Minors with refugee and migration background

From Community Narrations

Name of Community[edit]

Ukrainian teenagers

Berlin, Germany

Socio-Economic Situation[edit]

Generally the families are dependent on social benefits and often live together with German host families. Most students know each other from previous German courses and have already become friends. Some have siblings who are also attending the classes and workshops. As the children fled from war and are not yet able to join regular school classes due to the lack of German language, they are still marginalized in the society.

Aim/s[edit]

While the intensive language classes in the mornings left only little space for the Ukrainian teenagers to unfold their creativity, the afternoon workshops aimed to let students get in touch with their inner creative voices. The pilot was a chance for them to find a voice by telling stories and therefore also have the opportunity to be heard.

Location[edit]

The pilot took place in a German school in the neighborhood of Wedding, Berlin. The district is known for its high percentage of people with a migrational background, primarily Turkish. Accordingly, the Willy-Brandt school has 80 % of students with a migrational background. The German students were currently in their summer vacation, leaving the entire school for the Ukrainian children. After weeks or months of switching locations and often small and cramped room solutions for language learning, the big space gave a feeling of having finally arrived in the German society. The students could get a glimpse of how it would be like to attend regular schools in the near future and therefore the location was highly motivational.