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• Social and political resistance
• A historical summary of migration
• The daily deportation terror
• Survival in a controlled society
• The border regime and the hunt for "illegals"
• The illegalized and their political resistance
• Rejected asylum seekers
• Illegalized migrant workers
• Special topic - The illegal labour market
• Youth migrants
• Situation of Women
• Survival in community networks, the struggles of those without papers
• From Caritas to "Kein Mensch ist Illegal" - Support projects for illegalized
• Box 1: Wandering church asylum for Kurdish refugees from Turkey
• Box 2: Flight, self-organisation and the actual situation of Roma in Germany
• Box 3: Solatina - A new sun for each dawn - Manifesto of the "People without Papers"
• Box 4: The African self-organisation 'Voice'
• Box 5: Links and resources for illegalized persons in Germany
Social and political resistance
Nazim is "illegal"...
Nazim has lived for almost 10 years in Cologne, the last two years without a residency permit. He belonged to the Kurdish group of illegalized refugees who in 1998 initiated the first 'Right to Stay' campaign: wandering church asylum (see box). All important migratory phases of thse post-war time period are reflected in the history of Nazim's family. He was born in 1966 in Karlsruhe! That is because his mother Leyla came to Germany two years before under the solicitation campaign with Turkey. Years earlier she had left her Kurdish village behind, because repression was a daily affair even in the 1960's. For that reason she went in the end to Istanbul, after passing for a time through various places, where she received the offer through an intermediary agency to work in Germany. For two and a half years she assembled television parts for Philips but due to low wages she was able to save little money and in 1967 she returned to Istanbul.
At the end of the 1980's the repression of the Kurdish movement made its presence felt even in the larger Turkish cities. The family was always politically committed, and the son was forced to carry out military duty in Kurdistan. As the pressure grew larger, the family made the decision to send their son to the safety of Germany. Nazim arrived in 1990 with falsified papers and stayed with his uncle, who lives here as a working migrant for many years. In 1992 his mother followed, as an activist of Hadep she was repeatedly imprisoned. Finally the father himself was able to come. While the parents were lucky and received a positive decision regarding their asylum applications, Nazim had no luck and was illegalized... [back to top]
A historical summary of migration
In contrast to other European countries, migration to Germany is hardly marked by colonialism. To a much larger extent the German empire was dominated by a rigid, national definition of migration. And finally, the loss of World War II brought about in great part the loss of colonial conquests. A much greater role was played by wandering Polish and seasonal migrants, who above all during the time of the Kaiser-empire were exploited in the agricultural and mining sectors. The Fascism of the National Socialists came to a head with the German foreigner policies in the construction of a murderous and indispensable system of forced labor. Approximately 7 million people from all parts of Europe were literally worked to death in a wide-ranging control and lager system.
After the war, the so-called displaced peoples from eastern Europe, as well as refugees from East Germany, were absorbed into the post-war reconstruction program. The Federal Republic of Germany concluded the first "guest worker agreements" in 1955 with Italy. Such accords were then taken up with Greece and Spain (1960), Turkey (1961), Morocco (1963), Portugal (1964), Tunisia (1965) and with Yugoslavia (1968). At the end of 1973, when recruitment ended, there were approximately 2,5 million "working foreigners" registered in the Federal Republic of Germany, hundreds of thousands more were employed in the worst paid and most difficult jobs. Especially the proportion of Yugoslavian and Kurdish-Turkish constantly grew, the latter due to pressure of poor economic conditions and repression in their home country. While the formal, legal conditions for migrants from Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal with increasing EU integration improved, the way was blocked for further migration from Turks and North Africans still wishing to migrate. Nevertheless, more and more relatives joined their families in the Federal Republic of Germany; the Kurdish-Turkish community especially showed signs of growth.
"They looked for workers but they got people!" was an early cry of the migrants who throughout the 1980's and beyond began to swell in numbers in the cities and regions where the focal point of their work was during the recruitment period. Berlin already had in 1980 more than 110,000 Turkish nationals and ranked 23rd on the list of large Turkish cities! And in many recruitment regions a noticeable Turkish-Kurdish infrastructure developed: tea parlours, restaurants, travel agencies, markets, import-export stores and tailor shops, as well as organizations and political and religious meeting points. More and more migrants became independent, even though the majority of Turkish family stores can only survive through (self) exploitation. About 2 million Turkish nationals are living today in Germany. In brief: such well-developed communities and infrastructure created the basis for the illegalized to survive in Germany in the 1990's.
