Konversationsabend: Migranten sprechen

At our September meeting, Karl Moehlmann discussed this year’s summer news from Germany. As expected, immigration, refugees, and migrants are still very hot topics in present public and political debates. Countless talk shows, press releases, expert analyses, as well as discussions at private gatherings around the dinner table, in Italian ice-cream parlors, Biergaerten, street cafés, even on park benches deal with the issue. More than a million newcomers! How can the country integrate them? In most of these discussions, much emphasis is given to the reaction of the German host population, with opinions fluctuating between anxieties (schaffen wir das, wollen wir das?) and welcoming the foreign influx as a source of cultural enrichment (Willkommenskultur). It seems quite appropriate if we use the November session of the KA to turn our attention to the migrants themselves, to their feelings, expectations, anxieties, hopes and real experiences. Two of our members who came from the Middle East to Germany, stayed there for many years and then moved on to the United States, volunteered to answer questions based on the vicissitudes of their lives. As so many of us are migrants ourselves, just not from the Middle East, we might feel reminded of our own experiences and impressions when we first arrived in that foreign country where we feel at home now. We will begin the evening with a brief general introduction and then open the question and answer part of the session. A short list of possible questions will be distributed just to initiate the discussion. Both panel members asked – for reasons that don’t have to be explained – not to dive too explicitly into political detail. Refreshments will be served (including vino and aqua)