May 1996, Vol. 2, No. 3

Notes from Hamburg: Immigrants Challenge Germany's "Social Net"
By Emily Voelckers Powell, AM 1995

"We asked for a work force and people came"

"We asked for a work force and people came" wrote author Max Frisch crystallizing Germany's relationship to immigrants who were encouraged to work and live in the country after World War II, but expected to leave way before now.

Beginning in full force in the late 1950s, people from Greece, Spain, and Italy, and later in 1961 Turkish immigrants, responded to the German government's invitation to become Gastarbeiter, or "guest workers," in various industries to help rebuild Germany after the war.

In 1973, Germany ended their campaign for immigrant workers in an official action called theAnwerbestopp (recruiting stoppage). Germans assumed that guest workers would eventually leave, after giving their best years to Germany's industry. Guest workers themselves always assumed they would return home. Those who decided to stay brought their wives, husbands and children to Germany. They now have grandchildren, a third generation, who go to school, speak fluent German, and work here. With work came sickness, unemployment, retirement, and other hardships apart of the natural course of life for which Germany was unprepared.

In the 30 years between immigrants arrival as guest workers and today, relationships between people changed, industries and Germany's economic situation changed, and connections with one's home country changed. Many guest workers were unable to return home. Immigrants have become an increasingly visible and significant part of society.

In more recent years people from Asia, South America and Eastern Europe have also come here seeking better opportunities for work and study. Presently about seven million immigrants live in Germany. Officially, as of June 30, 1995 in Hamburg, there was a total of 267,763 non-Germans. Among the largest groups, 71,670 are Turkish, 27,918 ex-Yugoslavian, 18,919 Polish, 13,297 Iranian, and 10,685 Afghani. As the number of immigrants in Germany grows, and families take root, acts of racist discrimination and violence also increase. The economic situation in the last few years is overshadowed by an 11 % unemployment rate, which is the highest rate in Germany since the end of World War II. Greater resentment towards immigrants is one effect of high unemployment and competition for jobs and training placements among youth .

Comparing Social Safety Nets: United States and Germany

Through my internship, I have encountered several organizations and initiatives attempting to deal with the complex issues arising from the meetings between different cultures. My perspective on these groups is influenced by my study of social policy in the United States and my experience as a social worker in the area of self-advocacy and U.S. disability policy. I came here to learn about Germany's social welfare system, called the soziales Netz (social net), so well-known for providing basic welfare services as well as health insurance and pensions to everyone.

In comparison to the U.S. social welfare system, Germany's social net indeed has a relative lack of holes through which people can fall. But the German social net is not entirely without holes: there is an increasing number of homeless people; pensions are not as generous as they used to be; social services are not as stable due to funding cuts. And with Germany beginning to dismantle much of its social net, these holes will become wider, perhaps more closely resembling the U.S. where the gaps are huge and exacerbate such social injustices as homelessness and extreme poverty.

Another characteristic of German politics and policy making which is shared by the U.S. is that immigrants, unless they have become German citizens-a rather lengthy and difficult process-basically have no political voice. As citizens of other nations, they cannot vote here despite having lived in Germany for perhaps 20 or 30 years. In addition, there is no anti-discrimination law to which immigrants or minorities can turn. They are accorded the rights in Germany given to all workers, i.e. pension and health insurance, but because jobs obtained by immigrants often are less prestigious and lower paying, benefits are also lower. Due to a combination of low political, social and economic status, immigrant groups therefore have limited means of applying political pressure on policy makers to address basic injustices such as discrimination in job and housing markets or lack of employment and educational opportunities.

As in the United States, most of Germany's hope for finding solutions or remedies to these problems does not emanate from its government alone. But quite distinct from the U.S. is Germany's political structure as a social state ("Sozialstaat"), which officially precludes the need for social welfare advocacy or lobbying by community organizations. As an intern with Worker's Welfare and participant in the Self-help Organization of Turkish Retired and Older Persons in Bergedorf, I have been particularly struck by the efforts of immigrants to organize themselves in order to develop culturally relevant and meaningful responses to issues they face in Hamburg.

Social Advocacy in Germany's Immigrant Communities

In place of advocacy within the political realm social advocacy is undertaken at the grassroots level, where improving conditions in daily life for immigrants- whether retired, unemployed, illiterate, or drug-addicted- is the major goal. Various institutions and organizations have played roles in creating programming focused on achieving social integration and better opportunities for immigrants to live and work as equals in German society. Among these organizations are state-funded Germanforeigner "meeting places", private welfare organizations (e.g., Arbeiterwohlfahrt; Diakonisches Werk, administrated by the Protestant Church; and Caritas Verband, administrated by the Catholic Church), community organizations, foundations which support social initiatives, and self-organized immigrant groups .

Meeting places, developed in Hamburg in 1980, allow Germans and immigrants to assemble together to work toward inter- and intra-group social integration. As the main funding source of Hamburg's eight meeting places -begun in 1980-the Authority for Employment, Health and Social Services currently sees the primary tasks of the program as: 1) promoting social integration through counseling, language and computer courses, and other offerings to specific demographic groups, e.g. women, children, youth, elderly; 2) promoting the "living-togetherness" of Germans and immigrants through cultural events, exhibits, seminars and public relations; and 3) fighting racism and xenophobia.

Activist work toward combating racist attitudes and activities has become a central focus since the early 1990s. The success of these centers in attracting Germans into the activist fold has been questionable. Meeting places have, however, become fixtures in immigrant communities by sponsoring informational and cultural events, discussion groups and seminars around issues such as discrimination and other neighborhood social concerns.

