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Three years ago, we started to interview refugees coming to Germany. We asked them about their life in their homeland, the reasons they left, how they came to Germany, their life in Germany so far, their problems, frustrations, hopes and dreams. Recently, we have started to interview the people again, to find out what happened since we first talked to them. How much progress are they making in building up a new life and integrating in Germany? What problems are they encountering? Below the interview we had with Ali Ghaznawi, who arrived almost three years ago from Ukraine, where he lived six years after having fled Afghanistan. His first impressions of Germany from 2022 we published here.
In 2023, I finished my B1 language course. After that, I found a small job, like as a volunteer. In an organization in Potsdam, as a translator, from German language to Russian, Ukrainian or Persian. For four or five months I was working with them. Then, I started to study B2 german language, and I finished it also last year. And after that, for a long time, actually, I was sick. I had problems with my neck here and also my left hand. It’s like a bone disc problem. Right now, I cannot work, but I have to. I have to find a job for myself. I visited many doctors. They said, I should make an operation. But I thought: no, I’m still young, I don’t want any operation. Then, I found another doctor in Berlin, I asked her to give me the permission, the paper for the physiotherapy. So, I went to physiotherapy like a couple of months. It helped. Now, it’s like it’s better than three, four months ago. Three months ago, I couldn’t move my neck. I couldn’t do anything. Now, it’s good. I think it was from stress that I got this problem. Sometimes, you get stressed for nothing, you know, just for no reason. But you’re thinking, you’re thinking, you’re overthinking. Therefore, I got sick. But I tried to remove the stress. I was a long time at home. Every day, I was watching movies, comedies, documentary movies, I was learning also, German. I’m trying to study C1 now. [ [in german] I would like to do that, because it’s very important. I live here in Germany, yes. I have to speak German well, and work here, and build up my life. That’s very important for me.
Three months ago, I couldn’t move my neck. I couldn’t do anything. Now, it’s good. I think it was from stress that I got this problem. Sometimes, you get stressed for nothing, you know, just for no reason. But you’re thinking, you’re thinking, you’re overthinking. Therefore, I got sick.
I’m still living in the same refugee home in Brandenburg, since two years now. I’m searching for an apartment, but it’s very difficult. The apartment owners, most of them don’t want to work with the Jobcenter. If I’m going to find an apartment and if I don’t have any income, the Jobcenter will pay for the rent monthly. But it’s difficult to work with Jobcenter because sometimes they are paying the rent at the end of the month, sometimes they are paying at the beginning or in the middle of the month. So the owners of the apartment, they don’t want this. Therefore, the owners, they’re asking, if you‘re working, to show them your job contract, and then they will give you the apartment. Or if you’re doing like an Ausbildung (vocational training) here, through the Ausbildung, you can find an apartment, then it’s okay. So the problem is that people are waiting here for a long time, for everything, it’s because of the bureaucracy.
In the refugee home, I feel, like I’m at home. We are two people in my room, with someone from Afghanistan. Yeah, we have a lot actually of Afghan single guys in our home. Some of them are working. Some of them are studying the German language. Some of them are just like sleeping at home. Sometimes people they are telling me oh, you are since more than two years here. Why you are not going to find an apartment? I’m telling : oh, it’s good for me. It’s good now. Because I met new friends. Sometimes we are cooking our Afghan food together, we are gathering together like playing chess. So I have like a community there. Most of the time like during the evenings we are meeting. So I’m going to their room because their room is much bigger than ours. There, there are also two people. So we are cooking, eating, listening to music. Sometimes we are dancing. Just making a good time because here a lot of people have stress. For example, the guy I’m talking about, he is married. His wife and child are in Afghanistan. He is thinking like somehow they also should come to Germany. But it’s difficult for now because he should wait for his documents. He still doesn‘t know like if he is getting a positive from the BAMF or a negative. Because it happens, most of the time I saw a lot of people they got negative from BAMF. Then most of them they are appealing, and then they have to wait another couple of years. Yeah, the government, they’re still talking like, okay, how can we send them back? But some people are integrated here. They are working. And it’s very dangerous to go back. I cannot even think about that. It’s very dangerous in Afghanistan.
most of the time people got a negative from BAMF. Then most of them they are appealing, and then they have to wait another couple of years. Yeah, the government, they’re still talking like, okay, how can we send them back? But some people are integrated here. They are working. And it’s very dangerous to go back. I cannot even think about that. It’s very dangerous in Afghanistan.
