Reassurance as a Form of Support

By Alice Laubach

 
My time so far in Munich and with our NGO, a Jesuit organization providing social services to a migrant camp, I have become aware of  how much Germany has changed since I lived here. The population is much more diverse. I see many more women with their heads covered and hear more people speaking a language other than German. The interactions between these different communities, such as on the train or in the street, appear fairly friendly. From just watching daily life, residents of Munich appear to to have accepted these new members well.

On Monday, I was able to sit in while Ruth, a social worker at our migrant camp, held open office hours. From 1 until 4, Ruth made herself available to answer questions about documents migrants received, when the doctor would be available, and any other questions relating to the camp services or life in Germany. For example, two Syrian men came in with documents requesting that their updated ID, which they had not received yet, be sent to a German government organization. It was clear that they were nervous that the letter was saying something negative about their status, however, the letter was only reminding them that as soon as the new ID was received, they needed to send a copy back to the organization so that their case could continue to be processed. This type of reassurance made up the majority of our afternoon. Legal and regulatory documents can be challenging even in one's native language. I cannot imagine the additional stress some of the camp residents might feel when they receive an official letter that they can only partially understand but that may be communicating something life-changing to them. The individual meetings only took a few minutes at the most, however, the change in expression and body language after Ruth had explained the documents was very apparent. These small interactions between the residents and the Germans trying to help them provide another way to help them integrate into their new country.