Ismail F. is proud of his children. The 38-year-old has five of them. There are the three-year-old twin girls, whose pigtails fly merrily as they laugh and romp down the long hallway. And the two sons, five and ten years old, who are sitting on the couch well, but have the mischief on their backs. Then there is the big sister, twelve years old, who talks about how much she enjoys going to school, which makes her mom particularly happy. After all, she is currently a student herself and is learning German at B2 level. A picture book family.
Ismail F. is also proud of the fact that they are not dependent on citizens’ money or other support services. “I’m like a German. I work and pay taxes,” he says – even if it’s tiring. He works at night for a security company in building protection. So he drives around houses and checks that everything is going well. He comes home shortly before eight in the morning, when his wife and their three older children leave the house. “Then I get the twins ready and take them to daycare,” says F. “Then I lie down.” For a few weeks now, the 38-year-old has often only had one or two hours of sleep before he gets a call. He then has to pick up one of the children because he has become sick. Daycare centers are real hotbeds of epidemics, as young parents know all too well.
But Ismail F. is satisfied, he wants to make an effort, belong and continue to build a fulfilling life, which didn’t start off easy – not even in Germany. Civil war has been raging in his homeland in Somalia since 1991, when Ismail F. was six years old. He grew up in a country ruled by violence. After F. met his wife, the first child was born and the second was on the way, there was only one goal: to keep the family safe and enable the children to live in peace. Ismail F. seized the opportunity to escape in 2013, even though he initially had to leave his wife and children behind. But the hope that F. would make it to Germany and lay the foundation for the young family’s dreams here gave his wife support.
The landlady in the first shared accommodation checked on them every day
Ismail F. was well received in Germany. He initially lived in shared accommodation. But he believes that it was easier for him than the many refugees who streamed into Germany all at once in the fall of 2015. In 2017, his wife and two children were able to join him. The family lived in a boarding house for the first few years. “We had two tiny rooms that weren’t next to each other,” remembers F. “That was bad.” There was neither a table nor a chair where the older daughter could do her homework. In addition, they were checked every day in a degrading manner by the hostess, “and the whole thing cost 2,300 euros a month.”
You can see his anger that fellow citizens are taking advantage of the needs of others and, in this case, the needs of the city. But fortunately the time in retirement is history. F. is grateful to have found a three-room apartment. In front of the block there is a large playground and also a bit of greenery. If only money hadn’t become so tight. “I now have to pay 250 euros for my weekly shopping,” he says. Before Corona and before inflation, he got by with 50 to 100 euros less.
Gasoline for the car is also becoming more and more expensive, which is why he wants an electric bike. A trampoline would be nice for the youngest children, the older two need a wardrobe. And yes, a trip with the family is one of F’s great wishes. “I would really like to show my children all of Germany.”
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