From the middle of the 1970's until late in the 1980's, the asylum laws were the only ones which allowed migrants coming from outside Europe a chance to receive residence status. In 1980, visas were forced upon residents of Turkey as well as other main countries of refugees (such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon), because illegal entry was not possible alone nor cost-effective, and the asylum process needed time in order to be able to find another form of residence status. Although deportation became more common throughout the 1980's, as well as new qualities of incitement and tougher laws which were combined in a racist campaign, in the 90's a nationalistic push for "German reunification", escalating the foreigner and asylum measures into a true terror of deportation, made things much worse. [back to top]
The daily deportation terror
In 1988 there were barely 3,000 deportations, ten years later the number is more than ten times greater! In 1993 there were officially 47,000, in 1994 more than 50,000 deportees were counted, and in the following years it has steadied out to approximately 35,000 who are forced out of the country. It is supposedly rejected asylum seekers and it is curious that in the normally precise German bureaucracy the statistics are not more clearly defined, who was deported and for what reason. Many migrants lose their residency permits because, for example, they were sentenced to more than three years for a crime, or because their residency permit was connected to their marriage partner and a divorce took place before independent residence status could be achieved (see also "women").
Such deportations, which are not carried out according to the laws of asylum but those regarding foreigners, are statistically compiled in just the same way as are the forced expulsions following raids and controls at construction sites, in brothels or at train stations. The so-called 'return expulsions' carried out at the border are deliberately ignored. And finally there exists a number of so-called "willing expulsees". Because of the threat of violent deportation and the year long prohibition from entering the country, many refugees, especially families, accept "willing expulsion". They cannot imagine living an illegal life and often have no further flight alternatives.
In all the Federal Republic of Germany there are often special foreign offices whose job is the implementation of deportations. Working together with the central migration police (BGS in German) and sometimes through forced presentations at the embassies, they are often effective in producing passports or passport replacements, the lack of which often proves to be an impediment to deportation. Almost all deportations are carried out by airlines under escort of migration police, and to a small extent by charter machines used for massive deportations to certain countries. For example, 30 people daily (!) are deported from the airport at Frankfurt.
In the majority of cases this takes place without a great amount of attention, because those affected often see no point in resistance after spending months in the deportation prison. Or in the case of resistance the escorting migration police make threats beforehand or quieten them down through beatings. Many deportees are tied up; that the authorities are willing to carry out deportations by force was shown once again with deadly certainty at the end of May 1999. Aamir Ageeb, a refugee from Sudan, who had already resisted his deportation various times, was escorted by three police escorts, who forcibly tied him up in a Lufthansa plane. They put a motorcycle helmet on his head and on take-off forced his head down to the ground.
Aamir Ageeb died by suffocation while at the same time, just as in the case of the death during deportation of Kola Bankole a few years before, the investigation was protracted and the officers responsible were never charged. State-committed murders are minimized as "unfortunate incidents", but they are in reality the consequences of a policy of using deportation as deterrence at all costs.
The Federal Republic of Germany holds the European record in deportations and in the time spent in deportation prisons. In controls, raids or even at the offices of the authorities, people are detained for expired, falsified or absent papers, while thousands more are locked up. In deportation prisons or in regular ones, those affected are held for up to 18 months in security detention until the necessary documents for a direct deportation following imprisonment can be carried out. [back to top]
Survival in a controlled society
Illegalisation became a mass phenomenon in Germany in the 1990's; an estimated 1 to 1,5 million people now live without papers in this country. This process has been accelerated in the sense that people are made illegal through stricter legislation. The decision to seek illegality means avoiding all contact with the German authorities to escape deportation. Living in Germany without papers is a daily struggle which can only be carried out over a long period of time by those who can count on a functioning support network.
That is because the historical German "sense of order" has a certain continuity; in no other European country does there exist such close observation and for the most part automatic control mechanisms. The registration of living quarters and place of work, health and social security numbers, the receipts for social welfare payments and car registration are collected and stored in such a manner that even German recipients of welfare support automatically have their benefits cut when they register a car. From centralized data registration regarding aliens in a central computer (AZR) to the archivation and information storage of local immigration offices which are also available to youth and social welfare authorities, right up to the so-called "Residenzpflicht" (restricting the freedom of movement of refugees to a certain area) all this describes only partially a racist system which is used to control the lifestyle and movements of migrants and refugees. Racist controls based on appearance, (checks on foreigners who do not look German) are part of daily life in the larger German cities.
