Immigration, Race and Culture in Germany: Being an Auslander in Germany

 I started my German integration and language  class in February of 2020. It was an interesting class and I met some lovely new people.  Some of them are still friends and I am grateful to have new friendships here. We finally completed the language test and the Living in Germany orientation test in October and November of 2020.  It was a long and time consuming process especially due to the pandemic lockdown but I am glad I finally completed it.  But I am still very far from fluent and acculturated!

One thing I particularly enjoyed about the class was that there were so many foreigner students.  They came from India, Bangladesh, Romania, Poland, Philippines, Brazil, Cuba, Egypt, Russia, Iraq, Ukraine and Syria.  It was one of the few places where I interacted with different people from all over the world on a daily basis. We were definitely in our international/foreign bubble but so what, and at least for me, I felt totally comfortable in my diverse United Nations like environment.

I also heard stories from my classmates about their experiences here in Germany, especially their interaction with local Germans in daily life or in their workplace  and the obvious as well as subtle cultural differences. We also discussed what it was like to be a foreigner here and how they felt being foreigners. They all came to Germany due to economic reasons, ie they found jobs, or were looking for new jobs, or some of the women came with their husbands, who were transferred here.  The refugee students came due to obvious political reasons and they shared their personal experiences with hardship and war.  Overall, most of them were looking forward to their new lives in Germany, but some also faced more challenges such as discrimination and at times racist treatment in certain situations.  The darker the skin color, the more they experienced with these unpleasant encounters, not surprisingly. Some of them were also here because of their marriage to German spouses. They all complained like me, of the language barriers and the difficulty of making German friends, and shared about the reserved and unfriendly nature of Germans. Many of them needed German language for their jobs or internships as well.  We all struggled through the class, some more than others, and eventually completed the B1 level by November.

This post was from September 2020 from my Facebook page.

After my German language test I continued with an Orientation class called Living in Germany, a 6 Week Integration course in the evenings which started last week. It sure keeps me busy!

I wish that I had learned more thoroughly about living in Germany prior to coming here. It would have made my adjustment a bit more easier and less stressful. This course covers a detailed overview of German politics, history, society and culture. And of course there is another test at the end...

Taking and passing this test is required for German residency renewal and future citizenship application requirements.

Our substitute teacher this week

was so engaging and offered his interesting and unique perspective growing up as a son of a Turkish Gastarbeiter (Guest Worker) in the North Rhine Westphalia region. In the 60s and 70s, many Turkish and other foreign laborers came for economic opportunities and worked in mines, factories and hospitals. (Even Koreans!)

He shared with our class his personal experiences with discrimination and integrating as a minority, and that he wholeheartedly understands the difficulties of being a foreigner in German society. He said that he feels some ambivalence about the country where he grew up, and not sure how tolerant Germans are politically and socially. However, it has become easier the last few years for foreigners.

We also discussed and concluded how there is no one perfect country for foreigners and that we all need to learn from each other and become a more open minded and tolerant society, worldwide. It was also helpful to hear some positive views and other experiences from our classmates today.

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