raestudy eng web

8/8/2019 RAEstudy Eng Web

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/raestudy-eng-web 1/94

unite for children

A report on the situation of Kosovan Roma,

Ashkali and Egyptian children in Germany

and after their repatriation to Kosovo

Integration Subject to Conditions

UNICEF Kosovo and the German Committee for UNICEF



2

Please cite this report as ollows:

Verena Knaus, Peter Widmann Integration Subject to Conditions - A report on the

situation o Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children in Germany and ater their

repatriation to UNICEF Kosovo and the German Committee or UNICEF, 2010

The ndings, interpretations and conclusions set out by the authors in this report do notnecessarily refect the ocial position o UNICEF.

UNICEF, the United Nations’ Children’s Fund, is charged by the UN General Assemblywith the protection o children’s rights worldwide, so that every child may enjoy a goodupbringing and personal development commensurate with their abilities. In Germanytoo, UNICEF works to champion children’s rights – or greater children’s participation andequality o educational opportunity, against child poverty and social exclusion.

Further inormation:

UNICEFAli Pashe Tepelena, No. 110000, Pristina, KosovoTel. +381 38 249 230Fax +381 38 249 [email protected]/kosovo

Photography:Thomas RommelDesign: www.xhad.net



3

ContentsList of Acronyms .................................................................................................... 5

Foreword ................................................................................................................ 6

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... 9

Findings of the Report ........................................................................................ 11

1.Introduction ....................................................................................................... 15

1.1Occasio ad objectie o the report ........................................................................ 15

1.2Methodolog ............................................................................................................. 16

2.The Situation in Germany ................................................................................ 19

2.1Kosoa Roma, Ashkali ad Egptias i Germa .................................................. 19

2.1.1Local stdies ..................................................................................................... 19

2.1.2Labor migratio ............................................................................................... 20

2.1.3Forced Migratio ............................................................................................... 20

2.1.4Across the spectrm o legal stats ................................................................. 20

2.1.5Retr ............................................................................................................... 21

2.1.6 ‘Toleratio’ stats ............................................................................................. 21

2.1.7 Childre ............................................................................................................ 23

2.1.8 Readmissio Agreemet ................................................................................. 232.1.9 Deportatios .................................................................................................... 24

2.2 Right o residece title ad the best iterests o the child ...................................... 25

2.2.1The era leadig p to the ‘log-staer reglatio’............................................. 25

2.2.2 Practitioers’ critiqes ..................................................................................... 27

2.2.2.1 Labor ad traiig .................................................................................. 28

2.2.2.2 Health problems ad trama ................................................................... 28

2.2.2.3 Breaks i residece ................................................................................. 29

2.2.2.4 Crimial oeces ..................................................................................... 29

2.2.2.5 The best iterests o the child ................................................................. 30

2.2.2.6 The Hardship Case Commissio.............................................................. 31

2.2.2.7 ‘Sese o jstice’ ..................................................................................... 32

2.2.2.8 Historical resposibilit ........................................................................... 33

2.3Itegratio ad barriers to itegratio ...................................................................... 34

2.3.1 Lagage ......................................................................................................... 34

2.3.2 Complsor schoolig ad sccess at school ................................................. 35

2.3.2.1 Aboe-aerage reerrals to special schools .............................................. 35

2.3.2.2 Segregatio ad school ........................................................................... 36

2.3.2.3 Proessioal traiig ad barriers to traiig ........................................... 37

2.3.2.4 Metorig projects .................................................................................. 38

2.3.3 The coseqeces o residetial segregatio ................................................. 39

2.3.4 Dimiished welare beets ............................................................................ 40

2.3.5 Health ad trama ........................................................................................... 41



4

2.3.5.1 Restricted access to health serices ee i cases o chroic illess .... 41

2.3.5.2 Pschological illesses ad the eect o childre ................................... 42

2.3.5.3 Lack o access to therap ........................................................................ 452.3.5.4 Log-term hmaitaria leae to remai ................................................. 45

2.3.5.5 The threat o deportatio ad pschological serig ............................. 46

2.3.6 Idetit ............................................................................................................ 46

2.3.6.1 ‘Toleratio’ stats as a smbol o exclsio ............................................ 47

2.3.6.2 Perspecties o Kosoo .......................................................................... 47

2.3.7. Excrss: oe example amog ma: Famil X, rom Ahas ......................... 48

2.4Right o residece title betwee political itetio ad social realit ....................... 50

2.4.1 A lie with a tre as a precoditio or itegratio ........................................ 50

2.4.2 Itegratio prospects chage traditioal behaior patters ........................... 50

3.The Situation in Kosovo ................................................................................... 533.1Repatriatios to Kosoo ............................................................................................ 53

3.1.1 Political Cotext ............................................................................................... 53

3.1.1.1Forced ad “oltar” ............................................................................. 54

3.1.1.2Repatriated Childre .................................................................................. 56

3.2The Sitatio i Kosoo ............................................................................................ 58

3.2.1 Secrit ad Rights o Paper .......................................................................... 58

3.2.2Realit Check ad Strategies o Itegratio ..................................................... 59

3.3Retr as see ad experieced b childre ............................................................ 61

3.3.1 Gettig to Germa ......................................................................................... 62

3.3.2 Ciil Registratio .............................................................................................. 65

3.3.3 Kosoo’s Poert Trap ...................................................................................... 663.3.4 School dropot ................................................................................................ 68

3.3.5 Health Problems .............................................................................................. 69

3.3.6 Hosig ........................................................................................................... 70

3.4The challege o reitegratio .................................................................................. 72

3.5Cttig the Lielie ................................................................................................... 75

3.6Sstaiabilit ............................................................................................................ 78

Recommendations .............................................................................................. 81

Authors ................................................................................................................. 84

Endnotes .............................................................................................................. 85



5

List of AcronymsCRC Convention on the Rights o the ChildEC European CommissionEU European UnionEULEX European Union Rule o Law Mission in KosovoFYROM Former Yugoslavian Republic o MacedoniaGARP Government-Assisted Repatriation Programme (Germany)GDP Gross Domestic ProductGGUA Gemeinnützige Gesellschat zur Unterstützung Asylsuchender

(German non-prot organisation supporting asylum seekers)KFOS Kosovo Foundation or Open SocietyNGO Non-Governmental OrganisationIDP Internally displaced personILO International Labor OrganisationIOM International Organization or MigrationOSCE Organization or Security and Co-operation in EuropeREAG Reintegration and Emigration Programme or Asylum-Seekers

in GermanyUN United Nations

UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner or ReugeesUNICEF United Nations Children’s FundUNDP United Nations Development ProgrammeUNMIK United Nations Mission in Kosovo



6

ForewordSeveral thousand persons have been orcibly returned to Kosovo1 by Western Europeanstates in the last ew years. A signicant number o the returnees are persons belonging tominority communities, including Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians.

Germany is among the countries that have been returning Roma, Ashkali and Egyptiansto Kosovo in recent years. The amilies that are being returned have lived in Germany ormany years, some o them up to two decades.

They are being sent back to an impoverished region that is unable to guarantee to its in-habitants respect or their basic human rights, such as access to adequate housing, healthcare or education, and simply does not have the means to receive and integrate all return-ees. It is expected that in total almost 12 000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, including morethan 5 000 children, will be returned rom Germany to Kosovo.

Children are the ones most aected by these orced returns. They have all grown up inGermany, many o them were born in this country, and do not speak any language otherthan German. They are suddenly taken away rom their schools, compelled to leave theircommunity and surroundings, which they always considered to be their home, and are

sent to a place most o whom have never been to beore and whose language they do notspeak. A place that is oreign to them.

In Kosovo they are conronted with an entirely new reality. They eel lost and alienated.Most o them become school drop-outs due to language barriers and lack o school docu-ments. Many are unregistered, have no civil documents, and are rendered de acto state-less. Their living conditions are requently dramatic, and they suer rom extreme poverty.These children’s ate is worrying and their uture uncertain.

This study looks into the situation o these children. It has been prepared on the basiso a series o interviews conducted with the children themselves, and thereore provides

insight into the lives o these children both prior to and ater their deportation to Kosovo.The study is thus an invaluable contribution to the debate about the current repatriation 2 practices, as it not only provides quantitative data about the returns, but also presents thevoices o the victims. They should be heard.

Thomas HammarbergCouncil o Europe Commissioner or Human Rights



7

ForewordIn recent years Europe has grown even closer, yet the Roma, Ashkali, Egyptianethnic group continues to be pushed to the margins o society. The lives o theseamilies in Europe are blighted by deprivation, poverty o opportunity and dis-crimination. It is children who are suering the most.

The Yugoslav Wars caused hundreds o thousands o people to fee rom violence,many o them westwards. It has been estimated that 50,000 Roma, Ashkali, Egyp-tian escaped rom Kosovo to Germany. Local authorities, the German Federal

States and the German Federal Government have made eorts to integrate theseamilies. But these investments are now in danger o being wasted. Currently12,000 Kosovan Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian living in Germany have ‘toleration’ sta-tus3, and can be repatriated over the coming years in accordance with the GermanFederal Government’s ‘Readmission Agreement’ with Kosovo.

Many o these amilies have been granted only a ‘toleration permit’, meaning theyhave no secure right to stay in Germany. The consequences o this status severelyrestrict the children’s access to education, medical care and social participation. Ithey need to consult a doctor, or example, they must rst acquire a permit rom

the authorities, otherwise the costs will not be covered.

Despite being disadvantaged rom the start, however, many o the children romRoma, Ashkali, Egyptian amilies born and brought up in Germany have succeed-ed in integrating themselves in their school, town and circle o riends. They havedemonstrated both the will and the ability to make something o their lives.

Yet in the discussions surrounding the return o individuals without a secureresidence status to Kosovo, the best interests o these children have not so arbeen considered a priority, despite the act that over hal these individuals withRoma background are children and almost two-thirds o them were born and have

grown up in Germany.

