So they left us
On Wednesday, November 18, the district government of Berlin welcomed another batch of 127 refugees and as the authorities ran out of space to accommodate these incoming refugees, they transferred them to our university’s gymnasium. District government provided the refuges with proper beddings, necessary food items and basic toiletries. It was a Wednesday night and students were administering coup de grace to their hectic midweek schedule with a couple of cold ones, but as soon as they came to know about the arrival of refugees, they called it a night at the bar and rushed to help them. At the same time when the district government was fulfilling their ‘responsibility’, there were more student volunteers pumped up with the unified passion to serve the ones in need than the city administrators: bringing over their warm clothes, extra food and asking for warm clothes for the minor refugees. The entire spirited exercise reminded me of the fabled Ansars (the helpers) who helped the Muhajirs (refugees) in settling into the city of Medina when it became impossible for the Muhajirs to live in Mecca anymore.
The interesting part of this refugee consignment is the number of South Asians: out of a total of 127 refugees 11 are Pakistanis, 15 are Afghanis and a sole Indian. These 26 South Asians have travelled more than 6,000 kilometres not to evade any sort of civil war or security crisis but to discover their economic fortunes. The pattern of South Asians hopping on the bandwagon to get as much out of a crisis situation for their own good is not a novel one and not restricted to this one example, it is rather quite commonplace; for example, there are more Afghanis and Pakistanis residing in Passau (a small town in South East Germany) than any other nationality.
But the important question is why has Germany become the new theatre of dreams for the South Asians looking for a livelihood outside their countries and region? The answer is the Social Market Economic system of Germany. The system taxes the ones with means to redistribute the economic resources amongst those who lack and within the system there are benefits entitled to the refugees and asylum seekers as well. Anyone who manages to cross the borders of Germany and seeks political asylum (the most common form of asylum that people seek for) is entitled to a place to live (which is by far just fundamental in nature, especially for people with limited means coming from South Asia), a monthly stipend of 450 Euros (which is approximately equal to 51,000 PKR and 33,000 AFN), monthly health insurance and German language classes.
The entire ‘package’ that is provided to these refugees is more than most of the graduates get after obtaining a university degree and demonstrating tangible skills required for securing a job. While most of the German citizens and government have welcomed the refugees with open arms, others have reservations against them based on two reasons: a) the security concerns which have increased manifolds due to recent Paris attacks; and b) the distribution of economic resources; they believe that the government takes money from them and give it to the ‘outsiders’ which is unfair. Furthermore, they believe that these ‘outsiders’ steal their jobs by agreeing to work for less money and compromising on employment benefits.
Of course, there are downsides to this fairy tale. These refugees are not allowed to go back to their countries until they have received permanent residence permits and/or German passports, and more gruesome of the downsides is their journey from home to their new adopted home. Pakistani refugees (who have requested to be kept anonymous) were contacted for the sake of this article. They shared their stories and most common route extrapolated through the conversations to enter the German territories involves Central Asian countries, Russia and Poland. These refugees obtain tourist visas for any of the Central Asian countries from where they travel by trains bribing their way into western Russia where they spend some time to shrug off the government officials who might be following them out of apprehension.
From these Russian towns they are smuggled into Poland in the form of groups, walking through thick forests at nights with heavy snow which almost takes away from them the will to survive and live let alone complete the journey. Walking through forests, stumbling in heavy snow, evading the frost bite, when they finally enter the German territory they have two options either to themselves go to a police station and report themselves as asylum seekers or to wait at Bahnhofs (train stations) for police to come and register their report. This being the last of their hurdles (and the easiest one as well) introduces them to a new life they have always desired and longed for.
In order to curtail the possibility of getting rejected for official refugee approval from the government due to lack of legitimate reasons most of the Pakistani refugees pose as Afghanis or Syrians and even then if they are not able to prove the legitimacy of their application or their nationality (as they lack the language skills required to prove their identity at their adopted temporary national embassies), they take it a notch up by yelling mental instability and morbid depression which can prove fatal if they are deported back to their countries. This shrewd cameo buys them in some instances more time and at times if played very well also a residence permit.
Is Germany the new UK, USA and Canada for Pakistanis? Yes, undoubtedly, but also a more pathetic one, reflecting a new wave of desperation to elope their homeland even if they have to forgo their national identity or pose as a schizophrenic imbecile. At least the people who migrated to UK, USA and Canada kept their integrity intact and applied through proper legitimate channels. But the important question is: Who is responsible for this? What reasons constitute this new wave of desperation? The answer is simple yet not so simple: perpetual market failures which government has failed to address has left the citizens with no jobs, lack of basic necessities, no life security and a constant fear of becoming totally irrelevant and invisible to the national machinery. And this fear has made them as desperate as Syrians to seek refuge at a country where they will still matter, regardless of the fact what their status would be or if they will lose their self esteem or even their life.
“I am telling you my story not to gain sympathy from people but to reveal that this is the extent to which I was ready to go in order to get out of Pakistan,” Ali (pseudo name to keep the anonymity intact) clarified while he wept softly. A country’s social and economic conditions are gauged not by what people would do in order to live there but to what extent people will be willing to go in order to not live there.