I have no contacts in Afghanistan. My family, they are scattered all around he world. Some of them in Europe. Some of them are in the United States. Some of them maybe in Canada. But I have no contact actually with them. Since more than 10 years I have no contact with anyone.
Actually, I’m a web designer and graphic designer by profession. And I want to work or do it independently. Maybe that’s difficult in Germany. I’m trying now. I sent a letter to the Jobcenter, and i’m waiting for an answer and an appointment. Then if it works, I’ll do an online business. And then I get customers to build websites. So that’s actually my life. I already did that in Odessa, in the Ukraine, I had my online business. Now I want to have it again. But here it’s a bit difficult. As a freelancer, I have to sign up for a business. And then I have to pay a lot of taxes, and insurance and so on. It’s difficult, but I like it. I’d like to have my own business. So this is my priority now. But I’m still waiting, because I got a paper from Agentur für Arbeit (Employment Agency), that I must first become healthy. After that I can work. But I can, I’m doing some of my designs at home, and building my own website, making a business plan, like maybe three hours a day. But I’m trying to have a rest most of the time, to go outside when the weather is good, or to go to the library and read a book. It gives me positive thinking.
I haven’t left Germany since two years, since I arrived. But, like four months ago, before I got sick, I traveled from Berlin to Hamburg using my Deutschland ticket, taking regional trains. It took a lot of time. First I traveled to Hamburg, and I met my friend from Hamburg. He’s also from Afghanistan. So we traveled together to Saarbrücken. It was a good trip, actually, we had food with ourselves, like drinks, yeah. We visited a lot of interesting cities through our trip : Saarbrücken, Koblenz. Wow, Koblenz is really beautiful. It was a good experience for me, to travel with the regional train around Germany.
There’s a lot of restrictions here now in Germany. A lot of police officers are there to control the security situation.Two years ago it was not like that. Now unfortunately it’s… I don’t know, I have no comments on that. It’s dangerous for some people to visit Berlin. Sometimes, when I’m going to Berlin. I see a lot of… I don’t know where they’re from.They’re not for sure Germans, for sure they’re not Afghans, for sure they’re not Arab people. I don’t know, like gangsters… I don’t know, they are aliens from another planet? With a very strange style.But it’s very good that police officers have good control.It makes me very happy. They are working very hard. When I see there are police officers, then I feel comfortable. It’s good.
Germany is good. You have a lot of people from a lot of countries here. Especially in Berlin. It’s a multicultural country. It makes Germany very beautiful. Everywhere you are passing by the streets, you hear a new language. To be integrated in this community is very important. It’s important as food, as water, as oxygen. Because we are living here. We have to study, to learn this language. It helps a lot. I know some guys in our Wohnheim. Last year they were not learning german. But this year they started to learn. Because I talked to them actually. „Hey, do you plan to live here in Germany forever? Yes. So why are you not learning the language?“ It’s important to learn the language because you want to stay here. If the government says that this person is not integrated, then you have to leave the country. The government has the right to give you a negative answer and to warn of the deportation. Because the first thing when you’re entering this country is you’re receiving a paper permission to go to an integration course, to learn the language. And it’s very important. If you’re not following this rule, it would be very difficult to receive your documents here in Germany. But these guys, they know now. Yeah, I helped them a lot to go to the doctor to translate for them… But from a point, I stopped helping them. Because I was trying to force them to understand that without language, you’re no one here. You cannot do anything in your life here. I know a person, last year, he was just sleeping at home. But now, like a few months, every day, like early morning, he’s waking up, he’s grabbing a book, a notebook, he’s just reading and writing and listening the German language. It’s very good. It makes me actually very happy.
I helped them a lot to go to the doctor to translate for them… But from a point, I stopped helping them. Because I was trying to force them to understand that without language, you’re no one here. You cannot do anything in your life here. I know a person, last year, he was just sleeping at home. But now, like a few months, every day, like early morning, he’s waking up, he’s grabbing a book, a notebook, he’s just reading and writing and listening the German language. It’s very good. It makes me actually very happy.
