Refugees in Exile in Berlin: Finding Informal Means to Survive

Homeless refugees in Berlin face systemic inequalities. Their support network, which consists of German citizens and other refugees, tries to challenge these conditions by assisting the homeless in accessing private and public shelters informally.  It seems relevant, therefore, to look at how informal systems can help undo some of the oppressions found within formal systems and bureaucracies such as ‘Lagers’ (camps) in Germany.

The presence of refugees in self-exile in Berlin remains invisible. But, if you look hard enough you find them living on the streets, with people in their private homes if they are fortunate enough, or in homeless shelters alongside other homeless German citizens. You will note that many are friendly, grateful, and happy that they have been given a few days of shelter alongside German citizens. Some, on the other hand, are frustrated, unhappy, angry, and resentful, as they are forced to sleep on the streets. Many of the refugees believe that there is much racism in Germany towards refugees arriving from the ‘third world.’

Refugees are threatened by deportations when they reside in Germany’s formal accommodation system. Even during the pandemic, deportations to Pakistan, Gambia, Afghanistan, Albania, Nigeria, Ghana and other areas have continued. People in such situations try to be invisible to state institutions. Therefore, they become dependent on informal housing, as formal housing involves making their place of residence known to the state.

Some of them are in excellent mental health with clear plans and goals, while others hear voices and suffer from trauma. There are many who look like they have been on the streets for days. Their faces are devoid of expressions. But many people smile, exhibit a sense of humor, laugh, and chat endlessly. Many of them have excellent and updated CVs, which show their formal qualification. But because these qualifications were acquired in the ‘third world’, they fail to be recognized by the so-called developed nations. They remain undaunted by structural racism and exhibit agency in ways that leave the privileged in great awe.

The majority of the homeless refugees are single young cis-men, who speak several languages such as Wolof, English, French, Arabic, German, Farsi, Urdu, Italian, Spanish, Pushto Bambara and many others. Yet, amongst them, there are also many gay men, couples, families, single women, single pregnant women, single older women, lesbians, non-binary people, who are eager to share their life stories with journalists, researchers, students and those who come to help them.

Why Are They Homeless?

Many people try to leave Germany’s formal accommodation system and the federal state to which they have been assigned to live and find work in the capital through informal means. Some end up on the streets of Berlin and it is through networking informally that they find accommodation and work. Omar explained to me his reasons for what I understand as self-exile from the formal system:

 “So, the situation in the Lager (camp) is a bit complicated. There is no respect. There is also nothing there in Frankfurt Oder that people can do. So, everybody who is registered there is coming here to find a job and live here. And I personally also came here to look for a job. There is also much racism there. So, the people in Frankfurter Oder, they are in a box that they judge people. They don’t feel comfortable with migrants. Especially when you have black skin. They behave in a real bad way. It’s not like the people in Berlin. They are more cultivated and open-minded. They know migrants from a different time. They know people of different colors.”

Thus, many refugees decided to come to Berlin to escape racism, to avoid deportations, to find work and to build connections, to access and construct networks. None of the refugees interviewed went through any of the formal bureaucratic processes in place to relocate to Berlin from their federal state. Consequently, they did not try to find residence or work through formal means.

The Municipality

There are very few homeless shelters in Berlin where illegal refugees can go. Many of them demand identity cards. In the summer, there is only one shelter, which remains accessible. There, refugees share space with mostly white German citizens and thus experience racialization in different ways. The place is noisy, smelly, and not very clean. Some would rather sleep on the streets. During lockdowns, since shelters started to accommodate fewer people, it was even more difficult for homeless refugees. During the winter months, Berlin tries to be more generous to ‘people on the margins’ and more shelters open up, but the overarching problem of alienation and ‘othering ’ remains.

The Offerors

Some German citizens intervene informally and offer a couch, a room, food, shower and some basic ‘help’ in informal ways from time to time to homeless refugees, as part of their political activism. They demonstrate friendship, solidarity and activism towards the refugees, while they themselves go on holidays and set up camps in the wilderness to breathe some fresh air, and get some distance from the comforts of their everyday life.

Members of an association on the brink of criminalization pass around flyers which state: “Make your couch a solidarity couch.” Their activities have to be locked, obscured, invisibilized, and coded to avoid sanctions. But at the same time, they spend much effort to gain visibility among potential offerors and solidarity workers.

The Future

During the pandemic, the German government continues to deport people to their countries of origin. There are no signs of stopping. Meanwhile, there are demonstrations almost every week in Berlin against deportations, racism towards migrants, and homelessness. Yet, neither the state-city, nor the federal state pay any attention to their demands. The mainstream media fails to report about these demonstrations. Personal interventions, demonstrations, petitions to support refugees, migrants and newcomers fail to have an impact. The question arises then what strategies and methods can activists employ to stop the deportations and subsequent homelessness?

Given that activists have been supporting refugees in Berlin for several years now and that they relentlessly try to mediate homeless refugees to secure spaces, one can almost understand the activities as a movement in itself.  But despite these efforts, the question remains as to how can refugees find a sense of permanency and a sense of belonging in a society, which remains so very hostile towards them? Will the people who arrive in Berlin ever feel safe and welcome outside of Berlin? Will the newcomers ever be able to enjoy natural spaces and the countryside in the same ways as their supporters do?

This text is based on the article “Supporting Searchers’ Desire for Emplacement in Berlin: Informal Practices in Defiance of an (Im)mobility Regime” that has recently been published as part of a special issue of Migration Letters on “Transnational (Im)mobilities and Informality in Europe” edited by Ignacio Fradejas-García, Abel Polese, and Fazila Bhimji.

Fazila Bhimji is a senior lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire with an interest in critical migration, racialization of migrants, self-exile and disappearances.

Reference:

– Bhimji, Fazila & Wernet, Nelly (2021). Supporting Searchers’ Desire For Emplacement in Berlin: Informal Practices in Defiance of an (Im)Mobility Regime, Migration Letters 18 (2), 189–199.