Especially at places such as train stations or so-called dangerous (criminal) districts, migrants are continuously faced with identification controls. And for illegals it is not only impossible to rent living quarters in the normal way, find legal jobs or be taken care of in hospital; on top of that, they can be faced with the increasingly frequent "accidental controls" if the police become aware of the lack of a residency permit. Continuous residency as an illegal demands the daily willingness and endurance to live under these conditions. [back to top]
The border regime and the hunt for "illegals"
As new members of the EU, the East European States are increasingly forced to accept migration regulations, above all those related to the Schengen agreements. Apart from the militarization of their eastern borders, as well as the installation of a deportation system, the politics of issuing visas has taken on special significance. This is because many refugees and migrants travel quite legally as tourists to countries like Chechnya and first become "illegal" when they set foot on German sovereign territory. Those who are forced to make the illegal journey are those who want to come to Germany. In 1993 all countries bordering Germany were declared "safe third countries"1, special closed repatriation agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic assured the immediate return of those detained at a border crossing.
Tens of thousands of refugees have been detained in the past years by a a technical and highly militarized "Bundesgrenzschutz" (BGS - German Border Police). In 1998, 40,000 "seizures" were registered2, more than half on the border with the Czech Republic alone. Specially handled through a system of recognition and robbed of their money or belongings to pay for deportation, the majority of the victims, as far as refugees from Rumania or Bulgaria are concerned, are flown out from Berlin, or in the case of other nationalities simply given over to the authorities in Poland or the Czech Republic. There, deportation prisons3 await them, deportation to neighboring countries or directly to their countries of origin.
Approximately 60 deaths have resulted from refugee-hunting on the eastern border in the last five years. Many refugees have drowned in the border rivers of the Oder and Neisse, because in order to avoid detection they increasingly attempt to cross at dangerously deep points. In July 1998, 7 refugees from Kosovo died in an accident while travelling in a small car: the vehicle was being pursued by the BGS. More than 3 billion marks flow into the budget of the BGS, whose powers are growing year by year. BGS authorities are not only allowed to control anyone at all within 30 kilometers of the border but also at every autobahn, street as well as train and bus stations. A special concept of border supervision marks the situation today at the border. Flexible control points at major street crossings, and so-called "Schleierfahndungen" (veiled searches) deep into the countryside are now considered more effective than constant patrols along the border.
A central element in border control is the inclusion of the border population. Permanent agitation by authorities and media, equating border crossers with criminals, incites the already existing racism. The control of illegal migration and especially the "Schlepper" (trafficker, people who, sometimes for money, sometimes out of solidarity, help people across the border) is increasingly described as defence of the democratic order of the State.
Without doubt the BGS has established itself as a protective force (and the biggest employer!). Via a free phone number, all citizens are requested to report suspicious people; in some regions up to 70% of the detentions of refugees are through denunciation by local people. An atmosphere of denunciation now prevails along the borders. This is even enforced through legal pressure. This is shown by the example of a few taxi drivers who were sentenced to several years in prison as a deterrent. Essentially it was not the transport across the border which was condemned in court, but the transport from the border to the closest German city! The taxi drivers are now forced to give a code word for "suspicious people" to the BGS to permit the subsequent control of the vehicle. As a result of this, as shown in television reports, it is now almost impossible for people who do not look German to be picked up at all by taxi drivers along the border region. [back to top]
The illegalized and their political resistance
The quick rise in the number of irregular residencies at the beginning of the 1990's is the result of the package of tighter laws for foreigners and asylum seekers. Nevertheless, the people concerned are anything but a homogeneous group. What unites them is the fact that they have falsified residency papers or none at all. But the roads into illegality, their duration and the perspectives for migrants vary enormously. By the example of three large groups the situation can be more clearly explained: rejected asylum seekers, young migrants and illegalized working migrants. In a fourth part, the special situation of women will be treated, and finally we shall draw conclusions and give details of political organizations. [back to top]
Rejected asylum seekers
In the 1980's the number of asylum seekers rose dramatically, on the one hand due to increasing repression in the countries of origin and on the other hand because application for asylum became the only possibility to receive regularized residency permits, at least for a few years. At the the beginning of the 1990's, the situation was marked by the opening of the eastern border, and above all the escalation of the war in Yugoslavia led to a rapid rise in the number of asylum seekers, reaching almost 440,000 in 1992 and falling to 320,000 in 1993. In 1991, the first tightening of the asylum procedure laws took place, leading to camps becoming the norm for the accommodation of refugees. In this way, living conditions for women worsened dramatically.
But the real crunch came in 1993: by way of a change in the constitution, the right to asylum, historically based on Nazi persecution, was abolished. At the same time special procedures for airports were put into place which arranged for the internment of those arriving without papers until a quick judicial procedure reviewed their asylum applications. On rejection, direct deportation could be executed. To the above-mentioned a list of supposedly safe countries of origin was added,4 as well as a reduction in time for asylum procedures and the withdrawal of social benefits. This direct attack led to the situation that already by 1994 only 130,000 managed to arrive and apply for asylum, while in the following years tens of thousands were "legally obliged to leave the country" within a few months. An increasing number slipped away into illegality.
