Mit dem Asylbescheid wird für viele Flüchtlinge das Leben leichter. Für Ahmad jedoch markiert er den Beginn einer Odyssee durch sächsische Behörden.
Receiving asylum makes life a lot easier for many refugees. For Ahmad, however, it means having to deal with a lot of red tape in Saxony.
Housing Challenges/The job centre wants me to find a mini job—because I’d double my income as a journalist./What planet do they even live on? We have to turn here./How did Ahmad find this flat?/It’s my friend’s former single-room flat. We moved in together.
Hi Yvonne and Marcel! Welcome. Please, please … /Congratulations to the new flat! Do we want to speak German or English?/I’ve already been speaking English for eight years. German for only a short time. Here, one second … the office gave me a folder.
The job centre gives out folders. You got one from the migration office, too. There has to be order./Germans don’t speak English well, so I have to learn German./I like that perspective./But you don’t have to prove anything to me now with certificates and documents …/Germany—the country of documentation. Here … this is my ID card./Official document issued by the municipal office: Ahmad was granted refugee protection
At the job centre, they always sent Ahmad away because of this piece of paper./The case worker always said: “Your identification papers aren’t valid”. Section 3 is wrong./I called at the district migration office. There they said he wouldn’t be issued a different document. So we went back to the job centre./And again the same: “Invalid.” But it is valid, you can call the migration office. “No one receives calls from this phone.”
I didn’t understand at all what she meant. Okay, I can use my mobile. But the case worker said: “No—nobody can make calls from here.”/But they’re waiting for a call! The case worker then said: “It’s not allowed.”/My sister works at the job centre in a different city. She advised to demand to speak to the team leader immediately./“That can take an hour”, was her response. Fine, then we’ll wait.
I studied biochemistry in Aleppo. Medicine in Damascus. Then I was supposed to join Assad’s army. I arrived in Germany near the end of 2015. I was sent to Saxony—the Leipzig region. After eleven months I received an appointment at the foreign national’s office./Before the war, a friend in Damascus once laughed at us, saying: “You always have to wait months for papers there, pay every fine … the simplest things take forever, opposed to just placing a banknote in your passport.”/Right, Ahmad, why don’t you staple a fifty note to your folder./“Oh, thank you! Welcome to Germany! You’re very kind!” I received a lot of help. From Yvonne and her friends. Even from the interviewer during the asylum procedure. 20 days later I received my residence permit./With it you’re allowed to go to the job centre and find a flat.
Eventually the team leader came. She introduced herself very calmly, and I explained to her: the woman at the migration office is waiting for a call./But even she said suddenly: “No, I won’t phone with her. Won’t do it.” I spent ages trying to persuade her, desperately, when suddenly my phone rang./I held the phone up to the team leader’s ear. The woman from the migration office was on the line, asking why she hadn’t received a call yet. She’d like to take her lunch break now./Then everything took its course. The notion that thousands of people have to go through this process alone is frustrating.
From the ground floor we were finally able to go up to the second floor. One step to heaven. With my residence permit I’m allowed to move out of the refugee shelter./Official document issued by the job centre: regulations for the size and cost of one-room flats/The landlady should write out an offer—which I brought with me to the job centre./Luckily Ahmad was able to become the new tenant. Private landlords aren’t so eager when it comes to “foreign applicants”. And even if you’ve found a flat, it’s often already rented out by the time the job centre has looked everything over.
Language certificate/Integration test/Acknowledgment of education/Relocation approval/Flat offer/Residence permit/Can you guys help me build this wardrobe?/Sorry, but we’re not familiar with these screws you have here in Germany. Back home things are sold in one piece./Well actually, it’s a Swedish company.
How did you come to meet Ahmad?/At a local cultural project. Have you guys actually considered taking someone up into your shared flat? I know someone who … /We’ve already done that. But then he was going to get deported. I honestly have troubles going through with that again./Why?/The people need more assistance than we can maybe give. To see how their motivation plummets, the cryptic bureaucratic processes, the waiting … it gnaws at you./Still, you guys have room. Who else even does?/Yeah, you’re probably right.
