WahlheYmatPost: Can you briefly introduce your organization? What is its main mission in Berlin?
Vicky Germain: The Migrationsrat Berlin e.V. (Migration Council Berlin) is an umbrella organization of more than 90 BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and/or migrant self-organizations and post-migrant groups in Berlin. Its central mission is to improve the social, political, and legal situation of migrants living in Berlin – regardless of nationality, religion, age, social status, disability, gender, sexual orientation, or educational background. We are working towards a good, just and dignified life for everyone who lives in Berlin.
Our work focuses on political advocacy, community empowerment, critical policy and legislative analysis, and building concrete support structures for people who are frequently excluded from existing protection and participation systems.
My main responsibility within this work is political and practical advocacy for BIPoC migrants from Ukraine and their families. This includes individual case counseling and support, as well as monitoring and critically assessing how the EU Temporary Protection Directive (EU 2001/55/EC) is interpreted and implemented in Germany. I work to ensure that racialized migrants are not excluded from protection mechanisms that are meant to apply universally.
WHP: What personally motivated you to get involved?
Vicky Germain: When the war began, I originally planned to volunteer at Berlin Central Station for no more than five weeks. As a Black third-country national, I was deeply shaken by the treatment of Black non-Ukrainian third-country nationals who were trying to flee the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Based on my own experiences as a Black migrant in Berlin, I could anticipate how their reception here would unfold — and I felt compelled to intervene.
It soon became clear that my experience and skills as a coordinator in emergency relief could be helpful. At the same time, it became evident that the extraordinary, spontaneous support from people across different walks of life — as impactful as it was — needed stronger coordination and structure to be sustainable in the long term.
Five weeks became nearly four years. What began as emergency assistance developed into a medium-term and eventually long-term commitment in the context of displacement, bureaucracy, exclusion, and structural racism. It was an extraordinary opportunity not only to support people upon arrival but also to accompany them throughout their settlement and new beginnings in Germany.
In many ways, I am now providing the kind of support I wish I had received when I first arrived in this country. It is empowering — not only to advocate for migrants like myself, but also to see directly how this advocacy and care work improves people’s real, everyday lives.
WHP: What challenges do people with a migration background face in Berlin — and how does your organization address them?
Vicky Germain: People with migration histories in Berlin face a wide range of structural and everyday challenges. These include discrimination in the housing and labor markets, limited access to adequate healthcare and psychosocial support, language barriers, complex and often arbitrary bureaucratic procedures, as well as growing societal hostility fueled by right-wing political narratives.
For many, insecurity about residence status, work permits, and family reunification results in constant instability. Racialized migrants are particularly affected by heightened surveillance, exclusion from protection systems, and restricted access to integration services.
The Migrationsrat Berlin responds to these challenges through a multi-layered approach: we provide individual case counseling, legal and bureaucratic orientation, political education, and community support. At the same time, we conduct structural advocacy and work with institutions to ensure that systemic discrimination is recognized and addressed. We strengthen migrant self-organization, bring migrant voices into political processes, and build alliances — with the aim that migrants are not merely “integrated” but actively participate in shaping the society they live in.
WHP: Do you have a project, event, or initiative coming up that you would recommend to our readers?
Vicky Germain: As part of the Communities First project, a new podcast series has recently been launched that highlights the experiences of non-Ukrainian third-country nationals who fled from Ukraine to Germany — told from their own perspectives. The stories are direct, personal, at times humorous, painful, and deeply thought-provoking.
The series encourages listeners to question dominant narratives of “welcoming culture” and invites reflection on humanity, solidarity, racism, and belonging in times of crisis and politically controlled migration.
The podcast can be found on YouTube at @cusbu.
Listen. Like. Subscribe. But above all — reflect.
WHP: How can interested people support your work or get involved themselves?
Vicky Germain: We are grateful to have been able to continue this work for almost four years now. Without the financial support of the Berlin Senate, CUSBU: CommUnities Support for BIPoC Refugees from Ukraine would not have been possible. The CommUnities First project also allowed two displaced persons from Ukraine to implement an empowerment project in Berlin Mitte – supported by the Integration Fund Mitte.
However, funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion is currently shrinking — and we are also affected by these cuts. Without new financial support, we will have to end our small but essential projects on 31 December 2025.
The most direct form of support is to donate to the Migrationsrat Berlin as well as organizations and projects that work for diversity, justice, inclusion, and migrant rights.
If financial support is not possible, there are still meaningful ways to act in solidarity: write to your elected representatives. Tag political decision-makers on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Threads, or Facebook. Draw attention to projects like ours and demand that they continue.
We need less suffering on the streets of this city. The Migrationsrat Berlin and its partner organizations work every day to reduce this suffering — through projects such as CUSBU, CommUnities First, i-PÄD, ComE-In, Härtefallberatung (hardship case counseling), and many others.
Solidarity is an action — and every action counts.
