04/01/2018

The huge complex consists of two hotels, a restaurant and 25 function rooms for conferences. It is a place steeped in history. The Berlin industrialist family Borsig once owned the estate. During the Nazi era, the Kreisau Circle met here. Today Michael Stober is the owner. He wants to preserve the spirit of progress at this place. When the refugee crisis reached its peak in autumn 2015, he met with representatives of the state government and the Jobcentre to develop a plan for integrating refugees into the labour market. A central idea: Language should not be an obstacle. If the applicants are motivated and reliable, then that's enough for him, says Stober.

One of the first applicants was Mazloum Hamka, a Syrian refugee. He spoke neither German nor English and was illiterate. The 21-year-old signed his first contract for a four-week work placement on the estate with three crosses. Today he is a full-time kitchen helper. He plans to train as a chef in the future.

Communication initially relied entirely on gestures until a colleague installed a translation app on his smartphone that could translate spoken German into Arabic in real time.

Stober employs 60 permanent staff members on his estate. He was easily able to counter the resentment that refugees were taking jobs away from local people: some of his vacancies had remained unfilled for years. Nevertheless, overcoming prejudice among employees was a major challenge. Some of his employees were also AfD sympathisers. So he arranged for Hamka to tell the entire team about his journey as a refugee, with the help of an interpreter. Stober calls this “mutual integration.”

Six refugees have worked at the estate so far. But not every experience was as straightforward as it was with Hamka, says Stober. He once employed two men from a nearby emergency shelter in room service. But one day they stopped turning up for work. After making his own enquiries, Stober found that both had faced severe hostility from people from their own country – because their supervisor was a woman.

“Mario”, as Hamka is called here, is still there and now speaks fluent German. How is he doing at Landgut Stober? Smiling, he points to his apron with the estate's slogan: “Everything is good, almost everything is great”.

CARE: A REAL OPPORTUNITY

31-year-old Khadim from Afghanistan has been living in Berlin for three years – and now works as a nursing assistant in a supported living community for people with dementia receiving outpatient care. The same is true of 29-year-old Syrian Basheer. “We finally have a daily routine, social contacts and can make a contribution,” says Khadim.

In autumn 2015, Karl-Martin Seeberg, managing director of the Diakonie-Pflege Verbund Berlin, and HR manager Heiko Kahns decided to employ refugees. Of the 16 women and men who took part in their basic care training course, ten passed and were hired. The refugees also needed a work permit before they could start working for the outpatient care provider.

“The participants first had to learn how to wash people in need of care who were of the opposite sex,” says Kahns. In his view, the integration is going well. “We find that older people are treated with patience and respect. Older age is held in particularly high regard in their culture.” The aim is to train the young assistants further so that they can qualify as professional carers. However, this is not easy. Certificates are often not recognised. Sometimes a deportation order arrives in the post without any prior warning.

“The care sector is suffering from an acute staff shortage. In the future we will be dependent on refugees,” says Kahns. For this reason, the Pro-Seniore Group is also involved. “Hardly any young people attend our regular recruitment events. The recruitment fairs aimed at refugees are always well attended – a real opportunity for us,” says spokeswoman Katrin Eschenweck.

SECURITAS: UNFORTUNATELY NOT POSSIBLE

The security company Securitas would like to employ people who have fled to Germany in recent years. But it can't. One requirement is sufficient German language proficiency to understand the legal framework in conflict situations and to communicate with colleagues and other people before a situation potentially escalates. Another requirement is a background check to ensure that the applicant has not committed any criminal offences in the past.

During this check, information is obtained from the local police station, state criminal investigation departments, the domestic intelligence agencies or the Federal Central Criminal Register maintained by the Federal Office of Justice. Refugees who have only been in Germany for a year or two would not be able to provide the necessary documentation covering the required period – and would generally not be able to obtain it from their countries of origin. “That is completely unrealistic at present,” says Heiko Schinköthe, HR manager for Berlin and Brandenburg.

An exception is Bakary Touray. He came to Germany from Gambia via Great Britain in 2002. Since he had lived in Germany for more than three years, he was able to provide the required documentation and has been working at Securitas since 2015 – currently in a refugee shelter. Before that, he was assigned to the Gerhart-Hauptmann School in Kreuzberg, which was occupied at the time. Sometimes his background helped him because some people there also came from Gambia. At other times, he was insulted because, as an African working in security, he was regarded as a traitor. “Different cultures are still important for the industry,” he says. They help us better understand people's backgrounds and behaviour.

by Marie Rövekamp, ​​Alfons Frese, Hannes Soltau and Marie Just.

Source:

https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/integration-in-berlin-und-brandenburg-in-der-pflege-eine-chance-woanders-unmoeglich/21130618-3.html