The signing o the Kosovo-German ‘Readmission Agreement’ or individuals romKosovo prompted UNICEF to launch a special empirical investigation into the con-dition o the aected children, both in Kosovo and Germany. This report is basedon numerous interviews in Germany and Kosovo, elaborated and overseen by theCentre or Research on Anti-Semitism (ZA) at the Technical University o Berlin(TU). In Kosovo 116 children, all returned rom Germany, were interviewed andthe pertinent data rom a statistical survey evaluated. For the German part o thereport, 63 interviews were carried out with Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian experts andthose with political responsibility.



8

The ndings o the report are alarming. Three out o our returned children no longer at-tend school in Kosovo. A considerable number do not possess a birth certicate and are

thereore unable to exercise their right to educational, medical or welare services. Severetrauma and chronic illness among many o the adults in these amilies, whether in Germa-ny or Kosovo, mean that too many children are obliged to take on too much responsibilitytoo early in lie.

On 21 September 2010, the Ministry o the Interior o North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is-sued a special decree regarding the repatriation o Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians romKosovo that currently reside in Germany and who are obligated to leave the country. Thedocument requires that the best interests o the child shall be a primary considerationduring the review process regarding his or her status. The ull scope available or decisionmaking is always to be used in avor o the child. The child’s level o integration in German

society must be considered on its own merit, in particular with respect to his/her educa-tion, proessional training and other key considerations. This recent decision is crucial notonly or members o the minority group living in NRW but might also send a positive sig-nal or other Laender.

Together with its partners, UNICEF will continue to uphold the rights o all children in allcountries, as required by the UN Convention on the Rights o the Child. The recommen-dations made here by the research team, and deduced rom the empirical ndings in thereport, should guide both the governments and the authorities in ullling their duty toprioritise the best interests o the child.

Tom Koenigs Johannes WedenigGoverning Committee Head o OceUNICEF Germany UNICEF Kosovo



9

AcknowledgementsWe are grateul to the many people who contributed to this report in Germanyand Kosovo, enabling the research to be carried out both quickly and success-ully. Sabine Seiert at the Centre or Research on Anti-Semitism helped locatedocuments and interview partners, and also transcribed interviews. Max Mollyundertook literature research.

Karl-Heinz Winter rom the ‘Alte Post’ support association made contact with manyaected amilies and social workers in the Berg Fidel district o Münster. Marlies

Imping acilitated discussions in Gronau. In Magdeburg Frauke Sonnenburg andEkrem Tahiri were able to open many doors. Pastor Werner Baumgarten identi-ed interviewees in Stuttgart, and Rebecca Einho (UNHCR) and Gordana Spasic-Neumann (AWO Heimatgarten) gave valuable advice.

In Kosovo we are grateul to KFOS, especially Luan Shllaku and Vera Pula, or theircooperation and provision o inormation rom Compass Research. We also wishto thank Jusu Thaci or his proessional help in the statistical projection o datarom more than 230 amilies.

Special thanks go to Johannes Wedenig and Sebastian Sedlmayr or initiating thisresearch report. Without their support and that o their teams, particularly BeateDastel, Lena Dietz, Arbena Kuriu and Teuta Pozhegu, this report would not havebeen possible. We would like to thank you or your support throughout the wholeproject.

This report could not have been written without the readiness o many aectedamilies in Germany and Kosovo to talk openly about their lives and personal situ-ations. We are extremely grateul to them all.

Our heartelt thanks also go to the many sta at local authorities, charities, church

parishes, advice centres and organisations working with tolerated individualswho ound time or in-depth interviews despite already being overworked. In do-ing so, they helped us to present a realistic picture o the conditions in Germanyand Kosovo.

We are most grateul to all the children who shared their experiences, trusted usand opened themselves up to us. May this report help pave the way to a betteruture or their amilies and riends in Germany.

Verena Knaus and Peter Widmann



11

Findings of the ReportThe Germa reglatios reerrig to the stats

o ‘log-term tolerated idiidals’ igore the

priciple o ‘the best iterests o the child’ to the

detrimet o childre bor or raised i Germa.O the 12,000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians rom Kosovo long-term tolerated inGermany and legally obliged to leave, almost hal are children. Most o these chil-dren were born, brought up and schooled in Germany, speak German togetherand consider the place they now live to be their home. But because their parentshave ailed at the hurdle o the so-called ‘long-stayer regulation’ - and childrenshare the ate o their parents’ immigration status– they are now threatened withdeportation to Kosovo. This regulation, criticised as too infexible by many spe-cialists, pays scant attention to these children’s special situation and their degreeo integration.

This leaves the principle o the best interest o the child, which Germany has com-mitted itsel to respecting by its 1992 ratication o the UN Convention on theRights o the Child, in a blind spot o judicial administration and interpretation.

Legislatio, cofict legacies ad a sese

o isecrit preets childre rom ll

deelopig their potetial to itegrate.Many children o ‘tolerated’ amilies rom Kosovan minority groups have a di-cult childhood in Germany. The legal and nancial restrictions resulting romtheir status make it harder or them to integrate. Above all, many children live inan environment typied by ear and emotional insecurity. The psychological andphysical health o many amilies is poor. This is due to war trauma, but also todepression, nervous disorders and other illnesses - expertly assessed as psycho-somatic in origin - which have been inficted on these amilies by the uncertaintysurrounding their lives or so many years.

Children and youths have been doubly impacted. Where their parents are aect-

ed by such conditions, children are oten deprived o the stable upbringing andemotional security they need. Secondly, a number o young people themselves



12

suer rom these psychological and physical illnesses. Children are obliged to take on re-sponsibility or their amilies at a young age, and suer emotional and cognitive strain as

a result. The repatriation programme, and its resultant threat o deportation, has made thissituation worse. It jeopardises the progress children and youths have already made in inte-grating at their schools. Children and youths are more successul in education and trainingthe more secure they perceive their opportunities or the uture to be. In this respect thendings o this report support the conclusions o research into migration and integration:that integration requires secure uture prospects.

Kosoo is ot crretl able to itegrate

childre ad oths deported rom GermaInterviews with amilies support the ndings o the Organization or Security and Coopera-tion in Europe (OSCE), that local authorities in Kosovo are not yet in a position to make ac-commodation or children and youths deported rom Germany, nor to ensure they receiveadequate healthcare and schooling. These local authorities lack the necessary resources,and those responsible or providing such services are largely unaware o their duties inthe integration o repatriated individuals. Provisions that might be present on paper haveproved not to exist in practice. A considerable number o the deported children are not o-cially registered and are thereore invisible to the authorities.

Deportatio pts a ed to childre’s schooligThree quarters o children interviewed in Kosovo had not attended school since their de-portation. The reasons or this include language barriers, missing school certicates andtheir amilies’ poverty. For most children, language courses are not available near to wherethey live and bridging classes are not provided. Children with special needs, whether asa result o disabilities or learning diculties, are eectively excluded rom the Kosovanschool system. This exposes children to a uture o impoverishment and marginalisation.The investments made in the children’s education in Germany are thereby wasted.

For childre ad oths broght p i Germa,

deportatio represets a almost isrmotable

prootig experieceLong ater their deportation to Kosovo, children still regard Germany as their home anddream o returning there. Disorientated and uprooted rom the context o their lives, they

are unable to adopt Kosovo - which they only see or the rst time ater their deportation



13

- as their homeland. Many children are especially distraught that they are unableto communicate in German.

Forced deportatio reslts i high

costs or all coceredThe experiences o those children and young people who have already been de-ported conrms the warnings o many representatives rom local authorities,social work, schools and counselling centres in Germany; that the deportationsmight give rise to a lost generation o uprooted children, who had good integra-

tion prospects in Germany and the potential to contribute to their community, butare threatened with a lie lived in exclusion in Kosovo.Many deported children and youths are expected to attempt to return to Germany,where the only prospect awaiting them is the status o an illegal immigrant. Theorced repatriation o children and youths, done to prevent their ‘immigration intothe social system’ in Germany, in act results in long-term economic and socialcosts or all.



14

InTRODuCTIOn1



15

1. Introduction1.1 Occasio ad objectie o the report

“In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or

private social welare institutions, courts o law, administrative authori-

ties or legislative bodies, the best interests o the child shall be a primary

consideration.”

Convention on the Rights o the Child, Part 1, Article 3

In 2009 the German Federal Government announced its intention to accelerate therepatriation o those members o the Kosovan minorities living in Germany withouta legal status. The majority o those aected are rom the Roma ethnic group, othersare Ashkali and Egyptians, two minorities that – like the Roma – are requently stig-matised as ‘gypsies’ by the majority population4. Almost hal o those aected arechildren under the age o 18.

On 14 April 2010 in Berlin the Federal German Minister o the Interior, Thomas deMaizière, and his Kosovan counterpart, Bajram Rexhepi, signed a ReadmissionAgreement to govern the return process. The Agreement obliges the government inPrishtinë/Priština to admit those living without a residence title in Germany. Under the

agreement the German side lodges a ‘readmission application’ or each person whois legally obliged to leave, which the Kosovan authorities use to determine whetherthe person in question originally comes rom Kosovo. In the rst eight months o2009 – that is, even beore the governments had signed the agreement, Germany hadalready orwarded 1,580 ‘readmission applications’ to Prishtinë/Priština. The Kosovanauthorities acceded to all but 27 o these, an approval rate o 98.3 percent5.

Many observers are concerned that the children aected by this legislation will bedenied their basic rights to education, equal opportunities and social participation.These concerns prompted this report on behal o UNICEF. Its ocus is the reality oeveryday lie or children o Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian amilies and theextent to which the best interests o the child are protected in the course o theserepatriations.

Children (‘minors’) are only twice mentioned in the Readmission Agreement; Articles1(3) and 5(4) obligate both State Parties to re-admit children and parents without aresidence title in their host country. No urther mention is made o obligations or pro-visions in respect o the rights and needs o children.6

Under Article 3 o the Convention on the Rights o the Child, “In all actions concern-ing children… the best interests o the child shall be a primary consideration.” TheFederal Republic o Germany ratied the Convention in April 1992, and by doing it isobligated under international law to ensure all political, legislative and ocial actionsconorm to the best interests o the child.7

In addition, EU Directive 2008/115/EC on ‘Common standards and procedures in



16

Member States or returning illegally staying third-country nationals’ also obliges EU MemberStates to consider the ‘best interests o the child’ during the process o repatriation8.

