• Migrants Arriving in Germany Face a Chaotic Reception in Berlin
    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/world/europe/germany-berlin-migrants-refugees.html?_r=0

    For two decades, Germany has sought to streamline its government, and nowhere has this been more visible than in Berlin. After the East and West sectors of the city were fused in 1990, its public work force was at 200,000. The city set out to halve that number, spinning off some services and downgrading others, so that by 2004, the number of employees had shrunk to 149,000.

    Even as the population grew, the number of city employees continued to drop. A decade later, there were just 117,000 of them, and those who remained complained that their ranks were too thin to provide needed social services to Berliners.

    At the same time, inexpensive rents, extensive public transportation and the image of Berlin as one of Europe’s hippest cities drew thousands of newcomers — 175,000 from 2011 to 2014. City planners had projected that Berlin would have another 175,000 arrivals over the next 15 years, but that estimate did not account for the thousands of migrants.


    Those who know the situation best — the volunteers who donate their time and energy to feed, clothe and counsel the new arrivals — worry that city administrators are failing to ensure the migrants’ welfare.

    “We need to work hard, otherwise we will see the first people dying of cold,” said Victoria Baxter of Moabit Hilft, an organization formed over the summer to help asylum seekers left waiting for hours in the sun without sufficient water or food.

    Berlin’s role as a city of refuge has dominated much of its post-World War II history. West Berlin served as a haven in the heart of East Germany for people fleeing communism, predominantly in the 1960s; for Tamils escaping civil war in Sri Lanka in the 1980s; and for pacifists from West Germany seeking to avoid compulsory military service.
    ...
    “Nowhere else in Germany is this a problem — every other city manages to find everyone a roof over their heads,” Ms. Mandeau said.

    “This is not a refugee crisis,” she said. “This is an administration crisis.”

    #Allemagne #Berlin #réfugiés