102 villagers, 750 refugees, one grand experiment
In the autumn of 2015, Germany designated the hamlet of #Sumte as a sanctuary for hundreds of displaced people. What followed was a test of the country’s deepest principles
The refugees are gone. About 80 have settled around #Amt_Neuhaus in Soviet-era apartment blocks, but the rest have left. Angela Bagunk, the innkeeper in Amt Neuhaus, tells me she’s sorry to see them go. She enjoyed the liveliness that descended on the town for a few months. “There were even queues at the supermarket,” she says. Her business also benefited from the influx of news crews, the reporters from al-Jazeera and Der Spiegel sneaking about the woodpiles. (“All these reporters, tigering around,” Schieferdecker had told me.) Now it’s quiet again.
I drop in on Dirk Hammer, who is busy in his workshop. He feels ambivalent about the camp’s closing. A year ago he had railed against Hanover and Berlin in Facebook posts that mocked politicians with no concrete solutions to the crisis. But he had come to be one of the most recognisable faces in town when the media circus descended. He was the bicycle man, a welcoming figure. Now he stops his work to tell me that what the area really needs – what no journalist will dare report on – is jobs: not the 60 or 70 that the refugee camp provided, but hundreds. It’s sad that the camp closure will mean the loss of work, he says, but where was the public outcry when Apontas moved away? “It has nothing to do with refugees,” he says. “We need jobs.”
▻https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/apr/19/102-villagers-750-refugees-one-grand-experiment
#solidarité #asile #migrations #réfugiés #accueil #Allemagne #renaissance #expérimentation #économie