In presenting an objective description o the experiences o Kosovan Roma, Ashkali und Egyp-tian children beore, during and ater their return to Kosovo, this report constitutes a criticalevaluation o current repatriation practices, and examines the extent to which they genuinelyrespect the best interests o the child.

The report consists o two components.

The rst ocuses on the situation in Germany. It investigates the extent o integration and thebarriers to both integration and opportunities or children in various German cities. The nd-ings extrapolated rom these enquiries already provide a partial answer to the question owhat repatriation means or those aected.

The second component is based on research in Kosovo and investigates the current degree

to which integration has been achieved, as well as the perspectives or integration or thosechildren repatriated rom Germany.

The ate o an estimated 5000 to 6000 children is in balance. Many o them were born in Ger-many and have spent their whole lives in the country. They regard Münster, Ulm or Stuttgartas their home. It is imperative that their voices be heard.

1.2 MethodologThe rst part o the report is based primarily on interviews with ’tolerated’ amilies and coun-

sellors in Germany who, whether through their proessional or voluntary activities, possessinsight into these amilies’ – and above all their children’s – situations: the sta o the charityagencies Caritas, Diakonie and the Workers’ Welare Association (AWO); counselling centresor war-traumatised individuals; Aliens Authorities; local authority social services; immigrationcommissioners o the Churches, Federal States and municipalities; teachers; those engaged inlocal non-governmental and human rights organisations as well as citizens who volunteer toassist those without a secure residence status. These interviews, with a total o 63 respondents,took place between early February and early April 2010 in Berlin, Münster, Gronau, Stuttgart,Magdeburg and Halle. Most o the interviews were recorded and logs exist or the remainder.In order to protect the anonymity o the interviewees, their surnames have either been re-moved or replaced with an initial.

The interviews were carried out according to the open guideline-based technique, as used inqualitative social research. The guidelines merely stipulate the subjects to be addressed, ratherthan ormulating a list o questions. This approach is well suited to research o an investigativenature, since it allows interviewees who are experts in the elds o social work, education andcounselling to give prominence in their answers to the contexts relevant to their proessionalexperience. It leaves similar scope to children and their parents, who are able to emphasisein their interviews those issues that most strongly aect their daily lives. This approach alsomilitates against any distortion o the ndings by presumptions on the part o the researcher.

It is all the more striking that despite the use o only a semi-structured interview technique,and the varied locations at which interviews were carried out, both aected individuals and

experts repeatedly identied the same problems. Regardless o whether the interview tookplace in Berlin, Münster, Magdeburg or Stuttgart, a similar picture emerged. This suggests that



17

it is reugee and aliens policy at the Federal level that have most impact on the liveso those aected, with local conditions having less infuence.

The report also analysed parliamentary and ocial documents rom the Federal andState level, documents rom local councils and oces, charities, schools, non-gov-ernmental organisations and the local and regional press.

The Kosovo component o the report is based on over 60 interviews with the relevantauthorities, ministries and municipal representatives as well as international policy-makers and NGOs on site. Key to this component o the report are the ndings osemi-structured in-depth interviews with 40 Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptianamilies with rst-hand experience o the issues at stake, and who have all returnedto Kosovo rom Germany in recent years.

These in-depth interviews included personal discussions with a total o 173 people,including 116 children across the age spectrum. These amilies were selected or in-terview according to criteria such as place o origin, date and nature o repatriation(voluntary return or deportation), and amily structure. Research naturally ocussedon amilies with children.

Based on available statistics or those returning to Kosovo rom Germany in the years2009 and 2010 (January to April), the report succeeded in interviewing 36 percent othose returnees o Roma ethnicity.9The statistics o those who have returned includenot only amilies, but other groups as well (such as those convicted o criminal o-ences and lone adults) and since these non-amily returnees make up over 50 per-cent o those recorded by the statistics in this period, and since the researchers onlyinterviewed amilies, it can be assumed that the report has included a substantial

proportion o the total amily returnees.

In order to achieve the most objective possible assessment o the experience o re-turn and reintegration or the amilies and children interviewed by the research team,every eort was made to contact the responsible authorities, institutions and mu-nicipal representatives, so that their insight and evaluations might be considered inthe analysis. The data gathered in the eld research was also compared and sup-plemented with all available data and statistics rom Kosovo, Germany and interna-tional organisations. As evidenced in the ootnotes, the research team consulted allthe available literature and research on the subject in their analyses.

An especially important reerence or the Kosovo section o this report was the base-

line survey Position o Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities in Kosovo conduct-ed by COMPASS Research in 2009 and unded by the Kosovo Foundation or OpenSociety (KFOS)10. This KFOS report, based on 800 interviews with amilies o KosovanRoma, Ashkali and Egyptians, constitutes by ar the most comprehensive survey othis community in Kosovo.

With KFOS’s support, numerous projections o KFOS’s data were carried out espe-cially or this report, allowing the present authors to take their own data, gathered ineld research and detailed interviews with 173 people in 9 districts, and extrapolate itto cover a urther 230 amilies in an additional ten districts.

All interviews were carried out between February and May 2010. In order to protect theanonymity o the aected children and amilies, the authors have changed the names at-tached to these interviewees’ quotes and inormation in this section o the report.



18

THE SITuATIOn

In GERMAny

2



19

2. The Situation in GermanyPeter Widmann

2.1 Kosoa Roma, Ashkali

ad Egptias i Germa

2.1.1 Local studies

Research or this report gave special attention to the cities o Münster, Stuttgartand Magdeburg, where substantial communities o Kosovan minority groups live.One reason or choosing these three cities was the presence o comparativelylarge numbers o Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians with ‘toleration’ status.The choice also appealed on the grounds that it included one city each rom thewest and south o the country, as well as one rom the ormer East Germany. Thelimited time and personnel resources at the disposal o the report also dictatedthe choice o large cities. This ocus means the report’s ndings can only be a

qualied refection o the situation in rural areas, where aected amilies havemore restricted access to support services, a act that can urther complicate theirsituations.

It is not possible to ascertain the exact number o Kosovan Roma, Ashkali andEgyptians living in Germany. The central register o oreigners only records na-tionality, not ethnic or regional origin. Kosovan nationals have only been record-ed under this nationality since May 2008. The Federal Government advised in Oc-tober 2009 that Kosovan nationals arriving in Germany beore May 2008 may wellhave been recorded under their previous prevailing nationality.11

Local Aliens Authorities are similarly unable to cite precise gures, since as a rule

they too only record nationality. Only in cases where ethnicity is o relevance orresidence status is it recorded in the ocial statistics. Cities such as Stuttgart andMünster have been destinations or migrant labour or decades, including mi-grant members o Yugoslav minority groups since the 1960s. Consequently theyare home to considerable populations o Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptianswho have either since become German citizens or possess residence or settle-ment permits and are only recorded under their nationality. In Magdeburg, whereimmigration rom Kosovo began only with the outbreak o the Yugoslav Wars,it has been possible to determine reliable gures – at least or those minoritymembers living there with Kosovan citizenship. O the 469 Kosovan nationalsregistered as living in Magdeburg at the end o 2009, 263 are recorded as Roma

and 10 as Ashkali. No Kosovan Egyptians were recorded as living in Magdeburgat the end o 2009.12



20

However, the number o those legally obliged to leave can be assessed, since in recentyears ethnicity has been relevant in determining an obligation to leave, and has thereore

been recorded. Among the cities examined, the highest rate prevailed in Münster: at thebeginning o the year 2010 there were 302 Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians with ‘tol-eration’ status. In Stuttgart, at the end o March, the gure was 111, while in Magdeburg itwas 80 people.13

2.1.2 Labour migration

Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians eature in contemporary German discussions onlyas war reugees. It is less well appreciated that in the 1960s they also numbered among

those immigrants to West Germany rom Yugoslavia known as ‘guest workers’.For their German colleagues and neighbours they were Yugoslavians; Slovenes, Serbs orCroats, or example. Given widespread stereotypes, individuals rom minority groups hadno reason to reveal their ethnicity. Many o the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, who mi-grated to the industrial areas o the Federal Republic in those years, originated in what istoday Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia.

2.1.3 Forced Migration

This rst chapter o migration in the 1960s infuenced the decisions o many people feeingYugoslavia ater the outbreak o the Yugoslav Wars. Like other reugees, Kosovan Roma,Ashkali and Egyptians oten sought out areas o Germany where members o their ethnicgroups had long lived, especially where amily connections existed. Although many wereunable to secure long-term residence, since Yugoslavia was disintegrating deportation or-ders could not be executed, they were legally obliged to leave, but their deportation wassuspended end they were thus ‘tolerated’.14

Ater the repeal o autonomy in 1989, ethnic conficts in Kosovo broke out into open vio-lence, and large groups o individuals fed what was then a Serb province. Germany was adestination or members o the Albanian majority population as well as those rom minori-

ties. While most Kosovo-Albanians and Kosovo-Serbs went home in the ollowing years,many Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians eared a return to social and economic marginalisationin Kosovo, and set their hopes instead on a uture in Germany.15

2.1.4 Across the spectrum o legal status The varied migration backgrounds o Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians are refectedin the broad range o legal status among these communities. Many ormer Yugoslav ‘guestworkers’ rom minority groups secured German citizenship, others a temporary residenceor a permanent residence permit. On the basis o the so-called ‘long-stayer regulation’ or



21

other regulations, some o the ‘tolerated’ individuals were able to acquire a tem-porary residence permit on humanitarian grounds.16

