Reclaiming Power as a Refugee

Refugees are expected to be silent, unflashy, and content with what they get. What they aren’t supposed to be is empowered

When a person has to flee his or her country and are looking for a safe life elsewhere, they turn from being their own person with their own character, from being a Syrian from Aleppo studying engineering or from being an Eritrean from Asmara who loves art and cooking into simply a refugee and nothing else than a refugee. They lose their uniqueness behind that label.

Most importantly: they are expected to be grateful. Grateful for the money they are receiving, the help from all the volunteers that are helping them with daily tasks and papers, and grateful to the state that took them under refuge. 

They are expected to be silent, unflashy, and content with what they get. What they aren’t supposed to be is empowered. 

They are not supposed to claim their rights; such as their children having halal food served to them in the school canteen. Or hiring a lawyer and disputing the outcome of their legal proceedings. Raising their voice for topics which they value.

By making their voices heard, refugees are fighting against a de facto system of power and oppresion that has been in existence for many centuries, reaching back even before colonialism and into the present in the form of humanitarian assistance. A core issues in this topic is the system of care and control as well as humanitarian control as a form of policing refugees (Agier, Michel. 2011. Managing The Undesirables. Refugee Camps and Humanitarian Government.).

Often citizens, politicians, and lawmakers of host countries consider good human rights activists to be “bad“ refugees.

The case of Daniel Mekonnen, a Human Rights activist from Eritrea living in Swizerland exemplifies how the good human rights activist can simulateneously embody the bad refugee. It is the entitlement and the reclaiming of power that seems odd to some. We had the pleasure of conducting a skype conversatiom with him in our course and were able to learn about his fight for human rights as well as his personal struggles as a displaced person.So what can we personally do so refugees regain their own voice and control over themselves?Ever since the topic of refugees in Germany came to the forefront in late 2015 and many refugees began to arrive, it spurred a personal interest in their plight. As a student of anthropology, a field characterized by a particularly inquisitive and open-minded student body, the topic was on the lips of everyone. I personally was wondering for a long time what the best way is to help refugees.First, I did what many „altruistic“ people at that time did in Munich, such as donating clothes or helping with the distribution of food. 
But after visiting seminars about the refugee crisis and humanitarism in university and following an internship in development assistance for refugees and migration, I knew there must be more I can do. Something that is not the one-sided aid and disembalance of power we always critisized in our courses.

 Therefore, in summer, I made my way to Palestine for a special project

The goal was to connect students from western countries with Palestinians, many of them living in the cramped refugee camps for the internally displaced. We would create workshops together, learning from each other. Each of us, Palestinians or Germans or Chinese, included our skills, teaching the others what they did not know before. The culmination of our work was a wonderful short movie about their home city, Nablus. What I learned was so much more than just skills in filmmaking - as you can imagine.

 

So, when I came back from Palestine, out of interest, out of the desire to communicate with my new friends in their language, and also in the hope of returning for an internship with my new language skills, I decided to learn Arabic.

This is when I came across the Refugee Scholar Forum, a forum organized by the faculty of anthropology to connect refugees and students within an academic framework, for language tandems and to go on cultural trips together.

Again, I immediately realized that this is not the one-sided power dissemblance where Germans teach refugees how to "integrate". The refugees’ German is infinitely better than my Arabic and I am sure the tandems, language-wise, are more helpful for me than the refugees themselves. But I'm also sure that they are happy to help me learn their language and get to know their culture better.

Last Monday, the members of the Refugee Scholar Forum were invited to Bellevue di Monaco, a cultural center and coffee shop in Munich for refugees and interested citizens.

The idea behind the workshop is to empower refugees and was conceived of by the photographer and artist Paul Huf. Huf encorages refugees to take pictures of each other and use this photography as a form of expression. The outcome is supposed to be a picture that represents the character of the refugee which is often overseen- not only the refugee in themselves- that they can look at, send home to their families, or hang up in their often unpersonal refugee accommodations.

Being a refugee is not a characteristic, but merely a political and legal status

Making those experiences, I realized more than ever that being a refugee is not a characteristic, but merely a political and legal status. 

This should not be a groundbreaking realization, but is often overseen. 

Once we, as non-refugees, are able to look beyond the simplistic paradigm of altruistic Westerners and poor refugees, and adopt a humanistic approach, I believe that we stand a far better chance of helping these people. And last but not least, we can make amazing friends.