What do you do when you arrive in an unfamiliar country, with few resources at your disposal, and want to settle in as soon as possible? You've figured out the public transport and the values of the different coins are becoming familiar, but where do you go to learn about the stranger, less tangible aspects of this new culture? And how do you help people understand you, too?
For all the coverage of how many refugees Germany has taken over the past year or so, we’ve heard relatively little about what happens once they’re past the initial resettlement period. We know that charities often step in to fill the gaps in care provision, including providing some schooling and food – but what about the more nebulous aspects of cultural integration? After all, language training and pamphlets giving information about road signs, laws and even gender relations are relatively easy to produce. Providing channels for both existing German residents and refugees to ask questions, and learn more about each other, is trickier.
Enter Yallah Deutschland. It describes itself as a medium for young people who are interested in the issues surrounding refugees to learn more, and as a form of journalism optimised for smartphones, which is designed to encourage a close relationship with its audience. The idea arose in an editorial meeting when a group including Dominik Wurnig and Khaled Ghazi, a graduate of the University of Damascus who arrived in Germany last year and now writes for Krautreporter.de, were discussing the difficulty refugees face in accessing information. “Refugees don’t get that much information here in Germany,” Ghazi explains. “As a refugee, I have a lot of things to do.”
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