Whether a person is granted tolerated status, temporary residence permit or apermanent residence permit depends on dierent actors in each case. Their resi-dence status can depend, or example, on whether a parent has married a Ger-man citizen; whether certicates o no impediment to marriage or other docu-ments are outstanding beore a marriage with a German citizen can proceed; orwhether a parent or a spouse ulls the conditions o the ‘long-stayer regulation’.In this process, a person’s legal residence status cannot always be regarded as anindicator o their degree o integration, something especially true o children andyoung adults. This is well illustrated by the case o two young men rom Romaamilies interviewed in the course o research or this report: both grew up in the

same German city, both speak good German and are active in youth work in theircommunity. Despite the similarity o their situations, one o the two men has a tol-eration status, the other German citizenship. The German citizen declared himselin avour o ‘us’ granting a right to residence title. By ‘us’ he meant the Germans.17

2.1.5 Return

According to gures rom the German Federal Government, between 1999 and31 August 2009 a total o 114,092 people returned rom Germany to Kosovo. Mosto these were registered as voluntary returnees, 19 percent or 21,852 people hadbeen orcibly repatriated. While voluntary returnees were in the majority rom1999 to 2001, in each subsequent year, with the exception o 2003, they have beenoutnumbered by deportees.18

Large-scale deportations to Kosovo began in 2000. Initially aecting Kosovo- Al-banians, the deportations were extended to the Kosovan Ashkali and Egyptian mi-norities rom early 2003. Beginning in 2005, Roma convicted o serious criminaloences could be subject to deportation. From 2009 the deportees included Romawithout any criminal convictions.19

2.1.6 ‘Toleration’ status

Roma living in Germany make up by ar the largest group o people rom Kosovowith ‘toleration’ status. German Federal States’ gures show that or the reportingdate o 30 June 2009, a total o 14,399 persons rom Kosovo had ‘toleration’ sta-tus. O these 9,842 were Kosovan Roma, 1,755 Kosovan Ashkali and 173 KosovanEgyptians. This total o 11,770 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians represent 82 percento all persons originating rom Kosovo with ‘toleration’ status. The remaining 18percent consisted o 2,408 Kosovo-Albanians and 221 Kosovo-Serbs (gure 1).20



22

Figure 1: Persons rom Kosovo with ‘toleration’ status, reporting date 30.06.2009

1.21.5 Egyptians

Ashkali

Roma

Kosovo Albanians

Kosovo Serbs

16.712.2

68.4

Source: German Government inormation in answer to the Parliamentary Question lodged by Deputies Ulla Jelpke, Sevim Da ğdelen,Kersten Naumann, Jörn Wunderlich and the Die Linke Parliamentary Group (BT-Drs 16/14129 o 12.10.2009), Page 8.

O the 9,842 Roma with ‘toleration’ status, the largest number - 38 percent o the total, or3,776 people - lived in North Rhine-Westphalia. The second-largest group o 2,928 peoplelived in Lower Saxony, and the next largest group o 1,242 Roma lived in Baden-Württem-berg. The Federal State o Saxony-Anhalt had the ourth largest population o 362 Romawith ‘toleration’ status (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Roma with ‘toleration’ status, reporting date 30.06.2009

15.6

North Rhine Westphalia

Lower Saxony

Baden-Wuerttemberg

Saxony-Anhalt

Others

38.4

29.8

12.5

3.7

Source: German Government inormation in answer to the Parliamentary Question lodged by Deputies Ulla Jelpke, Sevim Da ğdelen,Wolgang Neskovic, other deputies and the ‘Die Linke’ Parliamentary Group (BT-Drs 17/423 o 10 January 2010), page 18.



23

Among the substantially smaller group o 1,755 Ashkali with ‘toleration’ status,the largest number o 791 people lived in North Rhine-Westphalia, ollowed by

Baden-Württemberg with 371 people, and Lower Saxony with 342. In no otherFederal State were there more than 100 Ashkali with ‘toleration’ status. The groupo 173 Kosovan Egyptians was so small that many Federal States recorded eitherzero or only a single digit number o persons. The States with the three largestcontingents were Lower Saxony (58 persons), Baden-Württemberg (53 persons)and Saarland (24 persons).21These gures represent a snapshot in time, especial-ly since some o those possessing a temporary residence permit can nd them-selves with ‘toleration’ status once the residence permit expires.

2.1.7 Children

The proportion o children among Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians with‘toleration’ status living in the cities studied or this report lay between 42 percentand 50 percent. The Aliens Authority in Stuttgart quoted 42 percent, in Magde-burg 47 percent and in Münster 50 percent.22 Beyond this local level, data onthe age spectrum o those with ‘toleration’ status was not available rom thoseFederal State Interior Ministries questioned.23 Since the age spectrums in the cit-ies studied were o a similar order, and concur with both the inormation on agedistribution among the ethnic population in Kosovo, and the estimates given ininterviews with experts, it is possible to establish a relatively accurate overall

picture o the proportion o children present. Interviews with amilies and expertsindicated that most o the children in Germany were either born in the country orarrived as inants.

2.1.8 Readmission Agreement

In negotiating the Readmission Agreement, Germany assured the Kosovan Gov-ernment that the annual number o readmission applications in the uture wouldnot exceed the gure or 2008 (about 2,500). The Federal Government also ad-vised that the number o actual repatriations is as rule considerably lower than

the number o applications made.24

Germany urther undertook to be mindul ‘oa proper proportion o the various ethnicities’ in lodging applications. The Agree-ment was not a requirement or repatriations to proceed – these have, ater all,been taking place or years – but was rather intended to regulate practical issues.The Federal Government has emphasised that the Agreement does not constitutea undamental change to the approach taken so ar, and underlined the duty o allStates under international law to admit their nationals.

The repatriations are coordinated by two agencies: the Karlsruhe Regional Ad-ministrative Authority collects readmission applications rom southern GermanStates, the Central Aliens Authority in Bieleeld collects those rom the rest oGermany. Ater mutual consultation, the readmission applications are passed onto Prishtinë/Priština. According to both agencies, applications are prioritised or



24

persons who have been convicted o a crime, are in custody awaiting detention, are de-linquent, are unemployed or otherwise in receipt o welare and or recent arrivals. These

coordinated deportations have been carried out since 2009 via Karlsruhe and Düsseldorairports.

In January 2010 the Federal Government advised that the number o deportation orderssubmitted to both coordinating agencies by the Aliens Authorities o the Federal States todate amounted to 667. O these, 245 people, or 37 percent o the total, were registered asliving in a amily.25

2.1.9 Deportations

For the period April to September 2009 the Federal Government cites 352 completed orceddeportations to Kosovo. O these, 67 people or 19 percent were registered as Roma, and 33o these Roma were registered as living in amilies. In the same period both the coordinat-ing agencies recorded 834 fight registrations or deportation to Kosovo, among them 239or 28 percent Roma, including 142 people registered as living in amilies.26

People with ‘toleration’ status are dispersed unevenly across the German Federal States.This is because only some o these people were originally registered as asylum-seekers orreugees, and thereore distributed in the Federal States as part o the State quota distribu-tion system (as determined according to population and tax revenue under the KönigsteinAgreement).27

Beore it was ended by Section 15a o the 2005 Residence Act, there was another provi-sion or individuals who registered directly at local Aliens Authorities without claimingasylum. They would also be issued a toleration permit - in the absence o any possibilityo deporting them – and could remain in the locality where they had registered. This wasknown as ‘irregular procedure’.28 Local authorities were not reunded any costs by the re-spective Federal State or individuals arriving in a city under the provisions o ‘irregularprocedure’. Since the 2005 immigration law reorm those oreigners arriving illegally andwithout claiming asylum have been distributed among the Federal States, as is the policyor asylum-seekers.

As a result o the ‘irregular procedure’ provision existing until 2005, large groups o Kos-ovan minority members were able to settle in certain cities. Many Roma rom Mitrovicë/ Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, or example, came to Münster in this way. The developmento these large local communities was also helped by the act that some neighbouring Al-iens Authorities unocially suggested to individuals to move to cities where Roma ami-lies already lived, in order to economise the delivery o social services. Moreover, in citiessuch as Münster, there were well-organised supporter networks not ound in rural areas.29



25

2.2 Right o residece title

ad the best iterests o the child

2.2.1 The era leading up to the ‘long-stayer regulation’

The Conerence o Federal Interior Ministers and Senators, an executive commit-tee which meets twice a year and has great infuence on reugee and aliens policyin Germany, has in recent years repeatedly addressed the issue o persons withlong-term toleration status. The right to obtain a residence title has been high onthe Committee’s agenda because toleration status, which was originally intended

as a temporary legal orm o residence, has in practice oten been serially re-newed and has thereore become a long-term measure.

In May 2001 the Interior Ministers approved a new regulation, albeit one withstrict conditions, concerning economically active persons with toleration sta-tus who came to Germany rom Yugoslavia in the rst hal o the 1990s. Thesepersons could acquire what was then known as a ‘residence permit’ but only i,among other conditions, they had lived in Germany or six years as o 15 Febru-ary 2001; could prove they had been continuously employed or over two yearsand were indispensible to their employer, and could support their amily withoutrecourse to welare.30

This xed reerence date excluded those who had fed the escalating violencein Kosovo at the end o the 1990s rom any uture possibility o a right to obtaina residence title. In 2002 and 2003 the Interior Ministers approved three urthermeasures, expressly shutting one door ater another on any right to remain orKosovan minority groups.31

Ater violent conficts among ethnic groups in Kosovo broke out again in March2004, the Interior Ministers o the States o Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Po-merania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holsteinchanged their positions. In July o the same year they pressed or a right to obtaina o residence title or economically and socially integrated Roma, Ashkali, Egyp-

tians and Serbs rom Kosovo, but were unable to win the other members o theConerence over to this new course. In November 2004 those Interior Ministersin avour o granting a right to residence title advanced their case, arguing thatreturning large groups o ‘tolerated’ individuals to their country o origin is knownto take years. In this process, recipients o welare would be repatriated rst, inconsideration o the burden on the public purse. During this time those able toearn their own livelihood would become more rooted in Germany, and these peo-ple required a right to obtain a residence status. In May 2006 the Interior Ministero Saxony-Anhalt added his support to this assessment.32

In November that year the Interior Ministers agreed a common approach - achange aecting not just individuals rom Kosovo – and approved a two-year resi-dence permit or persons with tolerated status who had lived in Germany or at



26

least eight years. Families with children who were still minors were eligible to apply atersix years. Applicants also had to demonstrate the ability to earn their own livelihood, andthat o any amily, through unbroken employment and without recourse to supplemen-tary welare benets. Those unable to ull these conditions were entitled to temporaryresidence permit until September 2007, until which time they would have an opportunityto nd steady employment. Exceptions were made or trainees, those unable to work andretirees who were not drawing upon welare benets. Further conditions to be ullled inorder to prot rom the new regulation included regular school attendance by any children,adequate knowledge o German, and a clean criminal record - although an exemption wasmade or past nes equivalent to up to 50 daily units33, or up to 90 daily units in cases oaliens-related oenses.34

The Interior Ministers presented the new regulation as oering a uture to oreigners who“are economically and socially integrated in Germany”, as well as preventing “immigration

into the social system.” The Interior Ministers were aware o Federal legislation pending atboth the Bundestag and Bundesrat [the lower and upper houses o parliament] but wishedto clariy the situation in advance.

