Germany is planning to introduce a new law requiring all the incoming refugees to integrate. If the refugees don’t integrate, they have to return back home. The intentions all seem to be in the right place but the idea just seems daft. How exactly does one measure cultural integration? Language? Friends? Financial Well Being? The government thinks, it can decide if a migrant has integrated based on a language course the migrants attend. Brilliant idea, a 2 hour language exam on paper decides if you have integrated into a new and vastly different culture.
I have been living in Germany for the past 2.5 years. Though not a refugee, I am a migrant nonetheless. I have learned the language up to the highest level language courses offer. Everyday at work, I need to speak German. I speak German even at home. My language skills are way above that of an average migrant. Still, I don’t consider my language skills good enough to socially integrate. Yes I speak German fluently with friends, but it is a totally different ball game to hangout with a group of natives and develop social skills in a language that you just learned. I simply cannot have fun while speaking German with a unknown group. An important aspect of socializing in a group is to crack jokes and understand and play with sarcasm. One doesn’t simple learn these in a language course!. Not just the jokes, the accent, the dialects I never learned these in the 5 levels of German Classes. To top it all of, I attended German classes in a language institute funded by the Government, yet I struggled to understand the dialect when I moved to East Germany from West. A language exam, no matter of what level, can never determine how much a person has integrated into the society. Yes these courses help to learn the language, but for integration people need to go out and speak with normal everyday citizens and not just with the language teacher. I have many friends who managed to pass the language exam but still struggle to utter a complete sentence. I am sure many migrants and refugees will be able to easily achieve a certificate without actually learning the language and without integrating.
Also, one cannot simply “learn” integration! It depends on the people you speak to, your environment and your friend circle, which brings me to my next point. The goverment seems to be forgetting that Integration is a 2 way street. I cannot simply integrated with someone, who doesn’t even want to talk to me. How do I integrate with someone who gets pissed off when I make simple grammar mistakes? How do I integrate with someone who doesn’t want to integrate? What is the government going to do with these people? Nothing I presume.
All in all, the new Integration law for refugees makes no sense. A language course can in no way determine how integrated one is into a culture and one simply cannot measure Integration. If the government wants to help the refugees truly integrate, they could organize events where the refugees can meet and interact with locals. The more the refugees meet and interact with normal citizens, and not the language instructor, the more they will integrate.
Featured Image ©Photo by Mario Viertel
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