04/01/2018

The huge complex consists of two hotels, a restaurant and 25 meeting rooms. It is a place steeped in history. The Berlin industrialist family Borsig once worked here. During the Nazi era, the Kreisau Circle met on the estate.

One of the first applicants was the Syrian Mazloum Hamka. He spoke neither German nor English and was illiterate. The 21-year-old signed his first contract for a four-week internship on the estate with three crosses. Today he is a full-time kitchen helper. He plans to train as a chef in the future.

Communication initially only worked through gestures until a colleague installed a translation app on his smartphone that could interpret synchronously from German into Arabic via voice input.

Stober employs 60 permanent employees on his estate. He was easily able to quell the resentment that refugees were taking jobs away from locals: his positions were unfilled for years. Nevertheless, it was a central problem to reduce prejudices among employees. Because there are also some AfD sympathizers among his employees. So he had Hamka tell his escape story in front of the entire team with the help of an interpreter. Stober calls this “mutual integration.”

Six refugees have worked on the estate so far. But it wasn't as easy with everyone as with Hamka, says Stober. He once employed two men from a nearby emergency shelter in room service. But one day they stopped appearing. After his own research, Stober found that both were exposed to massive hostility from fellow countrymen - because their superior was a woman.

“Mario”, as Hamka is called here, is still there and now speaks fluent German. How is he doing on the Stober estate? Smiling, he points to his apron with the estate's slogan: “Everything is good, almost everything is great”.

CARE: A REAL OPPORTUNITY

31-year-old Khadim from Afghanistan has been living in Berlin for three years - and now works as a nursing assistant in an outpatient community for people with dementia. Just like the 29-year-old Syrian Basheer. “We finally have a daily routine, social contacts and can make a contribution,” says Khadim.

In autumn 2015, Karl-Martin Seeberg, managing director of the Diakonie-Pflege Association Berlin, and the human resources manager, Heiko Kahns, decided to employ refugees. Of the 16 women and men who took part in their basic nursing course, ten passed and were hired. What the refugees still needed to start working for the outpatient care provider was a work permit.

“The participants first had to learn how to wash people of the opposite sex who needed care,” says Kahns. From his point of view, the integration is going well. “We find that older people are treated with patience and respect. Age has a special, appreciative place in their culture.” The aim is to further train the young helpers to become trained nursing staff. Which, however, is not easy. Certificates are often not recognized. Sometimes the deportation notice arrives in the mailbox without prior notice.

“The nursing professions are suffering from an acute shortage of personnel. In the future we will be dependent on refugees,” says Kahns. For this reason, the Pro-Seniore group is also involved. “Hardly any young people show up at the regular promotional events for our profession. The fairs for refugees are always well attended – a real opportunity for us,” says spokeswoman Katrin Eschenweck.

SECURITAS: UNFORTUNATELY NOT POSSIBLE

The security company Securitas would like to employ people who have fled to Germany in recent years. But it can't. A prerequisite is sufficient language skills to know the German legal situation in conflict situations in order to be able to talk to colleagues and strangers before a situation escalates. Another necessity is the background check to ensure that the applicant has not committed any criminal offenses to date.

During this check, information is obtained from the police station at your place of residence, from state criminal investigation offices, the constitutional protection authorities or from the Federal Central Register at the Federal Office of Justice. Refugees who have only been in Germany for a year or two would not be able to provide the necessary evidence for this period - and would generally not be able to obtain it from their countries of origin. “That is completely illusory at this point,” says Heiko Schinköthe, human resources manager for Berlin and Brandenburg.

An exception is Bakary Touray. He came here from Gambia via Great Britain in 2002. Since he had lived in Germany for more than three years, he was able to provide proof and has been working at Securitas since 2015 - currently in a refugee accommodation. Before that, he was employed at the Gerhart Hauptmann School in Kreuzberg, which was occupied at the time. Sometimes his background helped him because some people there also came from Gambia. At one point he was insulted because he, an African, was seen as a traitor. “Different cultures are still important for the industry,” he says. To better understand what shapes people and how they behave.

by Marie Rövekamp, ​​Alfons Frese, Hannes Soltau and Marie Just.

Source:

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/integration-in-berlin-und-brandenburg-in-der-pflege-eine-chance-woanders-unmoeglich/21130618-3.html