The Bundestag passed just such a regulation in June 2007, with the agreement o the Bun-desrat, in conormity with the Law to Implement European Union Directives RegulatingResidence and Asylum, which came into orce in August 2007.35 This regulation becameSection 104a and b o the Residence Act, better known as the ‘long-stayer regulation’. Withthe exception o some amended details, the long-stayer regulation conormed to the reso-lution passed by the Interior Ministers’ conerence the previous year and, like that resolu-tion, was promoted as oering an opportunity o right o residence title to economically

and socially integrated persons with toleration status.An essential condition o the regulation was continual legal residence in Germany o atleast eight years beore the reerence date o 1 July 2007, or o at least six years in the caseo applicants living in a household with unmarried minor children. Additional conditionsrequired that applicants already enjoyed sucient living space, had adequate knowledgeo German, and could provide proo o school attendance or any children.

Persons who had previously attempted to deceive the Aliens Authorities, who had attempt-ed to evade termination o their residence or who had links with extremist organisationsor had been convicted o crimes – with exceptions, as resolved at the Interior Ministers’conerence, or nes on record equivalent to up to 50 daily units, or up to 90 daily units in

cases o aliens or asylum-related oences - were excluded rom the regulation.The Federal legislation, too, was aimed at “preventing immigration into the social insur-ance system,” as the authors o the accompanying general administrative provisions putit.36 In doing so, the law associated the opportunity o long-term residence in Germanywith the independent ability to earn a livelihood. Those ’tolerated’ individuals ullling allconditions and able through employment to secure their livelihoods and those o all de-pendent amily members, received a temporary residence permit.

Those meeting the basic conditions but unable to earn their livelihoods independentlywere issued with a ‘provisional’ temporary residence permit. This was originally dateduntil 31 December 2009, and was intended to allow those alling under its remit extra timeto secure employment that would enable them to support themselves “largely indepen-



27

dently”. Minor children living with their parents received a residence title depend-ent on that issued to their parents.37

In December 2009 the Conerence o Interior Ministers extended the long-stayerregulation by two years. This measure also allowed those in possession o a ‘pro-visional’ temporary residence permit to receive a temporary residence permit onhumanitarian grounds, provided they could demonstrate at least part-time em-ployment in the six months either preceding or ater the date o 31 December2009. Those who had successully completed school or proessional training sinceJuly 2007 were also entitled to a temporary residence permit on humanitariangrounds, as well as those currently in proessional training and expected to beable to support themselves in the uture. Those in possession o a ‘provisional’temporary residence permit who were able to demonstrate that they had madeeorts to support themselves, would be entitled to extend their residence title or

an initial period o a urther two years.38

2.2.2 Practitioners’ critiques

The ‘long-stayer regulation’ enabled some members o the Kosovan minorities tosecure a temporary residence permit. Since then, testies a social worker romthe Coerde district o Münster, an invisible line has sprung up between groupso oreigners. On the one side, are those who have secured a ‘provisional’ tem-porary residence permit. “Escape rom toleration status”, adds the social worker,means as much to many Kosovan Roma she knows “as winning the lottery andChristmas coming at the same time.” The beneciaries ully appreciate the valueo the chance they have been given.

On the other side are those who have been unable to secure a residence title. Theywere ashamed and tried to hide their status. It was seen as a punishment, like be-ing blacklisted, reported the source, and especially hard to handle in cases wherethe line between those with leave to remain and those with ‘toleration’ status ranthrough one’s own amily.39

It is not known how many Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians in Germany suc-ceeded in ullling the regulation’s conditions.40 According to the assessments othe practitioners interviewed or this report, only a minority were able to benetrom the regulation. Practitioners characterised it as decient in two respects:rstly, that the conditions have been seen to be too narrow and infexible in prac-tice. Secondly, the regulation seeks to determine solely whether or not parentshave managed to nd their ooting in the employment market, and takes scarce-ly any account o the integration o children and their uture opportunities. Thismeans that amilies where the second generation is making progress towardssuccessul integration, still ail to ull the conditions or a temporary residencepermit because the parents have so ar been unable to integrate themselves. Incases where, or example, a amily ather has an alcohol or gambling addiction,then his wie, children, and in certain cases his daughter-in-law and grandchildren

too, all lose their chance to stay in Germany.41



28

In this respect the ‘long-stayer regulation’ takes no account o children as individuals withtheir own standing beore the law, but identies them only as adjuncts o their parents

and, occasionally, o more distant relatives. This has been decreed heedless o the act thata considerable proportion o these children were born and have been brought up in Ger-many and are thereore integrated both within society and within the education system.Those specialists questioned cited a number o actors explaining why ’tolerated’ individu-als all at the hurdles set up by the ‘long-stayer regulation.’

2.2.2.1 Labour and training

A proportion o those aected have been unable to gain any oothold in the labour mar-ket, or have been unable to establish themselves adequately. Many amilies under the

threat o deportation were oten partially or wholly dependent on welare, some o theamilies continually so, over a period o many years.42 One reason or this is their lack oeducational and proessional qualications. Many members o the minorities come roman environment lacking in educational opportunities, literacy and knowledge o German.At the same time, even those who worked in Kosovo in manual occupations, or exampleas auto mechanics or varnishers, seldom possess a corresponding proessional qualica-tion. As eectively unskilled labourers the best employment they can nd is in the low-wage sector – as cleaners at service rms, chambermaids in hotels or kitchen assistants inrestaurants. In a number o cases in recent years work has been undertaken via tempingagencies. Some o those concerned have pursued multiple employments, such as womenwith more than one cleaning job.43 In these cases income rarely reaches a level sucient tosupport amilies with many children, without drawing upon complementary welare pay-ments. Those seeking employment in eastern Germany are urther challenged by a lack ojob vacancies.44 Experts have also pointed out that the legal status o ’tolerated’ individualsdenies or restricts their access to the labour market, sometimes or years at a time, makingit dicult or them to nd their eet quickly ater such restrictions are lited.45

Social workers have also lamented the way in which residence regulations not only oer’tolerated’ individuals ew chances to take up urther training, but hinder them rom doingso. A number o individuals are known to have broken o their German courses, in orderto take up opportunities to earn money that is sorely needed. Youths are also pressured tocontribute to the upkeep o the amily rom as early an age as possible, prompting them

to turn down the chance to acquire proessional qualications. These actors lead to thesacrice o comprehensive integration to supercial integration in the lowliest sector othe labour market. 46

2.2.2.2 Health problems and trauma

Physical and psychological problems, caused not only by war and fight, but also by yearsliving isolated as ’tolerated’ individuals without prospects, are other reasons why someare unable or only partially able to support themselves. Illnesses tend to be diagnosed onlyvery late or not at all. There are also a ew cases o amily athers completely resigned toate, and no longer in any state to meet the challenges o daily lie and to take proper re-



29

sponsibility or their amilies, with alcoholism or gambling addictions sometimesconstituting urther actors. Respondents also cited the role o mental isolation

resulting rom segregated accommodation, such as accommodation centres, inassociation with this phenomenon.47

2.2.2.3 Breaks in residence

A number o ’tolerated’ individuals ail to meet the condition o unbroken resi-dence: in recent years the ear provoked by news o pending deportations hasprompted many amilies to travel to neighbouring countries, on the hearsay thatthey might have a better prospect o legal status there. In doing so they have bro-ken their continual residence and are disqualied rom consideration under the

‘long-stayer regulation’.48 A teacher rom a primary school in the Berg Fidel districto Münster reports: “hopeul children, who were genuinely socially integrated intheir class – they had made riends and were perorming well at school – and stilltheir parents could not withstand the pressure and they disappeared.“49

2.2.2.4 Criminal oences

Some amilies are unable to meet the conditions o the ‘long-stayer regulation’because a amily member has been convicted o a crime punishable by morethan 50 daily units. Even practitioners in broad agreement with the exclusion o

criminals rom the ‘long-stayer regulation’ criticised the act that the rules otenpenalised the wrong people. The ‘long-stayer regulation‘ excludes rom receipto a temporary residence permit not only those who have committed a crime,but also all those amily members living in a household with them, something anumber o interviews likened to ‘kinship punishment’.

Federal Interior Ministry general administrative provisions cite the principle thatchildren share the ate o their parents’ residence status, and points out that a“negative infuence on the remaining amily members as a result o the sharedhousehold community” cannot be ruled out. This means that where one o thechildren has committed a crime o the proscribed order, an entire amily will also

ail to qualiy or the long-stayer regulation. According to the administrative provi-sions: “the expulsion o parents is justied on account o their parental supervi-sory obligations.“50

Many social workers also consider the relatively low cut-o point o 50 daily unitsto be too infexible in practice. Aliens Authorities are let with no discretion to con-sider the precise nature o the crime. No distinction is made between someonewho has committed a serious crime and someone who has twice been convictedo driving without a license – 50 daily units would be exceeded in both cases.The regulation is equally infexible in ailing to allow that the oence might havebeen committed some time ago, with no subsequent legal violations recorded or

criminal tendency discernible.



