美国国家公共电台 NPR For Refugees In Germany, Hope And Frustration Mark Path Toward Integration

 

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German Chancellor¹ Angela Merkel visits President Trump² at the White House later this week. The two leaders have many differences. One of the biggest being on immigration. Merkel has welcomed more than a million refugees - many of them Syrians - to Germany over the past two years. Trump has called that policy catastrophic. And as NPR's John Ydstie reports, integrating refugees into German society has become a challenge for Merkel as she seeks re-election.

JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE³: When the wave of refugees first surged into Germany, there was lots of talk that they might be the answer to the country's declining population and big worker shortage. But the mood soured after the assaults by male refugees on women during New Year's Eve celebrations just over a year ago. It darkened further following the attack on a Berlin Christmas market by a Tunisian refugee three months ago.

That's raised even more hurdles⁴ for 27-year-old Akhlaq Hussain. A math teacher in his former life, he fled to Germany from Pakistan after he and his school received threats of kidnapping and death from the Taliban.

AKHLAQ HUSSAIN: They demand some money. If we pay monies, then children will be free. If we don't pay monies, they kill the people and children, and they cut head. You know, they say, Allahu Akbar.

YDSTIE: But a year and a half after a harrowing journey, much of it on foot, crossing mountainous borders and being beaten by police, Hussain is stuck in refugee housing in Neuss, a German town across the Rhine River from Dusseldorf. Hussain says he's been treated well here, but he's frustrated⁵. He's spent more than a year and a half waiting just to get an asylum⁶ interview. In the meantime, there's not much to do but chores like vacuuming the carpet.

HUSSAIN: I already cleaned our rooms, yeah. Problem is kitchen. Toilets are big problems.

YDSTIE: Actually, Hussain's big problem is that he's Pakistani. Germany doesn't recognize Pakistan as a country dangerous enough for its citizens to automatically receive asylum. As a result, few social services are available to him. Some local volunteers like Ilona Valero have been providing some aid.

ILONA VALERO: I try to help with all the papers. In Germany, there are a lot of papers (laughter). They are waiting for such a long time. There is no structure in the day. They're waiting for German lessons. They're waiting for permission to stay and permission to work.

YDSTIE: Recently, the volunteers have managed to get temporary jobs for a few refugees, including work at a garden center for Hussain. It will help him pass the time while he awaits an asylum decision. But the odds⁸ are not good. During the past two years, fewer than 10 percent of Pakistanis seeking asylum in Germany were successful.

KARIM KHAYAL: (Speaking German).

YDSTIE: Thirty miles up the Rhine River in Cologne, refugees, most of them Syrians, are absorbing information about German laws and customs at an integration⁹ center. Karim Khayal is a counselor¹⁰ here. He says the key to success for refugees is learning German.

KHAYAL: There is no integration without language, and this is something refugees will tell you again and again. We know that language is the number one requirement we need. So speaking efficient German means having arrived in Germany.

YDSTIE: And there's a lot at stake, says Khayal. He points to Germany's experience with Turkish guest workers studying in the 1960s. They were not well integrated into German society, and there continues to be alienation¹¹ in that community that now numbers 3 million.

KHAYAL: And the danger is very real that if we don't take care now, we're going to have a larger group of alienated¹² young men - men who are angry, who are bitter, who are both distant to their country of origin and distant to their new home country and who we're going to, of course, have radical¹³ ideas.

YDSTIE: Thirty-three-year-old Ibrahim Habib, a refugee from Syria, appears to be well on his way to successful integration. He's here at the center today meeting with Khayal. In Damascus, Habib designed and cut clothing. He says that job is out of reach in Germany, so he wants to be a bicycle mechanic. Like nearly all Syrian refugees, Habib has been granted asylum that makes him eligible¹⁴ for government support while he learns German and gets job training. Habib says Germany is home now.

IBRAHIM HABIB: (Foreign language spoken).

KHAYAL: He says he wants to be a German in the future, that the past life is gone and to see the respect that you got from the German society only means that you have to give this respect back and want to be part of this society, not go back to your Syrian past.