Sometimes they’re telling me that in the refugee camp, that I should stay there to help the people. Like, if you know something about German language, at least just one hour a day, just organise a speaking club. We have a room there, it’s empty, we can use it. We can gather people, talk together about different topics in German. But because I was sick, I didn’t do that. But as I know, like I can speak, I can speak to them. I can show them how not to be afraid of speaking. Some of the refugees, they are not learning the language, because they are afraid talking in front of other people. So they need someone to show the way or to show the method how to speak to the people. So I was the same when I was in Afghanistan. I had a fear of talking in front of other people. But I pushed back my fear. Then I found my way. Somehow we need to put our shy in our pocket sometimes and just to be brave to speak, to do something.
Well, for me, it was very good. In these two years, I did a lot of things. The first thing, I got a blue travel document that I got from the German government [for political refugees]. Not a lot of refugees are getting the paragraph, like political refugee paragraph in Europe, actually in Germany, only 12 or 13% get it every year. So, it shows that it’s difficult somehow to prove yourself to the government. So, this was the thing that I was waiting for. So, 2023 was very good for me, because I got my travel document, my integration course certificate and also „100 hours of living in Germany“. I was expecting only to get these documents in 2024, but I got them earlier. Therefore, I’m telling you that, okay, if you’re everywhere, not only in Germany, everywhere, if you’re living somewhere, if you have a plan in your life and you’re fighting for your plan, then don’t have a doubt, never. I was praying, I was fighting for my plans, in these two years I got like the things that it’s worth, it’s for me like, for my lifetime, the whole life. And this year, I am fighting for my online business. And I’m sure that I will do it, it’s not a big deal for me. I already did it in the Ukraine, I was there for many years. Then the war started unfortunately, and I had to leave the country. When I came here in Germany, I didn’t think actually, okay, I’m going to start from zero, no, I didn’t start from zero, I restart everything, with a new version of life, with new opportunities, but with more experience on how to learn a language, how to integrate myself in the community, how to start my business, how to communicate…. So now I have German friends here, easily I contact them, I communicate with them, I visit them …
I’m telling you that, okay, if you’re everywhere, not only in Germany, everywhere, if you’re living somewhere, if you have a plan in your life and you’re fighting for your plan, then don’t have a doubt, never.
People are saying it’s difficult to make German friends, but it’s not difficult. I visited some language cafes in Berlin, in Potsdam, and I met German friends easily. You just try to contact with people, people are not escaping from you. Just, I’m very, like, I feel myself like I’m very open to the people. It’s very easy, yeah.
Sometimes I’m thinking, that there should be a method to bring the refugee community together. We have a big refugee community in this town, but they are not joined together. They are quite separated from each other, like there is an Afghan refugee community, a Ukrainian community, a Russian, Arab, African … They are separated. I don’t know why, maybe the integration system is not very good for the refugees. Yeah, there should be some way to connect them, you know, to connect them to be just one community, a refugee community, not separated. The goal of the community is to improve each other’s ability. I believe that everyone has an ability. So, I have an ability to communicate with people. For example, you have an ability to bring people together. For example, you have an ability to bring, like, children together, to play with children, like, to make them happy. So, everyone has a good ability inside, but it’s sleeping because the community is not together. There should be some way, but I couldn’t find here. I didn’t see here.
In Odessa, we had a refugee community. We had an organization, United Youth. We gathered together sometimes. We had workshops, seminars, like speaking clubs, like English-speaking clubs, Russian-speaking clubs, Ukrainians … We had also some presentations about culture. Like, how is the culture in Afghanistan? Because people and on the internet, they only talk about the war. We made slides, We invited people, like they were Russians, Ukrainians, like from other refugee communities. Culture is like, it’s the last thing that’s discussed about Afghanistan, and it‘s so important. So we make a presentation to show : okay, apart from the war, we have a lot of things. Afghan food, dress, ressources etc… So, therefore, always I’m telling that Afghanistan is the richest country in Asia. But the poorest people in Asia. So, we have a… Our country is rich, actually. We have a lot of things.
