Transforming Refugee Camps To Community Living - Not Ghetto
A few days back I had the chance to visit a large refugee camp in my neighbourhood. Until that day, I only took notice of it only from the outside, from a very off-site point of view, I must admit. It is a huge floating air tent built on a soccer field, hosting currently 750 people across the Near and Middle East region. Lots of different social, religious and cultural Backgrounds.
Entering the outer circle of the camp, you are reminded not to take photos and to respect privacy. The closer you get, the more of those signs can be found, the more security booths you have to pass. Two massive blue iron locker doors secure controlled entry and leave. The tent itself has – logically - no windows or any other doors, is about 100 meters high, white, light and equipped with coloured plastic furniture, part of them new, others second hand. Huge plywood walls bound privacy from community living. Many information boards can be found, helping to get to know the city better, where to find what, how to behave in case of emergency, instructing security guards how to de-escalate in critical situations, informing which services are available, which of them for free. Kids have painted – without exception - colourful, positive pictures and fixed them on one of the walls showing peaceful family life, smiling suns, gardens and flowers, national flags – the German and their own next to each other, both same size. I can hardly breathe… Although a very spacious place and not too crowded at the first glance, it is super noisy, a closed air-conditioned cube. Outside spring, blue skies, blossomed nature – inside quite hot and it feels like being entirely looked-off from the outside world.
Security is right next to me – to protect me from what? To protect the community from me? I don´t know. Clumsiness at both sides…
Men are staring at me…
Women walk by with their eyes fixed on the ground, only very few keen enough to catch a glimpse…
Kids all playing, running and smiling, approaching me friendly, curious to learn about my visit, happy to get in contact. We communicate in broken English…
I cannot help my thoughts: a) the joyful friendliness and openness of the kids immediately remind me of my time at the slums in India. Flash back! My heart is full of unspeakable joy to realise that kids are and behave all the same, no matter where they were born, who they raised and how they were raised the first years. Me, heart-struck, feeling like I felt at the slums in India…. That is weird.
The next thought: Women and I - dark-hued veils and colourful fancy sport style - two worlds collide here. The difference between us could not be any larger. I feel like an alien in my country among my gender and age…. That is even more weird.
However, we all manage to control our feelings trying to act as normal as possible. We sit together and talk. I leave totally relieved to be out of this place again (my own thoughts and feelings are just suffocating me), it seems my shoes are running without me doing anything, although everyone tried to be as open and relaxed as possible. And yes, people where nice and friendly there… I notice however that kids are sad to see me leaving, knowing I will probably not return – at least not too soon.
A recent blog by @Jason Uppal crosses my mind: “slums to community living, not ghettos”…. I once said I agreed and understood, but only now I definitely do! My nation has so many things on its plate, so many challenges ahead to master – on all levels of our society and towards other nations. My suffocation remains…
Root-cause
The cost of economic globalisation is mirrored by the increasing number of destabilised societies at the edge of their socio-economic equilibrium. Those nations who are benefiting from globalisation can no longer believe that local economic benefits can be achieved without taking the responsibility to achieve socio-humane security in their partner countries. Running business in conflict regions leads – quite naturally – to increasing immigration, away from the ruined economies towards the flourishing ones. That is no surprise. You cannot have one without the other. Consequently, also Germany has to manage both extremes.
Effects
Maslow´s Hierarchy of Needs – migration leads to massive shift across the levels. Those originally in the upper region of the pyramid are moving top-down. The base of pyramid is getting larger, the top lighter.
Darwin´s Survival of the Fittest – local unemployed have to compete against unemployed immigrants to find their way back to paid jobs. The more qualified will succeed, independent from where he or she was born. Immigrants might succeed over Germans
Hypothesis
Only a broad socio-economic approach throughout the entire society will hopefully calm down the heated Situation.
Call For Action:
Inclusion. For me the only hope to find back to equilibrium. The only way to avoid refugee camps transform towards ghettos, dark spots, centres of and for violence, society failing backwards, segregation killing economies of scale.
Count me in!
# ONE WORLD – ONE HOME – ONE FUTURE