An interesting difference between the German and the American social welfare systems has to do with support for this type of community organization. In Hamburg, various state and city agencies fund the majority of the activities of meeting places as well as community organizations. In the United States, most community and advocacy organizations rely heavily on fund raising from private foundations, individuals and corporations; there is also tough competition among not-for-profit and community organizations for public money (city or state) that is earmarked for special projects. Despite the relatively well-funded positions in which German community organizations find themselves, there are still tensions between the state and social workers over controversial issues, such as antidiscrimination and -racism programming. For example, a meeting place in Altona, one of Hamburg's poorer and most multicultural neighborhoods, perceives a persistent threat of losing funding if it engages too strongly in political, anti-racist activities.

Working with Turkish Immigrants in St. Pauli, Hamburg

The Hamburg neighborhood of St. Pauli is home of the city's notorious red-light district, a 40 to 50 percent immigrant population, and a well-established and statesupported community organization called Gemeinwesenarbeit St. Pauli-Sud e.V. (GWA ). Situated in a somewhat depressed area which confronts high rates of poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution and homelessness, the GWA aims to promote St. Pauli's culture through sponsoring fine arts programs as well as to address those social issues which affect life in the community. Similar to the meeting places, many of the GWA's efforts are supported and strengthened by working together with other smaller initiatives and groups in the community, especially self-organized immigrant groups.

Decisions about life and survival in Germany are also confronted on a daily basis by the Turkish immigrants whom I have gotten to know in Bergedorf. They come to the Arbeiterwohlfahrt's counseling agency for help with getting through Germany's complicated, bureaucratic social welfare system. Counseling is offered by a social worker named Cengiz Yagli, my internship supervisor who came from Turkey 20 years ago and now has German citizenship. He is one of a few social workers in Hamburg who does counseling and casework in Turkish. Most of his clients speak little German and many do not read or write it at all. Cengiz's clients, especially older men who have questions about health insurance, unemployment and retirement benefits, have been coming to him for ten years bringing letters, advertisements, official forms for him to translate and explain.

During his first five years of working at the agency, Cengiz reports noticing a remarkable pattern. Sometimes people would come to his office on the pretense of having a question; other times they would just come to sit. They would almost inevitably begin to chat with others who had also come to sit. They would often let others go into the counseling office ahead of them, choosing to "wait until Cengiz had a free moment." Questioning the possible reasons for such peculiar behavior-people who supposedly have come to get help, and yet once there elect to wait extra minutes or hours-Cengiz discovered that these men felt bored and aimless since having taken early retirement, a pattern among former guest workers. Out of this observation, Cengiz in 1990 helped establish the Self-help Organization of Turkish Retired and Elderly Persons with several of his most frequent visitors. Since then, the organization has grown to 30 steady members, within a network of about 120, who meet regularly for organized activities and still often come for counseling. The group has created a kind of second home out of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt's space.

Although I am not Turkish, I immediately felt welcomed by them; through this acceptance, I have been allowed a close glimpse of Turkish life in Germany. One of my reasons for wanting to do an internship with Turkish immigrants was to understand the relationships between Germans and "Auslander" (foreigners, in this case Turks), but from foreigners' perspectives. Speaking the only common-and foreign-language that we share, German, we have been able to learn a lot about each other. It has been fascinating to see how this group is finding its way, as members of the first generation of immigrants to retire in Germany. A country that devotes a great deal of attention to aging and the elderly, Germany has yet to realistically to consider how its policies and formal care services will support those elderly who barely speak German, practice religions other than Catholicism or Protestantism (namely, Islam), observe different customs, have different ideas about growing older, and who ultimately fear dying in this country.

"Should I Stay or Should I go?"

This question, so often asked by Turks in Germany, rarely seems to find a complete answer. For most Turkish immigrants, returning to Turkey permanently islike a dream- they can live in their homes by the sea, near their relatives; they can bask in the sun when it is still chilly and raining in Hamburg; and perhaps most significant, their longing for home would be fulfilled. But returning to Turkey also means leaving families who have come to settle in Germany with them. It means giving up hard-earned pensions, comprehensive health insurance, and accessible medical care. And for many it also would mean continuing to feel like a stranger, this time in one's own country where everything should, but may no longer, be familiar. The self-help organization exists to fulfill the Turks' needs for companionship, community and activity in Germany.

My experience with the Turkish immigrants in Hamburg has been profoundly moving. It has given me the chance to broaden my horizons, deepen my knowledge of German culture, politics and society, and to expand my role as a social worker through my exposure to another system of social services. It has become clearer to me, as well, that the best social work is done by a few engaged people who work in and with local communities.

Prior to my arrival last summer, I had had no preconceptions of social work in Germany. I knew generally that the state provided well for its citizens, and that social problems were nowhere near as prevalent in Germany as in the United States. However, Germany's status as a social state does not necessarily mean that all its people escape disadvantage and discrimination. It sometimes seems that disturbing acts of violence and discrimination can be read about or witnessed here on a daily basis. I feel as if my eyes have been opened widely.

There are positive relationships which offer evidence that immigrants can make supported, fulfilling homes here. But Germany cannot be satisfied just to accept the existence of Turkish stores and food stands in all of its cities and neighborhoods. Immigrants do more than sell apples and oranges. They have invested their strength and their families in German life; many will most likely grow old here. The social net must allow room for this group of people, for all of its immigrants, and the contributions as well as needs they bring. It is hopeful to see that a few organizations, some of which I have described here, are taking up this task of showing German society that immigrants are a significant and human part of it, deserving of the attention now beginning to be paid to their lives' concerns.

Emily Voelckers Powell graduated from SSA in June 1995 with her Masters in Social Administration. She is nearing the end of her 10-month social services internship in Hamburg, supported by Germany's Korber Foundation.

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