The success rate in asylum procedures lies between 3 and 6%; in the appeal process of the courts another 10 to20% receive the right to permanent residency papers. In fact, only people from certain countries have any real chance, such as Turkey (20%), while for other countries such as Romania or Algeria, the recognition level lies below 1%. However, migrants from these countries avoid making an asylum application after a successful, uncontrolled entry into the country; registration and quick procedures only present disadvantages. This is, alongside the militarization of the border, one reason why the number of new asylum applications has dropped to a yearly average of nearly 100,000.
Considering the situation described, many refugees are at least temporarily forced to go "underground". The possibilities to regularize the papers through a follow-up asylum application are completely limited due to judicial requirements. Programs of legalization in Germany do not exist, even though there are the so-called "Altfallregelungen" (regulation of old asylum cases) by which in 1996 about 8,000 refugees who could prove longstanding residency and employment received permanent residency papers. Occasionally, the period of being "illegal" is over and papers acquired through a postponed marriage or for the preparation of the continued flight to another country.
To be able to support yourself without papers demands, of course, a stable support structure and the possibility of work, income and access to "good", meaning borrowed or falsified papers. Correspondingly, refugees who come from countries with large immigrant populations survive in the shadow of the organized "legal" migrant structures, in spite of the strict control. This is especially true for refugees coming from earlier "Gastarbeiter" countries such as Turkey, Yugoslavia, or North Africa, above all in the West German cities which were the targeted destinations during immigrant enlistment. In many East German cities, illegals from these countries are confronted with incomparably difficult conditions. Asylum seekers who do not have the possibility of such a support structure are mostly left with the option of continued flight. It is similar for refugee families who just want to take care of their children and their schooling etc. but are confronted with insurmountable obstacles. [back to top]
Illegalized migrant workers
(above all from east Europe)
The fall of the Iron Curtain, as well as increasing integration with the west, brought about freedom to travel in the 1990's and the unification of East European countries with the EU. Polish, Czech, Slovakian and Hungarian citizens could enter the EU for up to three months without requiring a visa. Nevertheless, the possibility to work was not permitted and a violation of this law led to deportation and a prohibition of entry for a number of years. For that reason, people of these countries enter into quasi illegality as soon as they find work. Russians, Ukrainians and Romanians need a permit in order to enter the country. Only through invitation and so-called declarations of responsibility, meaning guarantees to take over all costs, could one apply for short term visas. More and more often these are denied by the German embassy, however.
Anyone who wants to enter a Schengen country must do it illegally. Anyone who overstays an approved time of stay, say with a tourist visa, will also be converted to "illegal" (a so-called Overstayer). With the exception of Roma refugees from the different East European countries, as well as deserters, it is seldom a classic political reason which forces people to flee to the west.
Considering the difference in earnings, for example 100:10:1 for Germany, Poland and the Ukraine respectively, it is understandable and justifiable that people resist such cases of exploitation and seek out better possibilities of income. Moreover, they come upon fast-growing communities which they can count upon for support, especially in stowns near the eastern border and in Berlin. In Berlin there are an estimated 100,000 illegalized, or quasi-illegalized because of work prohibitions, who are able to earn their living in this way. Many are forced into irregular work forms, sometimes temporary, sometimes seasonal, and barely overstay their residency permits or are able to avoid it, in order to re-enter the country on a regular basis shortly thereafter.
This so-called "commuter migration" has expanded enormously. Others, coming from further eastern countries, struggle through illegal from the beginning and save in advance, so that following a control and deportation they have enough money to return. Whether "completely" or "half" illegalized, the threat of deportation is always present. At the workplace these "illegals" have no rights. This means employers often do not pay the amount agreed or pay nothing at all, because they assume that the workers concerned are not able to defend themselves. Other problems linked to illegalization, such as health care, can often have serious consequences. [back to top]
Special topic - The illegal labour market
At the beginning it must be noted that the graduations from precarious up to illegal work blend smoothly and contain many grey areas in which employers attempt to cover themselves and authorities are willing to make arrangements. The explicit question as to whether and to what extent the situation of the illegalized is used, or even created, in order to squeeze workers to low levels of income cannot be clearly answered. In the first instance, we can assume that in certain employment sectors, the deprivation of rights and illegal work are the only way they can survive. Above all, construction companies and the farming sector, restaurants, cleaning and maintenance operations, the sex industry and domestic work (see the part on women as well as the article regarding domestic work) count among these sectors.
