asylum seekers in Berlin and Germany
Most people would preferably live in their home countries where they are fully entitled to freedom and protected by the constitution. However, some circumstances compel people to flee their homelands and seek asylum in other countries. Such situations include civil wars, human rights violations, persecution, environmental degradation, and poverty (Kolb et al., 2019). Germany is one of the countries that have offered asylum to many people from different parts of the world. Despite this, the process has been increasingly challenging over the past few years as the German Government rejects most asylum seekers’ appeals. This complicates their integration process and bars them from getting employment, healthcare, and education.
One of the significant plights of asylum seekers in Berlin and Germany, in general, is the lack of access to sustainable employment. One way of ensuring that asylum seekers are successfully integrated into the country is to ensure that they secure employment. Despite this, many laws do not allow them to work, thus leaving them entirely dependent on welfare benefits that hardly meet their needs (Kolb et al., 2019. Besides, companies intending to hire asylum seekers often face a lot of hurdles in doing so. There are complicated rules and procedures about work permits and residency in addition to the deportation threats. Furthermore, if their appeals are rejected after securing employment, they are forced to resign as they re-appeal and wait for their verdicts. As a result, some of them have been left with no income source forcing them to depend on charity. The other challenge is that getting the asylum seekers’ professional qualifications verified is rather daunting. Although some of them lack professional qualifications that may allow them to work in Germany, some are qualified but cannot get verified to secure employment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to look into the employment issue as it will facilitate the integration of the asylum seekers and make them less burdensome to the country as they will generate revenues.
Apart from employment, asylum seekers also have a challenge of accessing healthcare. The healthcare system has not been adjusted to accommodate them, and as a result, they do not get the much needed medical attention or at times get sub-standard treatment. This is partly due to the inability of the medical facilities that are located in areas with a high number of asylum seekers to handle an increase in patients. Apart from that, some patients need translators due to the language barrier. For instance, some do not speak the German language, yet most medical personnel only understand German. According to Mr. Baum, who is the German Hospital Federation CEO, the local authorities and health insurers are usually unwilling to pay for the translators due to the extra costs incurred (Bozorgmehr, 2017). As a result, the asylum seekers who do not understand the official language are usually unable to seek medical attention. As part of the host country, it is essential to look into the asylum seekers’ health concerns so that they do not feel misplaced, mainly because they did not leave their home countries by choice.
The asylum seekers also face a lot of challenges when pursuing education in their host country. The challenges are intertwined with language barriers. Most institutions use German as the language of instruction, and therefore a good knowledge of German tops the list of the admission requirements. Therefore before registering for any professional course, the asylum seekers should take a German language course and pass it. This is especially challenging because the government does not provide adequate funding to facilitate their learning of the language. As a result, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to pursue their career goals or even further their education. For example, in Berlin, 850 refugees approximately 850 refugees who arrived in Germany two years ago are old enough to leave school. However, due to their inability to speak German well, they are not able to apply for other education programs (Khourshed & Meango, 2019). In the long run, the asylum seekers feel unwelcome and frustrated, which should not be the case.
Therefore, it is evident that asylum seekers in Germany and other parts of the world face a lot of challenges. Having fled from some life-threatening conditions, they often hope to be welcomed and treated better in the countries that they flee to. However, this is not the case as they are mostly perceived as burdensome, and their immediate concerns are ignored. As a way of making them feel at home in their guest countries, their education, health, and employment concerns need to be looked into.
References
Bozorgmehr, K. (2017). The health of asylum seekers in Germany: surveillance, monitoring, and research-driven approaches. European Journal Of Public Health, 27(suppl_3), 112-200. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckx187.536
Khourshed, M., & Meango, R. (2019). Language Proficiency and Economic Incentives: The Case of Syrian Asylum Seekers in Germany. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3548072
Kolb, M., Neidhöfer, G., & Pfeiffer, F. (2019). Intergenerational Mobility and Self-Selection of Asylum Seekers in Germany. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3428238