whisperfactory

Hey I worked with refugee minors in a social care home in Germany for several months last year, and I just wanted to say I can relate to a lot of problems you face, and I understand how hard this job can be. Thankyou so much for carrying on. We might not always get to see happy endings for the people we work with, but your patience, dedication, and hard work and grit have genuinely changed lives, and just by caring for your refugees you have given them friendship in a time when they have nothing else. You are amazing, Thankyou. Do you have any specific stories that come to mind of an individual's life that was changed from being taken in by Sweden?

I personally never experienced assault or anything close to that, as a person living in a German city and as a social worker, even when working in the camps.

By never accepting them in the first place we would also have more funds as a country to spend on our own population. But by never accepting them in the first place a lot more people would be dead or suffering than there are now. It's not a perfect solution, but it's one where we can work through the problems in a beneficial way.

I would say that in my experience I definitely felt objectified as a woman working with migrants in some instances, but I was also made very aware of middle eastern cultural norms, and received really good advice on how to act around the male migrants from specific cultures. For example, even looking at a man in the eyes is considered flirtatious in many middle eastern cultures, so it was important that I was very aware of what I was communicating to these people, especially if we didn't know each other's languages and they had just arrived in a culture very very different from their own.

Miscommunication happens, it is very awkward, and yes some of the men I worked with did not respect my rights as a woman, but this is largely because they are coming from a place where that is accepted and the cultural norm. We need to educate refugees, and make genuine attempts to integrate them into our societies because that is how we prevent rape from happening, not by isolating them further.

It was amazing to see that many of the men I worked with ended up having a lot of respect for my authority as a woman and I was very privileged to receive genuine respect and friendship from people who had initially dismissed me. It is possible.

As an American, it is difficult for you to understand the perspectives of Germans and the very complex issues presented by migration. I as a British person also cannot speak for the German people. I know that Germany certainly saved many many people from terrible things, and I am privileged to be able to call a few of those people my friends. I am so glad that they are in Germany now, and that they are alive.

The repercussions of the migrant crisis are yet to be fully seen, and we will never know the reality of what would of otherwise taken place. Truth is, the situation now is the one we have to deal with.

From my personal experiences working with the government I would say that because the arrival of refugees was so vast and sudden, there was definitely a massive sense of chaos and unprepared care when it came to dealing with the refugees. This meant a lack of housing, warm clothes, beds, transport. It was and continues to be a very difficult time.

Government officials often did the bare minimum of what they were instructed to do, and a lot of the care given to refugees is thanks to volunteers from various NGO's. I don't think the government realized the importance of even things such as psychological care for many traumatized refugees who were then permanently put on a waiting list to be approved and put into cramped housing without anyone to care for them or inter grate them. I personally put some of the blame with the lack of education available to most immigrants.

I would also like to question your statistics and facts.

http://m.dw.com/en/report-refugees-have-not-increased-crime-rate-in-germany/a-18848890

"The study concluded that the majority of crimes committed by refugees (67 percent) consisted of theft, robbery and fraud. Sex crimes made for less than 1 percent of all crimes committed by refugees"

There is also a lot of other information which dispels negative propaganda against refugees.

I would strongly advise not to rely on the reportings of American media outlets because it is well known that they are very bias and do not research their information, or have any causation to report honest facts. BCC news is probably the closest to a neutral news source that you might find, and I would encourage outside reading concerning the migrant crisis' effects on Germany.