Private and state interests appear to publicly oppose one another. State authorities complain about the loss of taxes and see the hiring of illegals as a cover and as "fertile soil for further illegal immigration" and aim to channel unemployed and welfare recipients into the cheap wages sector. Unemployed and social welfare recipients create a front against "the hiring of illegals". They take over the logic of nationalistic labor competition and see the "illegals" as a threat to the social standards which they fought for.
Some functionaries even went so far as to demand investigative offices, and even as early as the 1980`s, offices to combat illegal employment were located in various labor agencies. In the 1990`s, raids increased, especially on construction sites. On top of that, at certain construction sites, so-called "Sonderprüfgruppen Außendienst Bau" (special surveillance agencies) were put into place. In that way companies were systematically controlled which had contracts with East European workers or whose headquarters were located in other countries of the EU. As a result of these raids, people without work and/or residency permits were deported on a regular basis, but it remains an open secret that at all large construction sites "illegal work" continues.
In many cities there exist 'work lines' permitted by authorities, where each morning hundreds of mostly East European men stand and wait to earn wages as day workers. Without visas or with tourist visas some of them have residency papers but no work permit. Above all, small and medium size construction companies declare in all honesty that their only way to remain competitive is through such flexible, cheap and often well-trained work forces. The employment of "illegals" is, at least in the construction business,unavoidable under the current (international) conditions and in some circumstances useful to the local economy.
A central thesis in a comprehensive research project regarding the situation of "illegal" migrants in Leipzig reads: "So as not to let things get out of control, combat strategies are put into place. These however are adjusted for 'economic necessities' and the legal and resource basis of the combating offices is not designed in such a way as to remove the lucrativity of the employment of foreigners in a serious manner..."5. And in this same context the basic principle of racist exploitation is justified: "In the end one can profit from the work force of the "illegals" without risking that for the workers or their families a long-term residency permit will become an aspiration."6 [back to top]
Youth migrants
Ever increasingly, young migrants who have either lived here for many years, or who were even born here, are faced with deportation. The legal basis for this is the toughening of the foreigner laws from 1991 to 1997, especially concerning Forced Departure, paragraph 47. Since then foreigners are forced to leave the country, when after committing a crime they receive a 3-year prison sentence or because of a crime involving drugs or a breach of the peace. For some migrants it is enough to be condemned for two years and on a breach of public order the accusation is itself enough! While the latter is directed toward intimidating political activists, such as for example the Kurds, to prevent (prohibited) demonstrations, the former explicitly targets migrant youths without German passports who have been involved in a crime. The law stamps them as "criminal foreigners", which serves and strengthens all the usual racist cliches. An immense media campaign against petty criminals projects them as serious criminals in order to create a favorable atmosphere for deportation.
Neither are the structural and social disadvantages of many young migrants talked about, nor the injustice of double punishment. While young people with German passports serve only half of their sentences for the same crimes, those without German passports are taken directly out of prison and deported: into so-called "countries of origin" to which they never belonged.
The new law of citizenship, which came into existence on the 1st January 2000 in Germany, has in its totality little to do with the announced reforms and in part toughens even the conditions for becoming a German citizen. A positive aspect, though, is that tens of thousands of migrant youth who have lived in Germany for the past 8 years will automatically receive dual citizenship. Although they then must decide at the age of 23 for one of the two nationalities, they cannot be forced out of the country for committing a crime.
Considering the above mentioned injustice this is surely an improvement: beginning in 2006! Because it is following this time that the new law for young people, who would otherwise be deported, will come into effect. For many of the today's 10 to 15-year olds the problems remain. They will be forced to struggle through illegality if they wish to continue living where they were born. [back to top]
Situation of Women
Refugee and migrant women are confronted with the same mechanisms of illegalization as the men, partly in families. On top of that, they must cope with the additional problems and specific forms of exploitation. In the asylum procedure, women's specific reasons for flight are as a rule not taken into account. Their political work is underestimated or their flight from social norms such as forced marriages or sexual mutilation are not considered as political persecution because it does not derive from the State. The possibilities for women to receive the right to stay as such are extremely low and many times the only option left is living without papers. From the background of dominating patriarchal structures which exists on all continents and in all cultures, many women choose specific forms of migration. In the search of a better life either for themselves or out of responsibility for families and children, often women are only left to offer their reproductive function as marriage migrants7 or, in order to secure wages, work in female work sectors: as cleaning, kitchen or domestic workers, as dancers or as prostitutes.
Paragraph 19 of the foreigners laws restricts the right of residency of foreign marriage partners for at least four years to the matrimonial relationship. An earlier seperation brings about forced departure, no matter what the conditions the legal union of the family/ partnership were, leaving the women dependent and at the mercy of the "good will" of the man. The hope in women's rights organizations that at the end of 1997 a new regulation in paragraph 19, which for women whose husbands mistreat and beat them would lead to permanent residency status, was hardly fulfilled.
