Coburg Chronicles 7

It was a bright day. For once the sun was shining on our faces. There was no rain and the wind was not too cold. A good day for an outing. As planned we started to set out for our day's venture to visit some refugees who were staying in Coburg. The moment the word refugee is pronounced my ears go up almost automatically like an Alsatian. Obviously I was in that team.

The first stop was at the residence for refugees as they called it. It was a building that had individual rooms and some apartments. In the individual rooms the single men were housed and in the apartments there were families. There was also a dormitory where young people stayed while they were in transit or waiting for a decision on their status.

Interacting with them two sets of stories emerged. One, the migrants and the other on the refugees. It was really important to understand the difference. In the case of Europe they only consider political refugees. Another point to note is that, if a person is claiming asylum in Europe, he/she must claim it in the first country of entry into Europe. They cant claim it in a place like Germany as it is surrounded by other european countries. One has to get though one of the European countries to get to Germany. So the claim for asylum in Germany is almost out of question. This doesnt stop people from claiming asylum.

The case of afghans was particularly interesting. They traveled from Kabul to Germany via all the countries in between and were either enroute to the scandinavian countries or wanted to settle in any country where they had their families and friends. This journey is undertaken by young men and women who are ably assisted by agents. They pay huge sums of money to make their way out of their countries. When they reach countries like Germany the hard reality hits them. They are termed as illegal migrants who are not supposed to be here without documents. Seen with suspicion and anger they are usually met with contempt. They are most likely to be deported to their own country or a country that they entered in the very first place. The agents cant help them any more and they cant tell anyone how they got to Germany.

But, while in germany they are housed and taken care of. Thanks to the efforts of community volunteers like Ms Dood who tirelessly campaigns for a the rights of these people. She has played an extraordinary role in trying to secure rights of those who live in the margins. A campaign she organized drew the attention of the Bavarian Parliament to address the issue of the housing. Though they started with the painting of the exterior and then the interiors, it is work in progress.

The Afghans told their moving stories. It made me think, is so much risk really worth it at a huge cost? I am really not sure about that.

The visit also exposed us to the situation of the others like the Ethiopians, Chechenyans and those from Azerbaijan.

There was a family consisting of three members from Azerbaijan, they were housed in two bedroom apartment. Summarily they were suddenly joined by two ethiopian young women. They had to give away a room to them. They share the hall kitchen and toilet. This does not sound okay even to a South Asian. Where we have large joint families sharing rooms and toilets.

Despite these living conditions, they get their rations and about 120 euros a month for living expenses. In the first year they are not allowed to join for language classes but are however taught bu community volunteers. This makes integration very hard for them. For children, it is better because they can have access to schools and other facilities.

While they live here, they have all filed for asylum and have to wait for the entire process to be completed. It starts with getting an interview date. This may take even two years. After the interview the decision is not made immediately, it may take another year or so to hear about the status. In most cases till now it has been negative. But people wait in hope.

In one case that we encountered, there seems to be a positive outcome. Going by the genuineness of the case, despite all the laws of fortress europe there seems to be a possibility to stay and get asylum.

Coburg Chronicles 6

Who likes to work on a Sunday! The poori breakfast, a load of news papers, catching up what was missed during the week on various issues and definitely a quick nap in the afternoon. All this was just in the imagination and sounds too regular. But today was a day for faculty meetings. It was at the spectacular home of Dr Claudia, located on the third floor a beautiful apartment with views on three sides. Huge windows and a neat balcony.

Before that we took a quick trip to the church of the 14 saints. Not too far away, was an old catholic church built in honor of 14 saints. Each saint was responsible to take care of an ailment. The only person I could recognize was St Jude the hope of the hopeless. No doubt that the

Imagine a dozen social work faculty members from diverse cultural, ethnic, linguistic backgrounds from Chile to Chennai gathered around a table to reflect the process of the summer school and to come up with ideas of collaboration in future. Believe me 5 hours is just not enough.

Positive ideas flowed about the Summer School. So creative suggestions were also tabled to improve the next one when it is attempted. The theme was quite impressive and invited a new dimension of thought departing from the clinical approach to Social Work. Inclusion and Human Rights need to be part of our social lingo. And, it was actually happening. Many years ago when we were planning the Specialization of Human Rights in Social Work, we had people laughing at us. Now minding that and working on it has helped us a long way in the process. In India, we have a long way to go.

Coming back to the ideas of collaboration, the plan was to bring out a publication, carry out joint research and also advocate for Human Rights based approaches to Social Work and concentrate on advocacy on systemic issues. More than 15 ideas popped up. Each one was interesting and relevant. As usual not all were practical. But there was no need to worry about the practicality of it right now.

It would all be compiled and circulated shortly. For me this was a confluence of ideas and a good chance to initiate a dream project; tell the story of social work around the world. The emergence of it and how it has diversified and contextualized itself to situations. The ideas was well received and I really hope to be working on it very soon.

It was now dinner time hence we tried to wrap up the business. But as we all very well know the business session surrounded the dinner as well. We could not stop with our ideating minds till we actually departed.

Coburg Chronicles 5

Reflection and sharing

It was hard to believe that the weekend was already here! But in the summer school there was no real difference. It was a working weekend. The day was to be spent with a lot of reflection. Students had to present their reflection of Flossenberg and the Nuremberg. By now I was totaled out, could no linger sit in long sessions and concentrate. I loved to hear the students speak. I was part of the earlier discussions in small groups. Holding myself to attend the day long presentations was out of question.

I sat through the first round of interesting reflections where they spoke about the impressions that the concentration camp created. The ideas were predictably different from culture to culture. The Namibians related to the genocide that took place in their own land, while the Chileans referred it to the Pinochet episodes.

In my mind the atrocities that I have read about all came back flashing, I could call it an action replay and on the top was the killing of the innocent Tamils who were caught in the conflict.

While all this was going on I was just waiting for a break. But it never came. So I decided to look for some green tea and retired for some time. It always surprises me what a 20 minute rest can do to you. I was up and running and feeling much better with my cold, leaky nose, head ache, a slight fever with severe body pain. Could have been a flu, a paracetamol really helped along with a jelly like capsule- courtesy Gaby!