I couldn’t find any kind of these kind of organizations here. Neither an Afghan community, or a refugee community. I think there is nothing here. Or maybe there is, but they don’t have, maybe they don’t have too much time to bring something to the community. Yeah. I was trying to find some of these communities. But, you know, it’s about life also here. Because people should go to work. A lot of Afghan people here, they are working. They have to work, they have to support their families in Afghanistan. They have to send them like financial aid, because in Afghanistan the situation economic, political, security … it’s very bad. Women are not allowed to go to work, to study, to go to university. So the girls are allowed to go to school, only up to sixth class …This is very, it’s very dangerous for a community. Therefore, Afghans that are here, they are trying to work, earn money, and send something in Afghanistan to support their families, because their families are jobless in Afghanistan. So they don’t have time, actually, to think about the community here, about the improvement…
A lot of Afghan people here, they are working. They have to work, they have to support their families in Afghanistan. They have to send them like financial aid, because in Afghanistan the situation economic, political, security … it’s very bad.
I think we are lost in our lives because we don’t know what is coming next for Afghanistan. It is now three years the Talibans are back in Afhganistan. In these three years, no one is happy. Every single person, they want to escape from Afghanistan. Because the important thing is security. If there is no security, there is no work, no income … there is no life. As I know, people are thinking, if the Taliban, like, okay, if someday the Taliban is going out of Afghanistan, still no one is going. Still. Still nobody’s going back. You know why? Because no one has the hope anymore there. No one. Because it’s about the soul of a person. I’m here, and my soul is in my homeland. Yeah. So I cannot stop thinking about my own country, about the place that I was born, yeah? It’s very difficult. If your soul is not feeling comfortable in your own homeland, then you don’t want to go back to your country where there is still war. You don’t know what will happen, like, to your family, to yourself, and to your job, to your work, to your economy. Therefore, no one, nobody is going back. Believe me.
But I don‘t think it makes it easier to integrate here, knowing that you will never go back. To feel yourself belong to the community that you are new here, it’s also very difficult. I think that people are very dependent on their communities, they are group animals. And leaving it, it always comes with stress, with the feeling of loss, of loneliness, of people not really understanding who you are, where you came from. In Afghanistan, I had a… So we were a big group of friends. Now, one is in Germany, one is in Canada, one is in France, one is in another country of Europe … Sometimes, yeah, we are calling each other, but all of us are somehow stuck in our life, work, study, plan, these things. Because it’s not our homeland. It is our second home. It is our second heart. But we need to somehow… We have to feel ourselves comfortable here. We don’t have any other options. So this is the only option, to stay, and to accept this. That, okay, you are a refugee. You are here to make your life and to go ahead, just to go ahead.
I think that people are very dependent on their communities, they are group animals. And leaving it, it always comes with stress, with the feeling of loss, of loneliness, of people not really understanding who you are, where you came from.
You don’t have any other options. Yeah, unfortunately, unfortunately, in Afghanistan, there is no more life. There is just living. Every day, day by day, there is no life anymore. So life is something else and living is something else. Here in Europe, European people, they have life. In Afghanistan, we are just living. We don’t feel life. Because life, it comes with hope. When there is no hope, there is just living, not life.
Yeah, unfortunately, unfortunately, in Afghanistan, there is no more life. There is just living. Every day, day by day, there is no life anymore. So life is something else and living is something else. Here in Europe, European people, they have life. In Afghanistan, we are just living. We don’t feel life. Because life, it comes with hope. When there is no hope, there is just living, not life.
But I have accepted here that, okay, this is my second home, and I must do my best here to improve first myself, and then maybe if I have the opportunities or if I have the abilities to, help other people. So helping other people, it makes me really happy. When I help someone, sometimes I am thinking that, okay, we are here in this world to accomplish a mission. Sometimes I am thinking, maybe my mission is helping other people. Maybe we can make a community, a refugee community with some activities. Some refugees, they lost their ways there. They don’t know where to go. They don’t know how to start. I would be very glad to help these people.
So helping other people, it makes me really happy. When I help someone, sometimes I am thinking that, okay, we are here in this world to accomplish a mission. Sometimes I am thinking, maybe my mission is helping other people. Maybe we can make a community, a refugee community with some activities. Some refugees, they lost their ways there. They don’t know where to go. They don’t know how to start. I would be very glad to help these people.
In Afghanistan, I also did voluntary jobs with the UN, with some projects that were supporting children. In Ukraine, I also did volunteering. Also here in Germany, for a few months, I was a volunteer translator. It was very good. Every time I had appointments with people, they had appointments with doctors in the hospital or somewhere else. I was helping them. After that, I was very happy. I did something positive for someone.