The new regulation for hard cases only allows for permanent residency status for "unusual hardship," without fulfilling the time limit and taking into consideration the length of stay in the country. The "hardship" on the other hand is related to difficulties in returning to their countries. Physical as well as pyschological violence should play a role according to the law, but it must be "unusual" and it is often difficult to prove. Therefore women must endure unbearable marriages in order not to put their residency status in danger. By a divorce they run the risk of being thrust into illegality.
Increasingly more women from the Third World, some without residency permits, work as nannies, domestic workers or in cleaning or maintenance jobs. The jobs are hard, mostly poorly paid and often involve poor treatment or even sexual violence (see the article on houseworkers). Frequently many women, young and old, come with the status of au-pairs to Germany. Their residency is then assured for two years, but the normally high travel and intermediary costs can't be paid out of the low amount of money received. If they leave the host family or wish to stay for more than one year, then their only option is "illegal residency".
Especially in comparison to the low-paid domestic work, "prostitution is an especially lucrative working sector. The quick and well paid earnings only seldom prove to be true, due to the unhealthy conditions. The highest earnings are by the owners of brothels, pimps, intermediaries and others. Through this system, more than a million 'customers' pay for a prostitute for increasingly lower prices (...). In the brothel prostitution of Frankfurt approximately 1,500 women, 95% foreign, mostly from Latin America, Asia and Africa are employed. Many women arrive as tourists and in general have a 3-month visa. Employment is not permitted and therefore they work illegally"8. As intermediaries take up to several thousand dollars, and considering the horrendous costs of renting a room in the brothel as well as costs for doctors and lawyers, it is seldom that the money left over for the women is what they had hoped for. On top of that is the risk of police raids, which can result in immediate deportation. The illegal status worsens the situation of foreign sex workers enormously and makes them even more susceptible to bribes and exploitation.
Many women decide, in spite of the conditions, consciously for this form of labor migration. Often they are single mothers and hope to better their economic situation by working as prostitutes for a certain amount of time. Only few are able to realize such a plan. Some women cannot handle the living conditions which go with prostitution and quickly attempt to get out of the business. Illegality makes this step especially difficult. A clear border between so-called willing prostitution and matrimonial migration as a form of the trade in women is difficult to establish. The motivation of the women is not considered, and migrant and women's rights groups reiterate therefore the necessity of differentiated consideration. Many women are willing to taken on precarious living and working conditions and they help one another with their daily problems.
Their illegalisation does not only mean being without rights as workers and constant fear of deportation. Medical care is not provided, and abortion and care during pregnancy must be paid privately. Being taken to hospital is linked to registration and poses a risk to residency. With children it is even more complicated: private kindergartens which do not ask for residency status are perhaps still possible to find, if they can be financed. School itself is an enormous problem. Survival strategies for women migrants without papers set even higher hurdles. The search for a (new) matrimonial candidate with a passport, or continued flight, often represents the only escape. [back to top]
Survival in community networks, the struggles of those without papers
A large part of the illegalisation processes can be brought into place with the above-mentioned explanation. At the same, time the spectrum of those affected is fairly wide. Three examples:
- Foreign students whose residency permit is limited to their studies, but if they wish to stay after that period, will become "illegal";
- Family relatives of migrants who already reside here; such as parents, or a 16 year- ld child, who come with a visitors' permit and remain without papers, because their application to bring their families together has no chance of success.
- Finally, a large group of civil war refugees with only temporary residency, who come especially from different parts of ex-Yugoslavia, and cannot or do not want to return.
It is important to turn once again to the last group mentioned earlier in the historical part: Yugoslavia was an enlistment country, hundreds of thousands came in the 1960's and 1970's to Germany and many remained, until 1997 there were 1.7 million people from ex-Yugoslavia registered in Germany. Until 1992 (!) no visa was required for entry.
Tens of thousands of civil war refugees, from all regions and all ethnic groups, came to and continue coming to Germany, because here they have their families and friends, who can at least temporarily take them up and offer assistance. These very structures as a result offer protection and support, when it comes to avoiding forced expulsion.
And when in the next chapter the subject focuses on support projects, then proportional dimensions should be highlighted here. While in total a few hundred people find themselves in church asylum or refuge projects, hundreds of thousands(!) of illegalized men and women move about in their own circles of friends and/or families of their communities. In Germany as well, a network in support of illegals has developed out of need. In general they are very strongly orientated towards ethnic unity, and keep a low profile to avoid unwanted publicity.
