Social and economical connections with Refugedate. 2015
city. Germany
size. Urban planning project
The Project was done during my double degree master study program (IUSD) under the IRD module. The master plan was from Stuttgart University and Ain Shams University. The project was designed by Namariq El-Rawi, Mai Adel, Hadir Hawash, Nader khelifi, Marie Haibt, Salsabil Fahmy and me. The project was concerned about discussing the situation of the refugees in a particular camp in Stuttgart, to propose an intervention and implement a small part of it. In our case, the implementation was an urban gardening project in the refugee camp. The aim of the urban gardening is to help in empowering the sense of belonging of the refugees to the place they live in by caring for planting their food and herbs.
GAPS AND NEEDS OF THE REFUGEES
In order to identify the needs of the refugees an Analysis of different Facebook pages of refugees in Stuttgart was conducted. The size of the blue circles reflect how often the several needs are mentioned, the grey circles show whether or not there have been activities been going on in order to tackle the need(according to the Facebookpages).
From a broad research on all the different programs and their activities that are conducted in Stuttgart within the context of Refugees by different organizations, we matched them with the needs identified. What can be seen from the diagram is that the Freundeskreise programs are approaching the majority of the needs announced, that are related to everyday life in the refugee accomodations. While governmental bodies and charity organizations are focusing on accomodation, language education, job finding. It seems that child care is covered on several levels, by Freundeskreis as well as schoolauthorities and youth welfare office.
The question can be raised, whether tackeling problems on the level of the Freundeskreis is a way of solving a problem, or whether only symptoms can be treated. The need is produced on another level and can only be solved on that level.
Timeline of refugee’s journey
This storyboard shows all the stages a refugee goes through starting from the first entry to Germany till knowing if he will get the approval or get deported. The story is divided into main stages, highlighted every time on the timeline. This closer analysis is illustrated in the form of in between diagrams and explained in the text. It covers all the three aspects that are studied in this research (and will give a deeper understanding of not only what happens regarding each character but also in which stage does it occur in the refugee’s journey. The role of the different actors is highlighted within these steps so that it is always clear who is responsible for what. This storyboard is based on our findings and refugees‘ testimonials through the talks that we had with different cases we came across.
CONCLUSION OF THE SOCIAL ANALYSIS
At the beginning of the research, the aim was to find a way of bringing all the three topics together which are:
- The social connections
- The economic Connections and
- The programs for and with the refugees.
After undergoing the research and understanding the complicated situation of the refugees and even understanding the hidden situation behind the known, it became crystal clear that they are not three separate aspects. However, they are indeed incredibly interlinked together in cause-effect relations. They build on each other if one is achieved the rest will and vice versa.
It was found that one of the primary causes of most of the problems faced by refugees is the economic status especially here in Germany and the fact that they can not work except after a period of time.
This affects them significantly, without a job, they only have free time doing nothing. The excess free time and the long waiting can have psychological impacts causing them to suffer severe depression. However, here comes the importance of having programs and activities that could fill this free time. In case, these programs were not enough or were not tackling their real needs, they will continue in the same vicious cycle and will suffer from depression.
This leads to their isolation and the depletion of their social interaction, thus limiting the opportunities for integrating into the society. As a reflex, they start to become secluded and confined in their bubble. Also, they start to have lower trust in themselves leading to lower self- esteem and a higher sense of reliance and dependency on whoever could help them. Therefore, they start to become extremely dependent on the social workers and eventually on the system in general.
