The sociologist Stephan Dünnwald has been dealing with flight, migration and integration for decades. Today the 58-year-old is one of three board members in the Munich residential and social project Bellevue di Monaco and also works on the Bavarian Refugee Council. The social cooperative Bellevue di Monaco offers refugees living space in three renovated houses on Müllerstrasse. There are numerous integration projects, information events and discussions there. During the conversation, Dünnwald sits in the info café of the Bellevue di Monaco, where refugees also work in the kitchen and in service.
SZ: Since summer 2018, around 40 people with a refugee background have been living in the Bellevue di Monaco residential and cultural project, including many young people. How difficult is it to get them into training or a job?
Stephan Dünnwald: That is essentially a question of immigration law. If the immigration office issues a work permit, you usually get a place. After all, the economy is desperately looking for workers, whether as apprentices, skilled workers or unskilled workers. Of the people who live with us, a few are doing an apprenticeship, some are going to school, and some are currently completing their German courses. One is just learning to be a confectioner at Rischart. He even wants to add a cookery apprenticeship afterwards.
However, the government often does not make it easy for refugees to find work. With the campaign “Let it work!” Bellevue, together with businesses and companies, has called for work bans to be lifted and access to jobs to be made easier. Has anything actually changed?
No. The state government has kept its tough stance, with many associations shutting down instead of speaking to the state government. But I assume that the new government will change something in terms of federal politics. It really isn’t that difficult to get people into training either. Sure, they need German courses. Many of us have an apprenticeship, and in many cases they are also taken over by the employer. But then they often don’t get their own apartment. This is a big problem, because it doesn’t give them a permanent residence permit. The city of Munich could definitely change something about this situation.
The corona pandemic has exacerbated the training and work situation for many people. Some became unemployed, others were unable to complete their training due to Corona and the lockdowns. What observations did you make?
We noticed the difficult training situation at the lockdowns, but many got through quite well. However, it was often hardly possible to follow the lesson on the mobile phone in a noisy accommodation. In the case of those already employed, it was mostly migrants who were the first to drop out. As a result, some have fallen back into social welfare.
The corona pandemic is particularly stressful for people who live in reception facilities or collective accommodation: Often all residents had to be in quarantine, even if only one tested positive. The result: no lessons, no job, plus the often excruciating confinement.
Yes, the quarantine policy has actually been a disaster so far. With every new case of infection, the quarantine is extended again and again in an accommodation, because there were actually difficulties. It would have been important that the people would have been quickly divided into smaller residential units and spatially more distant. Sure, the city then also rented rooms, but only after the fire had started. Dealing with the infections has now improved. But the situation in most of the accommodations has remained the same. Infections cannot be prevented there. For us this is also an important argument: that the city is moving away from collective accommodation and is moving more towards private housing for the refugees.
Bellevue was also affected by the long lockdown last winter and spring. The info café, where refugees also work, could not be opened.
They were all on short-time work. We got away with it economically, but with one black eye. It was also difficult with the advisory services. Somehow it worked digitally too. But it is of course difficult when people bring important papers with them to the consultation and you only see them on the screen.
One problem is actually the refugees’ poor technical equipment, whether for counseling sessions or school lessons. That is why the Bellevue now also has the “Refurbish for Refugees – Laptops for Refugees” project. How does this work?
We started this last summer – together with Caritas and a software company. Since then, the devices can be returned to us. Of course, many young people usually have a cell phone, but you can’t do everything with it. By the way, there should now also be introductory courses for working on the computer, for example how to deal with attachments and PDFs. When it comes to end devices, the city has actually taken good care of school children. But unfortunately it does not reach many. For example, there are many people who are learning German or attending evening school, but they cannot afford a PC.
In Munich in particular, there are also many advisory services, whether from the social department, initiatives, social organizations or associations. How are they accepted?
There are really many offers for people who live in Munich, including from the city. There is a strong network. However, this does not exist in the country.
What is your experience of working with refugees at the Bavarian Refugee Council with Munich compared to other Bavarian cities?
In big cities like Augsburg, Nuremberg, Regensburg, it actually works there. In comparison to other areas of Bavaria, you can communicate quite well with the immigration authorities in Munich. They also try to see how one can support refugees there.