, and then receive
a sponsorship from a German person to enter college, come
back to Germany and join their parents. The son of a Bosnian
family, who did precisely this, is now in his final year at the
Technical University in Berlin. Because he has been such an
outstanding student, he received a job offer from Bosch and
as soon as he finishes in a few months time, he will move
to Stuttgart to begin his new job. His parents' pride was
obvious as was the gratitude for the German family that
agreed to sponsor his college admission.
An interview of a Croat lady from Bosnia who
returned in 1999 voluntarily because she feared forced
Abschiebung revealed that she returned to the same town
where she had lived prior to the flight only to find that the
people in power were not interested in integrating the
returnees. On the contrary, they viewed those who left
Bosnia as traitors and thus leaving diminished possibilities
for their professional integration in the society. After 27
years of experience as a psychologist and social worker, this
lady has been jobless for six years, living off miserable
social support that is around 80 Euros per month. She
described her situation as hopeless: the people who were
in power now were not interested in anything that she had
to offer to the society. She came to Berlin to visit her son
for two months, who managed to enrol at the Free
University due to sponsorship provided by German friends.
Her despair regarding the situation in Bosnia was shared
by a large number of people who returned and then came
to Berlin to visit friends and relatives.
The experiences of the refugees differ vastly along
class, gender, ethnic and age lines. 4 Nonetheless, the
Duldung trauma added a performative dimension to the
previous suffering turning it into a commodity, objectifying
it so that it could resolve the residence problems. 5 Such
a commodification of trauma inevitably has led to different
forms of competition among the refugees: mutual accusations
on the “amounts of suffering” endured during the
war; pointing fingers at each other that s/he did not actually
suffer, was not raped, was not imprisoned, etc.
What remains clear however is that the German
system has become a major source of traumatisation of the
people who have already been subjected to war trauma.
Those who left, who went to the US for instance, have also
struggled with the displacement in a new environment
different from the one either in Bosnia or Berlin. With the
arrival in the US however, the fears surrounding their legal
residence were over – the US government immediately gave
them green cards and residence permits granting them
rights on a par with other citizens. The ones who have
stayed in Germany however have been subjected to
constant renewed fear of Abschiebung. Even after getting an
Aufenthalt (permit to stay), which has been granted for different
time-periods, (from six months up to three years),
uncertainties have not disappeared. The new Hartz IV law
introduced at the beginning of 2005 could be viewed as
a step further: it abolishes the Duldung status and makes
the refugees equal with German citizens in terms of
employment benefits. The renewal of the Aufenthalt, however,
depends on getting a job which is connected to knowing
the language, having previous work experience, and being
competitive in the labour market. From their arrival in
Germany the refugees were not allowed to obtain work
permits or to get a better education. Work permits were
Migration Processes in Central and Eastern Europe: Unpacking the Diversity