30

It should also be stated in this context that the stringent legal regulations o ‘toleration’ sta-tus set up many pitalls, especially when one considers that people are subjected to these

restrictions over periods o years. A social worker near the Dutch border raised the caseso numerous individuals who have sought her advice ater ‘violating their residence obli-gation.’ The accommodation centre in question lies near the border, and in the immediatevicinity on the Dutch side is a supermarket where many local residents rom the Germanside do their shopping. ’Tolerated’ individuals doing the same were subjected to penaltiesequivalent to a considerable number o daily units, clearly without being aware that theywere violating legal provisions o any kind.51

Although the cut-o point where ’tolerated’ individuals are disqualied rom the ‘long-stayer regulation’ or violations o alien and asylum laws is xed somewhat higher at 90daily rates, practitioners state that no great ‘criminal energy’ is required to exceed this

limit. Numerous practitioners reported cases where the degree o the penalty would havebeen much less had ’tolerated’ individuals had the means to engage a lawyer, or hadthey had more knowledge o the legal system and thereore been better aware o theiroptions. Many penalties would have been avoidable had competent legal representationbeen available.

Practitioners stressed, o course, that violations o the law should be suitably punished.However, they explained, since the right o residence title is o such critical signicance ora amily with children, in specic cases more discretion may be required in assessing thenature o the oence and the degree o integration. They outlined how the current stipula-tion exposes many people to deportation who are anything but ‘notorious criminals’ andsuggested that this can constitute senseless severity.

2.2.2.5 The best interests o the child

In the opinion o all social workers with rst-hand experience, the best interests o the childare not accorded sucient weight in residence decisions. The ‘long-stayer regulation’, ocourse, does contain clauses avouring amilies with children. In renewing a temporaryresidence permit, or example, an Aliens Authority can deduct the cost o children in edu-cation and proessional training rom its assessments o a amily’s means o supportingitsel. Families with children and single parents are also entitled to an extension o their

temporary residence permit where they are only temporarily in receipt o supplementarywelare payments.52 Nevertheless, this does not amount to accepting the best interests othe child as a consideration in its own right - let alone as a primary consideration, as re-quired by the UN Convention on the Rights o the Child.

Section 104b o the Residence Act is the subject o especially erce criticism. It provides orchildren o parents with ‘toleration’ status, aged between 14 and 17, to be issued a tempo-rary residence permit on the condition that the parents leave the country and guardianshipo the child is provided or. This regulation applies to all children over the age o 14 on 1July 2007, who have lived legally in Germany or at least six years, are competent in Ger-man and are assessed by Aliens Authorities as having a ‘positive integration prognosis’ on

account o their school attendance or proessional training.53



31

This splitting o the amily is criticised not just by social workers, but also bylawyers who perceive it to be in confict with Article 6 o the Federal Basic Law

which states that the amily shall enjoy the special protection o the state, and thatthe care and upbringing o children are “the natural right o parents and a dutyprimarily incumbent upon them”, and also in confict with the right to respect orprivate and amily lie, as guaranteed under Article 8 o the European Conven-tion or the Protection o Human Rights. Vehement objections have been raised incases where amilies have been separated as a result o some slight inraction bythe parents or a sibling.54 The Convention on the Rights o the Child also orbidsthe separation o children rom their parents.55

2.2.2.6 The Hardship Case CommissionArticle 23a o the Residence Act o 30 July 2004 empowers the Federal States toestablish Hardship Case Commissions to examine instances where special cir-cumstances pertain. On the basis o a hardship application rom such a Commis-sion, the Federal State supreme authorities can grant a temporary residence per-mit to the applicant concerned, irrespective o the prevailing legal preconditionsand regardless o whether or not an asylum application has been turned down.

This provision, which was initially intended to expire at the end o 2009, has beenextended indenitely.56 All Federal States have since established a Hardship CaseCommission.

Practitioners have testied that in their experience Hardship Case Commissionscan only partially oset the deciencies o the ‘long-stayer regulation’, and areunable to prevent many cases where children born and brought up in Germanyare exposed to deportation. In the written evaluation guidelines or the FederalState o North Rhine-Westphalia’s Hardship Case Commission, or example, theprecondition or qualication as a hardship case is an ‘atypical situation”. Sincecases will already have been examined by a court, “a strict standard o measure-ment must apply” – and “health complications alone will only be grounds or thegranting o a temporary residence permit in extreme, special situations.”57 Localspecialists and the Commissions have repeatedly disagreed on whether a particu-

lar amily qualies as a hardship case.The Federal States o Baden-Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt, which have col-lated the appropriate statistics, report that in recent years applications by peoplerom Kosovo have made up a considerable proportion o the total – most o theseapplicants being members o the minorities. Saxony-Anhalt’s gures or the years2005-2009 show that o 109 hardship applications (involving 387 people) – 32, or29 percent - related to people rom Kosovo. O the 34 applications to the Magde-burg Interior Ministry in the same our years, people rom Kosovo made up 16cases, or ully 47 percent. According to the most recent commission report, themain reason or applications was the “high degree o integration achieved over

many years o residence”. These cases particularly involved children either born inGermany or who arrived Germany as inants.58



32

O the applications to Baden-Württemberg’s Commission in 2009, 39 percent related topeople rom the ormer Yugoslavia, with Roma making up a substantial proportion; 14 per-

cent o all cases were people rom Kosovo. Statistics divided by country o origin were notavailable or the state o North Rhine-Westphalia.59 There are no statistics or the successrate o applications by country o origin. Baden-Württemberg recorded that in 2009, 58 per-cent o the 97 cases, involving 215 people, met with either success or partially success.60

2.2.2.7 ‘Sense o justice’

Interviews carried out as part o the local studies, as well as inormation rom other cities,point to an additional nding: the threat o deportation not only instils panic in the aectedparents and children; other people in the amily’s community are oten also let outraged

and incredulous. In many localities teachers and headteachers, parents o classmates andellow club members and other German riends and acquaintances have expressed theirpublic support or such amilies’ right to remain in Germany. It is instructive to note howmany o the German citizens involved in such actions have no previous history o en-gagement in migration and reugee issues. They only mobilised themselves when theirneighbours, ellow club members and their own children’s classmates were aected bydeportation. Cases where children who are well liked by their classmates and riends, andregarded as successully integrated in their local communities, but are then ordered toleave the country, provoke a sense among many German citizens that the behaviour o theauthorities violates a sense o justice.

In December 2009 in Schwäbisch Gmünd in Baden-Württemberg, or example, the localsports association took up the case o Selmir Bislimi, a 16 year-old rom a Kosovan Romaamily. He, his parents and his two sisters – both o whom had been born in Baden-Würt-temberg – had received an ‘order to leave’ rom the Stuttgart Regional Administrative Au-thority and aced deportation. His parents had been living in Germany since 1994. Theboy’s ather had undergone a bypass operation, suered rom diabetes, chronic hepatitisB and depression.61

In an open letter to the president o the Stuttgart Regional Council and Schwäbisch Gmündpoliticians, the Schwäbisch Gmünd Sports Association wrote: “Selmir is riendly and ex-tremely well liked among his comrades in the team; he can sometimes act the rogue and

drop nonchalant comments – but he’s not arrogant, and doesn’t lord it over others justbecause he can do amazing things with a ootball that would leave anyone else with theirlegs in a twist. Selmir throws himsel into the task, but never plays dirty or allows himselto loose control o his mouth – in all his years playing with us he has never once beengiven a red card. [...] Politicians oten make statements about the role sports clubs havein integrating youths with an immigration background. [...] In Selmir our club possesses aperect example o a sel-evident readiness to integrate and he, o all people, is now threat-ened with deportation.”

The sports association also addressed the ather’s psychological problems: “there’s an-other aspect to this case which touches us as ootballers. The suicide o goalkeeper RobertEnke has provoked Germany to refect on how depression aects us as a nation; we aretold rom all sides that we need to learn to show our weaknesses and support others in



33

their weakness. [...] How can we explain such a towering contradiction to theyoung ootballers in our association; on the one side we should all show more

sensitivity than we have in the past or the railties o our ellow men, our ellowplayers – and, on the other hand, it is somehow acceptable to take a man who issuering rom depression and orcibly eject him rom our country, together withhis amily, and into a completely uncertain uture, despite the act that he haslived in Germany or many years and made a home here. [...] We young ootball-ers at the Gmünd Sports Association urgently request Selmir and his amily bepermitted to stay in our community and not be pushed o into the unknown.“62

It is clear that in many localities where amilies rom Kosovo have long lived andare now being ordered to leave, there is a growing readiness to act in solidaritywith those aected. This was highlighted in September 2009 by the response to

“Initiative 302 – Save Your Neighbours“ in Münster.63

On this occasion the GGUA(a non-prot organisation supporting asylum-seekers) and Amnesty Internationalarranged a gathering o 302 German citizens in Münster’s pedestrian area wherethey were photographed together with local Roma, demonstrating their supportor the 302 Roma with ‘toleration’ status living in the city. Among them were theMembers o Parliament Ruprecht Polenz, CDU, and Christoph Strässer, SPD. Inthe southern Münster district o Berg Fidel, the riends’ association ‘Alte Post’ mo-bilised themselves in support o residence rights or Roma amilies rom Kosovo.In November 2009 the association passed a resolution against the deportation othe amilies and started collecting signatures.64 Another resolution by MünsterCity Council in September 2009, passed with votes rom all parties, petitioned the

North Rhine-Westphalia State Government to suspend deportations o Roma or 6months, thereby showing urther evidence o the broad support in the city or theamilies’ right to stay in Germany.65

2.2.2.8 Historical responsibility

One aspect o respondents’ sense o justice, which ound expression in manyinterviews, was Germany’s historical responsibility. A large proportion o socialworkers, educators, counsellors and citizens rom the communities o amilies

with ‘toleration’ status expressed their incomprehension that in decisions con-cerning the right to residence title the question o historical responsibility ap-peared to play no role, in contrast to cases involving Jewish immigrants romthe ormer Soviet Union. The ate o Sinti and Roma in the National Socialist con-centration and extermination camps, and as victims o mass shootings by Ger-man military and police units during the Second World War, is apparently o norelevance in contemporary political decision-making. Interviewees broached thisissue independently o one another and on their own initiative – there was no cor-responding question in the interview guidelines.66



34

2.3 Itegratio ad barriers to itegratio

In evaluating the particular orms o integration among parents and children, the eld omigration research has established grades o integration. The exact denitions o thesegrades vary rom author to author, but they are based on similar principles o analysis. Ac-cording to the denitions proposed by sociologist Friedrich Heckmann - which are in turnbased on the observations o Milton Gordon and Hartmut Esser - our grades o integrationcan be determined:

•Structural Integration: the degree to which a group has access to key societal

institutions - to education and training, the employment market, the housing

market and political community.