Anyone who must travel into Germany "illegally" needs a good (borrowed) passport as well as a certain amount of knowledge regarding questions of control of the German border authorities. Alternatives are reliable, meaning proven, contact to commercial flight helpers (coyotes or trafficker/ Schlepper). Both are in general known to the communities, and migration chains exist to Rumania, Ghana, Kurdistan or Afghanistan, even if they are expensive and do not always function. As soon as the hurdle of unregistered entry is overcome, the people come into so-called "Erstanlaufstellen" (somewhat like community centers where the illegals receive support, advice, etc.) where they can orientate themselves, planned perspectives can be confirmed or time gained for further developments. Those who have lived in Germany legally for a long period of time and are then illegalized, are forced to rely upon such community structures. Solidarity, family responsibilities and commercial interests may blend into one another, such as loaning out a medical insurance card, taking care of small children or offering (low paid) jobs.
"A large portion, maybe even the majority, of the irregular Polish migrants can more or less successfully organize (at least temporarily) the life of irregularity in spite of the difficult conditions. (...) In order to make this possible, social networks are important which establish contacts in the search for work or housing and give support and help during problematic situations. (...)The networks can be constructed along commercial relationships and serve as illegal work intermediaries and/or facilitate good working conditions; they can also function however as social relationships or friendships. (...) Through not requiring a visa on return, problems caused by commuter migration are reduced, because the people affected can return to Poland in case of illness, the loss of a job or housing."9
In comparison to the example given of people of Polish nationality,for the refugees and migrants persecuted in their home countries, as well as work migrants from more distant countries, or where a visa is required, the pressure is notably greater. As illegals they struggle for their continued existence and better perspectives for themselves and their families. Many manage through "times of illegal residency" until an alternative appears, even with fewer chances and smaller corners to cut. One of those is marriage for protection. Sham marriages are increasing; often presenting a way out of illegality. In spite of all their attempts, it still remains difficult for the authorities to prove a sham marriage. Within the communities, marriages for protection are acts of solidarity (or of commercial interest) and are seemingly widespread. Many illegals manage to defy the 'control society' and arrange for their successful survival within the shadow of their communities.
Increasingly however, the struggle for survival of the illegalized, so to speak as the peak of the hidden social iceberg, has also found open, political forms of expression. Following the wave of resistance by the Roma at the beginning of the 1990's (see box), dozens of church asylums have documented the daily injustice of asylum practice. For the most part limiting themselves to the relegalization of individuals and groups or families, whole groups of, for example, Kurds or Nigerians10 organized themselves in confrontations in order to fight together against their impending deportation and for their rights of residency.
The wandering church asylum (see box), since January 1998, marks a new level in the public confrontation of illegalized people, while at the same time the long-standing agitation of the Kurds is concentrated on their own struggle and therefore has its limitations. Even more important is the project of the "Caravana" which began in 1998.
Until now it is the first and only time that refugees and migrants began a nationwide and lasting international initiative, which above all has managed to reach beyond the boundaries of countries concerned, and which makes resistance against deportation the central theme in the struggle against racism. Almost all activists are or were themselves threatened by illegality or deportation, prevented by public campaigns which have had vital importance.
With the beginning of the action of the Caravana, which in the summer of 1998, at the time of German elections, passed through 44 cities on a demonstration tour, through countless (5 language!) conferences, the participation in protests against the EU and G-8 Summits in 1999 in Cologne with a hunger strike, as well as numerous activities of the local committees, the link between racist marginalization and the participation in the creation of the situation in the home countries by western countries is made into a theme. A massive "Caravana Congress", whose coordination has been taken over by the African group "The Voice" (see box), could bring the process of self-organization an important step forward. [back to top]
From Caritas to "Kein Mensch ist Illegal" - Support projects for illegalized
When the saying, "The boat is full", brought about increased agitation against refugees in the middle of the 1980's and at the same time deportations measures were strengthened, counter-initiatives began to develop. In defence of the right to asylum, the organization "Pro Asyl" was formed as an umbrella structure for the "Landesflüchtlingsräte" (regional refugee advisory councils). The hiding of refugees threatened with deportation began with the first project refuge "Aktion Fluchtburg" in Berlin. And a militant action campaign by the, "Revolutionäre Zellen" and the "Rote Zora", attempted to emphasize social questions and migrant movements. Foreigner offices, data, courts and even Lufthansa were attacked, with impressive results. At the beginning of the 1990's, racism escalated with the pogroms from Hoyerswerda to Rostock and the toughening of the asylum laws, as well as the practical destruction of the right to asylum in 1993. The massive protests of a left-liberal spectrum consisted for the most part merely in candle chains as a reaction to the burning down of refugee centers.
