Tag: migrants
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Finding Trauma Instead of Belonging: A Review of I Keep My Shadow Light
TL;DR “I Keep My Shadow Light” is the self-published debut novel by Fionnuala Kavanagh. This challenging work follows a cast of four characters from different backgrounds as they try to find a home in Berlin. Very dark in places, the book gives us a chance to read something that would probably never come out of any publishing house. Its uniqueness alone…
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The Good, the Bad, and the Arbeitsamt
Most places have an arm of the government to help folks out when they’re unemployed; governments like their citizens to have jobs and pay taxes. It tends to keep the governments – and the citizens – happy. There’s also the matter of not letting people starve in the street when they’re out of work. That’s usually frowned on and tends…
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“Treat Every Case as Your Own”: How Zaki e.V. Supports Berlin’s Overlooked Migrants
WHP: Can you briefly introduce Zaki e.V.? What is your main mission in Berlin? Pia Bergmann: Zaki – Bildung und Kultur e.V. is a migrant-led organization, with its main office located at the Berlin Global Village in Neukölln and another office in Pankow. The organization’s focus can be summed up in one sentence: arrival and inclusion through education. Zaki (ذكي) comes…
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Germany Has an Energy Crisis — Just Not the One You Think
Energy – scarcity.We talk about energy all the time—but only in physical terms.I find myself thinking more and more about our social energy, which may matter even more. Because a society also needs energy. This energy, I would call social energy—a concept that appears in the social sciences under terms like collective intelligence or social capital. Social energy = the capacity…
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Multilingualism, Participation, and Power: A Berlin Case Study
Local migrant organizations often play a crucial yet underrecognized role in shaping participation, representation, and social cohesion within urban districts. Based on my experience directing the migraUp! Pankow project in Berlin between 2015 and 2025, this reflection highlights how community-based initiatives can strengthen migrant organizations while simultaneously contributing to local governance and democratic participation. migraUp! was conceived as a capacity-building initiative…
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One In Four Berliners Cannot Vote: Europe Still Struggles With Migrant Political Participation
A recent report by the Migration Policy Group, a think tank based in Brussels, shows that Germany is among the best of the worst when it comes to enabling and encouraging the political participation of immigrants. Germany’s score in this is only a small part of the bleak findings from the report’s Political Participation Index, which shows that political participation and…
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