•Cultural Integration: attitudes, and patterns o cultural orientation and behaviour.

•Social Integration: contact within a community such as riendships, relations

with neighbours and membership in associations.

•Identifcational Integration: the sel-image o the migrant and their sense o be-

longing to ethnic, national, regional or local stakeholder groups.67

This model relates to labour migrants with long-term prospects in their destination coun-try. It is only o restricted application or ‘tolerated’ individuals, since their legal statusdid not originally intend, and in many respects deliberately prevented, their integration– or example, in long restricting their access to the employment market. Consequently,

while the interview guidelines orming the basis o this report did ollow the logic o thesegrades o integration, the presentations in the ollowing sections took their cues rom theproblems ound in the eld – such as language, schooling, employment, living conditions,welare, health and identity – in order to ully consider both the integration process andthe barriers to it.

2.3.1 Language

Language ability is decisive in the integration process. Interviews with amilies and chil-dren revealed a picture dierentiated by generation, a nding conrmed by the socialworkers and educators consulted. Within the parents’ generation language competencyvaries widely; while some speak good German, many possess only a modest capacity ormaking themselves understood, sucient to meet their daily needs, but strictly limitingtheir ability to express complex issues.

Social workers expressed no surprise at this nding, citing the living conditions o ’toler-ated’ individuals since their arrival in Germany, especially the way in which they had beensegregated rom the rest o the population in accommodation centres, obliging them tokeep to themselves and removing any need to speak much German on a daily basis. Sinceno prospect o acquiring residence was oered to them, many initially elt little motivationto develop their language skills. At the same time, those who did wish to learn German

had little opportunity to do so. A local social services employee explained that the only



35

language classes made available to individuals on arrival in Germany were im-provised lessons given by volunteers; no proessional personnel were assigned

and there was nothing like the opportunities oered, or example, to immigrantsrom the Soviet Union.68

In comparison, those children who have attended primary school in Germany areable to speak German well. They grow up bilingual. Children rom Roma amiliesinterviewed or the report described speaking Romany with their parents and Ger-man with their siblings. Parents complained o oten being unable to understandwhat their children were saying to one another, and social workers observed thatchildren were unamiliar with some terms in Romany. Practitioners also notedthat some parents have been able to improve their knowledge o German due totheir children’s prociency in the language.

2.3.2 Compulsory schooling and success at school

Until early 2005 schooling was not compulsory in 8 o the 16 Federal States orasylum-seeking children or those who had a toleration status in Germany. The lawhas subsequently been changed: the North Rhine-Westphalia State parliamentpassed a new education act in January 2005, which in Section 24 (6) expresslymade schooling compulsory or such children. In Saxony-Anhalt the amendmentprovisions o a memorandum rom the State Culture Minister came into eect inAugust 2005, making schooling compulsory or oreign children. In Baden-Würt-

temberg the State Parliament amended Section 72 o the education law, also mak-ing schooling compulsory or tolerated and asylum-seeking children.69

Consequently, by early 2010 schooling was compulsory or all the children in theStates examined or this report. However, in evaluating the school and trainingcareers o the young generation o aliens in Germany as a whole, this late intro-duction o compulsory schooling or aected children in many parts o Germa-ny should be taken into account. Beore these administrative changes, childrendid in theory already have a right to schooling, but whether children were ableto exercise this right depended on whether their parents were willing and able,whether they were well-inormed about the German education system, and were

suciently procient in German to establish contact and lodge applications witheducation oces and schools. Another variable was the readiness o the schoolsconcerned to admit such children, and whether they had adequate personnel andspace to do so. In sum, this explains why a proportion o children were absentrom school or years, especially in places where there were accommodation cen-tres but no local social workers to oer support in schooling matters.70

2.3.2.1 Above-average reerrals to special schools

The spectrum o educational achievement or the children o Kosovan Roma,

Ashkali and Egyptian amilies in Germany is broad. Despite all o the obstaclesaced by these amilies, many children have coped well at school, some even very



36

well. Yet overwhelmingly, the practitioners interviewed or this report conrmed that theproportion o Roma children attending schools or pupils with learning diculties, and inneed o special assistance, was signicantly above average. O the Roma amilies inter-

viewed, many also conrmed that they had children in special schools. At the same time,only very ew school children make it to secondary school. There are no precise gureshere, however, since the Federal States only record educational statistics by pupils’ nation-ality, not by ethnic origin.71

This over-representation at special schools has been observable or some time. A 2006/2007study by the Centre or Research on Anti-Semitism (ZA) at the Technische Universitaet(TU) Berlin made reerence to this problem. It is also amiliar to those aware o the historyo the German Sinti since the Second World War. In many German cities Sinti have or dec-ades been automatically transerred to special schools.72

The high proportion o these children at special schools seems to be at odds with the tes-timony o many youth workers and social workers, who insist these children are just as in-telligent and curious as others. However, the phenomenon becomes explicable when oneconsults academic research on special school reerrals. It has been proved that childrenrom socially marginalised segments o the population have a much higher risk o beingsent to special schools. In schools or children with learning diculties, certain migrantgroups are over-represented - especially those rom Turkey or Italy, whose parents comerom communities with weak traditions o education – as are German children rom work-ing class amilies, amilies o the long-term unemployed and amilies with a large numbero children.73

In all these population groups risk actors can be discerned that also aect Kosovan Roma

amilies: many parents come rom low status, low income and poorly educated commu-nities with weak traditions o education. A proportion o the parents have only modestor even no schooling behind them and the number o illiterates among the parents is arhigher than the average or comparable groups in German society. Many children growup in households where reading and writing plays scarcely any role. Parents are unable tooer children support in coping with the pressures o school. They have little knowledge othe German school system and are thereore unaware o what reerral to a special schoolmeans or a child’s uture; nor are they inormed o their right to a voice in the matter andthereore put up much less resistance to such a decision than parents rom more educatedpopulation groups.

2.3.2.2 Segregation and school

In isolated accommodation centres, children grow up in a Romany-speaking environmentbeore reaching school age. Their German is oten inadequate when they start school, es-pecially i they have had no access to leisure activities where German is spoken, and ithey attended Kindergarten late or not at all.74 Living in the crowded conditions prevailingin accommodation centres, school-age children do not nd space to study or to do theirhomework. One amily ather reported living in one room in a Stuttgart accommodationcentre, together with his wie and our children.75 Many teachers are also largely unaware

o the conditions in which these children live, and so do not take this aspect into accountwhen assessing their progress at school.76



37

Fear o deportation puts children under yet more pressure, urther compromisingtheir educational development. Again, not all teachers are sensitised to this issue.A teacher rom Münster explained that children rarely bring up these problems o

their own volition: “It takes a while to appreciate what is going on. And suddenly,they have something to tell you; that their grandmother cries the whole night andmum cannot sleep.” But it doesn’t come out immediately. The children also havea sel-protection mechanism. Although the children experience school as a saeplace, “when the amily is together and the night draws in, that’s when it getstough, that’s when the big problems emerge.”77

Remote accommodation centres seem to breed an atmosphere unconducive toeducation, in contrast to a living environment where amilies have more contactwith other population groups. This can be observed, or example, in the Coerdedistrict o Münster: where individuals are housed in a neighbourhood together

with other population groups, social workers have noticed that awareness o theimportance o completing school has grown. No such improvement has beennoticed among those living in accommodation centres where amilies live onlyamong one another.78

For those pupils in special schools, reerral amounts to a one-way street, and onlya small proportion nd their way back to regular schools.79This is why the workinggroup ‘Third World’ (AGDW) in Stuttgart, or example, runs an initiative to keepchildren in normal schools, despite recommendations to transer them to specialschools. They attest that the children make good progress, provided they get sup-port rom their parents and social workers.80 One way o supporting children with

special needs, without closing the door to a regular school, is or schools to havean inclusive educational provision, such as the one that the primary school inBerg Fidel has set up under the principle o ‘teaching diversity’. Social work anddedicated proessionals support those children with special educational needs oras long as necessary, without removing them rom the primary school.81

According to the inormation currently available, there is no sign that the specialeducational needs identied or many children in Germany will be continue to besupported in Kosovo.

