ZDF.reportage - Exhausted welcome culture - Integration at the limit
War refugees and increasing numbers of asylum seekers are coming up against overburdened authorities. The welcoming culture in Germany is exhausted - integration at its limit. The mood is bad among local authorities who are desperate to accommodate refugees, among advice centers that want to get refugees into work and among the refugees themselves, who want to integrate but are suffering under the rigid rules. “We are at the limit! We can no longer cope,” says Achim Brötel, Chairman of the German Association of Counties. On the road in his home district of Neckar-Odenwald, Brötel openly admits that the capacity to take in refugees is almost exhausted and that politicians must finally limit migration more.
Every month, 50 new refugees arrive in the community of 7500 inhabitants. The challenges are enormous: there is hardly any support from volunteers and there are not enough language courses. And, according to one employee, you can “basically ask yourself what young men in particular are supposed to do in our village all the time, because they are not allowed to work.” In the district of Naumburg in Saxony-Anhalt, there are around 16,000 people who do not have a German passport for every 180,000 inhabitants.
The head of the immigration office, Nicole Wenzel, and her two dozen or so employees experience day after day how exhausting the work is. Everyone here is motivated, but “without money, without the staff, we reach our limits here every day,” says Menzel. The immigration authorities now have to manage almost twice as many foreigners as they did ten years ago. The frustration is also great among the people in the offices, a study suggests.
This is because there is a lack of staff in the very places where the shortage of skilled workers should be solved. The situation in Germany's schools is also alarming. There is already a shortage of up to 40,000 teachers. Principal Christiane Gühmann is right in the middle of this system. Around 60 percent of the primary school pupils at the Karlsschule in Essen have a migration background. “Immigration is challenging, especially for a small elementary school like ours,” says Gühman. Too little space and too few staff. There is no sports hall, so PE lessons regularly have to take place in the corridors.
“How are we going to educate all the children here properly, let alone integrate them well?” Perplexity, even if they are committed to tackling the problems. Serdar Kazanci runs a fish snack bar in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The son of a Turkish guest worker, he was born in Germany but has a Turkish passport: Serdar is critical of uncontrolled immigration and is completely dissatisfied with the government's migration policy: “I'm a foreigner myself, so I think everyone is welcome in Germany.
But only as long as they abide by the law and social norms.” Right next door, Ercan Yaşaroğlu runs a café and echoes the same sentiments. Yaşaroğlu came to Kreuzberg from Turkey as a political refugee in 1982 and became a German citizen in 1987. The men agree: “If the government carries on like this, they will destroy our beautiful Germany.” One thing is certain for both of them: “Without immigration, our country wouldn't function at all.” A ZDF report on exhausted migrants and helpers in Germany.
Broadcasting on 08th of February 2025 at 06.00pm on ZDF
Music: POPVIRUS Library