Whether in Berlin or elsewhere in Germany: the integration of some 15 million people with migratory backgrounds – almost a fifth of the population – is one of society’s special challenges. By the year 2010 every second inhabitant of the big cities under 40 years of age will come from an immigrant background. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel sees integration as a “key task” and wants to promote the art of living together among Germans and foreigners. An important step in this direction: the national integration plan, which was passed in July this year. The federal government, migration organizations, important groups in society, representatives from business and the media agreed on a better integration policy. Additional language courses, job training opportunities and special programmes in sports clubs are just a few of the projects designed to help immigrants feel at home in Germany. Most migrants have already found their place in society and are fully integrated, like the following five Berliners with various nationalities. Five people and their impressions of a city.
1 Magdalena Zieba-Schwind, Poland, TV assistant producer
Blame the bus stop in Krakow: Magdalena Zieba was waiting for a bus home, when a friendly young German started chatting with her. Following their conversation the two exchanged phone numbers – and fell in love. Magdalena was a 17-year-old schoolgirl at the time, and her admirer was a 29-year-old law student. After graduating from school, she followed him to Berlin. She is now 29, has been living in Berlin for ten years, and works as an assistant producer in television. What’s more, she married the great love of her life, and they now have a two-year-old son. Berlin is her dream city, but she still loves her home town of Krakow. “When I leave Berlin for Krakow, I miss Berlin – and vice versa.” In Krakow she had been accustomed to a rather picturesque environment, and at first the German capital’s architectural diversity came as quite a shock, but now she finds it fascinating. “The city is alive and constantly changing. And the people who live here change along with it. I wouldn’t like to miss out on that. I have everything I could wish for here to live happily,” says Magdalena Zieba-Schwind.
2 Ümit Selim Hatipoglu, Turkey, Grocer
The original idea was a temporary stay in Berlin. In 1980, Ümit Selim Hatipoglu left his home town of Istanbul as an 18-year-old student. Meanwhile, the intended brief visit in Germany has turned into 27 years. “Berlin is my home,” says Mr. Hatipoglu who is now 45 years old. He feels perfectly well integrated. “What I really like about Berlin is that people from over 180 different nations live peacefully side-by-side.” Mr. Hatipoglu owns a small grocery store in the Tiergarten area, where he sells fruit, vegetables and delicacies. Recently, when he was visiting Paris, it occurred to him that he had adopted one or two German habits over the years. He was sitting outside a street café, watching a car trying to park, and it was making ample use of the other cars’ bumpers. “I only just managed to stop myself jumping up to tell the driver what he was happening,” he says with a wry smile. “Sometimes I tend to be even more German than the Germans!”
3 Hafez Mohamed Hafez, Egypt, Professor of veterinary medicine
Hafez Mohamed Hafez first came to Germany from Egypt with a DAAD scholarship. Now he is professor of veterinary medicine at Berlin’s Free University (FU). He is an internationally recognized expert on poultry diseases and advises the government on questions about bird flu. Born in 1947 in Alexandria, he graduated in Cairo. Then his doctoral research took him abroad and to Germany. He only intended staying for a short time. But, after finishing his Ph.D. in Giessen, working as a veterinary surgeon in Stuttgart and completing his postdoctoral thesis in Munich, he came to Berlin, where he has now been living and working for ten years. At the FU, the professor found an outward-looking, cosmopolitan environment. And students from Arab countries have good prospects with Professor Hafez too: a veterinary surgeon from Syria is currently writing his Ph.D. thesis under his supervision.
4 Jeanna Kroner, Russia, Doctor
It would be a lie to say she never feels homesick. Despite this, Jeanna Kroner knows that she belongs in Berlin. The paediatrician from Moscow came to Berlin four years ago. The Sergej Mawrizki Foundation, which promotes dialogue between Germany and Russia, invited her to Berlin to write her Ph.D. in medicine. She immediately fell in love with the city. The fact that she also fell in love there with the man who is now her husband was another stroke of good luck. They married, and after a while their son Lukas was on the way. Admittedly, her thesis remained on the shelf, but now, at 38, she is completing a special language course to work as a paediatrician in Germany. Her aim is to work in her profession: “Then I would feel completely integrated here,” she says. Meanwhile, Jeanna Kroner is enjoying the city’s vast spectrum of cultural activities, while young Lukas grows up bilingually in Berlin’s multicultural atmosphere.
5 Ofri Brin, Israel, Singer
Ofri Brin sees Berlin partly as home, and partly as an adventure. The 26-year-old singer is one of around 2,500 Israelis in the capital. She came to Berlin three years ago, in the middle of November. Her first impression was: “Berlin looks hard, cold and grey.” Then she adds: “But at the moment, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” Her boyfriend, also from Israel, lives in Berlin. “We keep on discovering lots of new secrets in Berlin,” she says, describing the city’s irresistible charm. Berlin has become an important place for Ofri Brin’s career. The petite, red-haired artiste with the sensuous, sonorous voice performs regularly together with her band Ofrin at well-known clubs in the capital. At the moment she is recording a second album. And of course, like many of Berlin’s young creative artists, she lives in Prenzlauer Berg – complete with a wood-fired stove.