YDSTIE: But with language and integration courses plus an apprenticeship¹⁵, it could still be years before Habib is fully¹⁶ employed. Christoph Moller, until recently, chief spokesman for the German Employment Agency, estimates it could take six years for Germany to fully integrate this wave of refugees into the workforce¹⁷.

CHRISTOPH MOLLER: It's a long journey, and it's going to be an expensive journey. But in the end, for society, these costs are actually justified¹⁸ because the costs in not doing anything will be much higher.

YDSTIE: In the last year, just over 40,000 refugees found jobs in Germany. Meanwhile, close to half a million are seeking employment. But they need language and vocational training first.

Solomon Yhdego is one refugee who has found a job. Yhdego works 20 hours a week at a huge Deutsche Post DHL facility in Duisburg. He makes about $12 an hour moving big yellow boxes of mail onto metal racks for delivery.

Yhdego, who's 31, easily gained asylum in Germany after escaping from Eritrea. It has one of the most repressive governments in the world. He was about to enter university there when he was forced to join the Army. He fled, leaving his wife behind. Yhdego says it's been very difficult, but going home is not an option.

SOLOMON YHDEGO: When I go, they kill me. It is very hard.

YDSTIE: Yhdego learned enough German to get an internship¹⁹. He impressed Georg Schikowski, the plant manager here, who gave him a six-month contract.

GEORG SCHIKOWSKI: The goal is to take him for a long, long time because he has shown us that he works good, and that's the test.

YDSTIE: Some Germans are skeptical²⁰ about the usefulness of low-skill refugee workers. But Christof Erhart, a Deutsche Post DHL vice⁷ president, says they're valuable, especially at companies like his that have lots of blue-collar jobs. And he says the refugees have demonstrated they're motivated and engaged.

CHRISTOF EHRHART: Because what they had to do in order to leave their country and come to a different place needed a lot of, quote, unquote, "entrepreneurship" and willingness to run risks.

YDSTIE: Deutsche Post DHL is a leading corporate²¹ employer of refugees. But so far, it has fewer than 300 on the payroll²². For integration to be successful, big German firms will have to do better. And Ehrhart says the country can't afford to fail.

EHRHART: And I think the world is watching us. I mean, I have to put it another way; I think there is no alternative than finding a solution because if we don't find a solution as one of the richest countries on the planet, who else should?

YDSTIE: Back where we started at the refugee barracks in Neuss, another Pakistani, Kamal Hussain is waiting for his asylum decision. He fled Pakistan more than two years ago after the Taliban threatened to kill him for administering polio vaccine²³. He left behind a pregnant wife. Kamal is frustrated. He has little to occupy his time, and he knows that's dangerous.

KAMAL HUSSAIN: If you are alone here, and you have no activities right now, you'll be negative. You'll be fighting with someone or maybe you do something bad.

YDSTIE: Germans are worried about that too. Frustrated young men who might turn to crime or even terrorism. It's fuel to rise in support for the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, which is threatening Angela Merkel's bid for re-election. There's no doubt, integrating refugees into German society is a high-stakes project. John Ydstie, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF LETTUCE SONG, "PHYLLIS")

1 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

5 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

9 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

10 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

11 alienation   

n.疏远；离间；异化

参考例句：

• The new policy resulted in the alienation of many voters.新政策导致许多选民疏远了。
• As almost every conceivable contact between human beings gets automated,the alienation index goes up.随着人与人之间几乎一切能想到的接触方式的自动化，感情疏远指数在不断上升。

12 alienated   

adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等）

参考例句：

• His comments have alienated a lot of young voters. 他的言论使许多年轻选民离他而去。
• The Prime Minister's policy alienated many of her followers. 首相的政策使很多拥护她的人疏远了她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

14 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

15 apprenticeship   

n.学徒身份；学徒期

参考例句：

• She was in the second year of her apprenticeship as a carpenter. 她当木工学徒已是第二年了。
• He served his apprenticeship with Bob. 他跟鲍勃当学徒。

16 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

17 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

18 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

19 internship   

n.实习医师，实习医师期

参考例句：

• an internship at a television station 在电视台的实习期
• a summer internship with a small stipend 薪水微薄的暑期实习

20 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

21 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

22 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

23 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。