Remember....I'm an American who writes for non-Americans, and I tend to be observing of events of Germany and where they lead onto.
So, you have X and Y......an immigrant couple from the Middle East, with some kid (of eight years old). They've paid 15,000 Euro and someone has gotten them through the Med, onto Italian soil, and onto a truck which hauled them into Bavaria. They get picked up by the cops, and taken to an immigration camp/center (pick whichever word you feel appropriate).
The story they will say is that they've been persecuted and tormented in the old country. They will show passports and announce their desire to immigrate into Germany.....now that they've arrived. The info will be filled out on a nine-page German form, and sent on for evaluation.
Weeks and weeks will pass....sitting quietly in a seventeen-square-meter room, within this immigration center. They get three meals a day. They get a cellphone. They get access to a computer terminal. They have a washing machine in the hallway of the center. They get ninety minutes of German language or integration training a day. Occasionally, they will walk around in the new land, with fourteen Euro that they've been given by the immigration authorities.
Their observations in the new land? The immigration center is crappy and barely heated. They don't understand why there's a guard at the compound gate. Various other immigrants come and go....some friendly and some unfriendly. Few speak your language, but it's not a big deal. The 400 words of English you know.....helps somewhat in communicating with the staff, but frankly.....this is all a bit harsh for the wife and kid.
As they wander around in the local urban area.....they've become shocked over prices for fruit, vegetables, and meat. They are further shocked at the fashion sense or skin showing on local women. They are a bit disturbed over the alcohol sold on the street, and the number of drunks that they've encountered. They are alarmed by the homeless people they encounter in local parks and the number of beggars they meet on city streets.
By the third month of 'captivity'.....the term that the wife now uses as they pass the compound guard.....there's a bit of negativity over this whole episode. No approval has come from the paperwork, and day-by-day.....everyone at the center seems more disconnected from the group and just worrying over their approval status (yet to come). A few people get vocal and angry.....after being told they failed the paperwork episode and must leave Germany.
Somewhere around the fifth month, you finally get approved....thus getting a chance to leave the center. Your next location? You end up in a town about forty kilometers away from the major urban area that you desired to stay in. It's a smaller town, and less commercialized. The town hooks you up with a forty-year old property.....two bedroom apartment....with the bare essentials. It's heated and the water flows. No car......just an allowance for bus tokens. They take you to the unemployment office where they fiddle with your background.
Basically, the guy has ten years of office background in a water company.....mostly just reading meters and handling paperwork. His education would be regarded as a German 8th grade accomplishment. The wife worked for ten years for her father's grocery. Her education would be regarded as being near a German 7th grade accomplishment. Neither have math skills beyond basic math, or science skills beyond average stuff you'd expect in the 6th grade. The kid? He's ten but if you assess where he is compared to a German kid....it won't be the fourth grade....maybe the third grade at best.
All three lack decent language skills. So, the state provides more integration classes and language programs.
The local school accepts the kid, but they don't really have special instructors for his language, and they generally (NOT to say in public or to the media)....regard the kid as an assessment problem. Almost an entire year will be wasted to get him up to a decent language level. He's not happy over the situation he's been put into, and comes home nightly....mostly grumpy and disheartened.
The unemployment office gets dad a job with the local grocery.....stocking selves and cleaning aisles. He wants more important work and thinks this is really women's work. The pay is marginal....but exactly what the grocery would pay a German who does the same work. Once this guy figures this out.....he's really negative because there's no way he can get the lifestyle he dreamed about.
The unemployment office gets mom a job at the local daycare operation. She shows up in a burka and it generally disturbs some parents. Five or six parents pull their kids.....no one says anything much but there's some negativity over the job and her being dressed this way.
The kid comes home and has homework that is beyond his capabilities to understand. To be truthful.....in the beginning....mom can handle this but a year later....it's beyond her ability. The school doesn't offer any tutor services....they just advise you to go and hire a tutor (like all the other German parents are forced into). Frankly, the couple doesn't have the money (like most German families).
A year into this new life....they finally own a car and feel somewhat attached to the apartment. It's a place which is kept up but not in the urban area of the metropolitan city that they dreamed of. Dad talks of moving to a bigger city.
Eventually, they move to the bigger city, and dad becomes a full-time taxi driver. He makes the same amount of money as he did before.
As time goes by....the family has accepted this new life but is negative over many aspects. Their skill and education will never get them ahead. The kid is in serious education problems within three years and mostly regarded as a loser by the teachers.
Luckily, the mosque is nearby and there's some kinship between the others who came into the country and fell into the same mess. They all meet....talk over the negative situation.....drink tea....and talk about the old country.
The kid will eventually get a job....low-wage type....pay income taxes.....attend the mosque....meet some immigrant-gal and try to find happiness (ever how marginal or meager it is).
So, to the three basic facts that the German government has missed. First, maybe it's awful bad in your original country and Germany might rate as a fine place to hold out until things improve. These people with this attitude.....will wait out a few years and later leave Germany, on their own will. Second, without real education or job training......all of these immigrants will end up with dead-end jobs....paying taxes....and whining just like Germans who were doing the dead-end jobs before. Third, each of their kids will fall deeper into a pit because the German education system wasn't developed to truly handle some substantial inflow of refugees and immigrants to this scale.
The accomplishments? You likely end up with unhappy people, who develop unhappy agendas....resting outside of society......and never going anywhere. Note, I'm not blaming anyone within the German government or society.....they built plan "A" and this is the best that plan "A" can run. But, what's the end result, and is it worth the effort?
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