The necessary connection with institutional racism was not or could not be made, and the mobilization against State policies toward refugees remained in large part limited to left-radical groups and had no immediate political results . With moderate perspectives and the further marginalization of left-wing autonomous structures not excluded, the support work stabilized in the last few years and has won seriousness and competence in many areas.
An intense European debate regarding the meaning of racist repression has played a key role in that process. On the other hand, the continued and progressive deprivation of their rights and the illegalization of migrants has demanded continuous projects. Finally, the protests and self-organization projects of those affected has made effective support structures even more important. In dozens of church asylum Christian groups have campaigned in favor of people threatened with deportation. The protection from the hands of the authorities is for the most part seen as a moral correction to the injust process of decision-making in the asylum process, and a multilayered critique of State refugee policies has grown out of this experience.
Even in many Caritas advisory offices, there is a dilemma concerning humanitarian support of migrants and "assistance in illegal residency". This criminalization threat remains and is especially aimed at (non-commercial) flight helpers. A judicial process against the church asylums has until today remained the exception.
More than three years ago, groups in Berlin and Hamburg (see list) began with medical help for the illegalized. Publicly announced as a protest against exclusion and made known to potential clients through flyers, such projects now exist in 10 cities; the projects have not been criminalized, but tolerated and serve as second class medical treatment. In some communities the church, even if indirectly, receive financial support for treatment of people without medical cover, and the homeless with German passports are also affected. The social advantages are in this case evident, so that even the German legalization madness provides for irregular norms.
In this field of tension, more specialized and professionalized advisory centres can and must be set up in order that the illegalized can visit them on a daily basis. "Agisra" in Frankfurt/Main, for example (see list of addresses), offers a team of German and migrant women who provide support for women migrants, rejected asylum seekers, domestic workers robbed of their loans, threatened prostitutes or those who no longer wish to continue to be such, divorcees...the set of problems of the women who lack or have a precarious residency status increasingly plays a central role, for it is more and more the case that illegalized women seek help.
Zapo (see list of addresses) a project in Berlin co-founded by the Polish social advisory service, is specialized in advisory offers for East European women. Existential difficulities which have to do with illegal residency or irregularity in finding work, are also of major concern. Both projects stress the denial of rights and illegalization on a political level, and both groups, alongside church asylums and other groups, belong to the signatories of the appeal "Kein Mensch ist Illegal", made public in June 1997. A basic principle is the demand for the right to stay and the freedom of movement for all refugees and migrants, and the concrete support for the illegalized is aggressively pushed forward.
Initiated by autonomous and anti-racist groups as publicity and network projects, this initiative has now been taken up in many cities as a sort of open structure; local advice and refuge groups, medical assistance for illegals and support groups for people threatened by deportation. A broader theme of the coordination of "kein mensch ist illegal" is the question of the practices along the borders. Action camps lasting one week were carried out in 1998 and 1999 on the borders to Poland and the Czech Republic, with the participation of hundreds of activists, and went on the offensive against the hunting of humans by the migration police and the local atmosphere of denunciation.
This positive commitment to humanitarian and anti-racist support projects can, however, only throw sand into the deportation machinery of the state, which is supported in large measure by a broad racist consensus in German society. In the short term, little will change in the distribution of power. At the moment we have only a series of weak points. These must be threaded together slowly and painstakingly to weave a network of solidarity. [back to top]
Activists from "kein mensch ist illegal" from Berlin and Hanau
1 All countries of the EU, especially Poland and the Czech Republic are since 1993 so-called "safe third countries". Refugees, who pass these countries have there to apply for asylum and they have no right to seek for asylum in Germany. Those, whom can't be proved through which country they came into Germany, have a right of a procedure with reference of the Geneva Convention (in Germany §51 of the foreigners law)
2 see the BGS- annual report 1998
3 A first detention center, only with rejected persons from Germany, was opened in November 1st 1998 in the Czech Republik.
4 Romania, Bulgaria but as well f.e. Ghana are in 1993 declared for "safe countries of origin". Persons from this countries can, if at all, apply for asylum only in the quick procedure.
5 Jörg Alt: Illegal in Germany, page: 420-421
6 see above
7 Family-reunion is one of the few possibilities for legal entrance into Germany. This is why many marriages between Germans (mostly men) and f.e. Asian women are arranged, by commercial organisations or through private ways.
8 Judith Rosner: "Women in the shadow of society", circular no.25 from agisra, may 1999
9 Norbert Cyrus (Polnischer Sozialrat/ polish social-council) booklet "Flightline Oder-Neiße", October 1997
10 In 1997 Kurdish refugees organized a hunger-strike in Dortmund. In 1996/97 there have been actions from Nigerians in Hannover, who are in church-asylum.
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