2.3.2.3 Proessional training and barriers to trainingThe poor progress made by part o the minority members while at school neces-sarily aects their chances o nding an apprenticeship. Even pupils who gain aschool-leaving certicate have diculties, especially when their graduation gradeis below average. Their prospects are urther compromised by their tolerationstatus. As social workers and young people themselves report, employers otenreuse to engage applicants with toleration status because they eel unsure thesepotential trainees will be available to work ater the toleration expires: “I can’t besure that you will still be around in six months,” a youth rom Münster quoted anemployer as saying. Another youth rom Stuttgart reported: “Many employers

laugh at me when I show them my certicate o toleration status: ‘What, you’vebeen here 20 years?’ You eel humiliated.”82



38

The director o the Caritas Migration Service in Stuttgart stated that many employers inter-pret the expiry date on a certicate o toleration status as the date at which their residencewill be terminated, since they are not amiliar with the complexities o aliens law: “A smallenterprise, such as a workshop, has no idea about aliens law, and doesn’t expect that theboy will be allowed to stay. We spend a lot o energy convincing people that the applicantwill be allowed to stay but will not be issued with a ‘toleration’ with a longer expiry date.In our case it’s mostly three months [...]. How are you going to convince an ordinary mor-tal that the boy will still be in Germany to complete his three-year training, since he hasalready been here or 15 years or was born here?”83

Many employers, social workers report, exploit these straightened circumstances andpay a minimal hourly rate, because they know that the young people have little choice. AStuttgart youth, who would dearly like to train as a painter and varnisher, but has so aronly been able to nd poorly-paid jobs, described his situation: “You need the money, o

course, you have to do something. So you just grit your teeth and get on with it.”84

Social workers also relate how many youths, under pressure rom the insecure lie theylead as ’tolerated’ individuals, tend to take jobs paying quick money, rather than thinkinglong-term and completing an apprenticeship. They are motivated both by the desire to con-tribute to their amily’s livelihood - and thereby to their chance o being granted residence- and by the opportunity to save some money or what is an uncertain uture. Without aschool-leaving certicate they are able to nd only short-term, unskilled jobs - through atemping agency, or example, or at a meatpacking rm during the summer grill season.85

2.3.2.4 Mentoring projectsMentoring projects have proved themselves in cities such as Münster and Stuttgart to be asuccessul way o tackling the disadvantages with which the children start their lives. Since2005 the GGUA (a non-prot organisation supporting asylum-seekers) has run the ‘Schlau-berger’ (‘wise guy’) project in cooperation with the municipal authorities and schools. Theproject involves 75 volunteer school sponsors who between them currently mentor 90 chil-dren rom reugee and other amilies, including many tolerated members o Kosovan mi-norities. Each sponsor supports one child, as a rule, oering regular help with homework,reading to them, talking with them or playing with them, and acting as a condant wherediculties arise.86 Since 2009 the GGUA has been running the ‘Schlauberger II’ project

at a school in the Coerde district o Münster, oering German classes or mothers o thechildren, as well as talks on schooling and parenting matters. Mothers are also given theopportunity to sit in on lessons, aording them an insight into everyday lie at a Germanschool.

For the last ve years the working group ‘Third World’ (AGDW) in Stuttgart, which receivesunding rom the municipality, has run the project ‘Adults help youth – mentors or youngpeople’. The project oers support to young people, including those rom Kosovan Romaand Ashkali amilies rom an accommodation centre in the city district o Sillenbuch. As inMünster, children and young people between the ages o 10 and 20 are matched with theirown sponsor, who helps them with their homework or gives them coaching in particular

subjects. A ew o the youths have managed to secure an internship or gain a high schoolleaving certicate as a result o the help they received through this program. According



39

to its coordinator, another great achievement o the project is in oering childrenwho lack a stable amily background the chance to eel accepted in a relationshipthey sense they can rely upon.87

2.3.3 The consequences o residential segregation

Münster constitutes an instructive testing ground, where both the disadvantag-es o segregated accommodation centres and the opportunities oered by newconcepts can be examined. In one part o the city some o the Kosovan Romaamilies still live in segregated accommodation, while other amilies rom theminority have meanwhile been distributed among houses in various other loca-tions around the city. These new accommodations were erected in accordancewith a resolution passed by the city council in 2000. It oresaw the accommoda-tion centre in Münster using small acilities each designed or about 50 people,instead o in mass accommodation intended or 225 people. In their construction,these new accommodations were designed to blend in with the existing housesin the area, in order to prevent neighbours perceiving them as alien. In 2003,individuals moved into the rst accommodations built in accordance with theproject, as terraced houses in the Albachten district o the city.88 The acilities areeach intended or 50 people, ensuring both that the inhabitants aren’t let alone toend or themselves, and that their presence doesn’t provoke ear o being over-run among neighbours.89

It also proved possible to prevent the construction o an isolated residential pro-

ject in Coerde, in the north o Münster. Tolerated amilies now live there in thesame neighbourhood as middle class amilies. This has not resolved all problems:the dicult conditions or children trying to do their homework in cramped liv-ing conditions remain. But the project was able to avoid the stigmatisation that isaroused elsewhere by the sight o neglected accommodation centres. This allowschildren growing up in Münster’s Coerde district - within the strict legal, nancialand social restrictions imposed by their status, at least - the chance to experiencenormal lie in a German city, rather than looking on rom outside. More alien tothese children than any experience is Kosovo, which exists or them only as acomposite o accounts they have heard rom relatives.90

Some o the ’tolerated’ individuals in Münster, though, live in more challengingconditions – such as in an estate on the outskirts o an industrial park in the districto Berg Fidel. The many ways in which segregated accommodation can rustrateattempts to integrate children are clearly visible here.

Even beore the city decided to house ’’tolerated’ amilies in the estate, it hadalready allen into disrepute as shelter or homeless people. Many residents osurrounding areas regarded the inhabitants o the estate with mistrust. Anyoneliving here, reported social workers, is already holding a short straw as soon aspotential employers or those oering apprenticeships notice their address. Otherindividuals in Münster have been orced to live in similarly segregated accommo-

dation in recent years, or example in estates in the west o the city.91



40

Social workers describe the estate in Berg Fidel as an ‘enclave’ and claim there is onlysparse contact between inhabitants and residents o the surrounding area. For a long time

this was also true or the children. While integration at school had succeeded, beyondschool adolescents went their separate ways: children rom the estate were not represent-ed at youth acilities in the district, and children rom the area had rejected contact withRoma rom the estate.

It now ell to youth work to oster encounters between the groups, step by step; or exam-ple, the opening o a community centre in Berg Fidel oering entertainment or childrenand young people soon resulted in riendships between children uncomplicated by theirdierent backgrounds; children rom Roma amilies, rom the ormer Soviet Union andGerman amilies. Where such opportunities or encounters existed, the children’s dierentbackgrounds ceased to matter.92

Reports rom segregated accommodations in other cities describe how estates o this na-ture result in children being marginalised: cramped conditions mean that children are un-able to invite riends home. Many children are also ashamed o their situation, and it isunderstandable that many children and parents rom the majority community were sodeterred by the sight o the neglected environment o many o these accommodation cen-tres, that the idea o visiting schoolmates who lived there would scarcely occur to them.Large communal accommodations act as a multiplier o problems. People o dierent ori-gins are obliged to live together in cramped conditions with little in the way o resources.Psychological pressure, uncertainty about the uture and conficts oppress the atmosphere.Families able to secure a temporary residence permit move out and nd better integrationprospects in the residential areas o the city, leaving those let behind all the more keenlyaware o their isolation. For children and young people, this segregation also means im-poverishment in terms o restricted opportunities to socialise, and in the variety o theireveryday experiences. Social workers tell how hard it is or someone to regard themselvesas an inhabitant o the city o Münster, when they have barely ever known the city beyondtheir estate and their immediate environment. This has prompted social workers, on behalo the youth oce, to attempt to break through this isolation by running weekly outings orchildren. These have included using city busses to visit playgrounds, museums and othermunicipal acilities.93

2.3.4 Diminished welare benets

The Law on Social Assistance or Asylum-Seekers provides or support at a rate signi-cantly below that enjoyed by German welare recipients, urther restricting children’s op-portunities to participate in the lie enjoyed by others their age. Social workers report thatchildren are oten prevented rom taking part in class trips because their parents are un-able to nd the necessary €30 or €40, prompting social services sta to raid piggy banksor unds in order to spare children yet another experience o isolation.94

A member o sta at non-governmental organisation in Magdeburg also illustrated howrestricted welare benets set up barriers to the integration o children: she related the sto-ry o a boy in a amily she knows who had no problems at school and played ootball at aclub, but suddenly repeatedly missed school and stopped showing up or ootball practice.



42

2.3.5.2 Psychological illnesses and the eect on children

According to experts rom the counselling services and the charities interviewed, a con-siderable proportion o the Kosovan minorities suer rom psychological illnesses, someseverely. In the Psycho-Social Counselling Centre or Migrants in Halle, which oers assis-tance to individuals rom across Saxony-Anhalt, about one third o clients are Roma romKosovo.

The most requent diagnoses are post-traumatic stress disorders caused by war and fight,anxiety disorders and depressions. Clients oten present with a combination o many ill-nesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or panic attacks due to anxiety disordersas well as depression. The counselling centres estimate that between 30 percent and 40percent o reugee and ’tolerated’ individuals suer rom psychological illnesses. Advisers,too, report that depressions are widespread among the amilies.98

Many people have been traumatised ater witnessing the deaths o amily members andbrutal violence in 1998-1999, as well as through losing their home and by weeks spent onthe run during the chaos o war, in ear o their lives. Families who had once thought them-selves at home in their villages suddenly experienced their neighbours as deadly enemies,losing the very ground under their eet as all their assumptions and trust in the worldaround them ell apart. Many clients in the counselling centres witnessed the executionand rape o amily members with their own eyes, powerless to help. Others were orcedto carry bodies, sometimes corpses in a state o decomposition, to mass graves. Childrensaw their siblings die during their amily’s escape. Women requently seek out counsellingor the rape – oten multiple rapes – they suered during the war and in its atermath. Ex-

periences such as these have a grave impact on a whole amily. Discussing sexual violenceinringes on cultural taboos and puts relationships under stress.99

Those aected are repeatedly exposed to trauma. They are held prisoner by fashbacksthat bring back an episode rom the war or a rape into the present, prising them rom re-ality and preventing them rom meeting the challenges o everyday lie, such as regularemployment. The director o the Counselling Centre or Victims o Political Persecution inStuttgart relates stories o people who experienced artillery bombardments during the warand who, even years later, can look out o the window and think their surroundings areafame. Family members oten nd themselves having to snap their traumatised relativesout o a spell, convincing them they are now in Germany and the war is over. Then there

are the nightmares and the sleeplessness, too.100

Those traumatised in this way are requently unable to play any meaningul role in amilylie. Specialists tell o people who sit passively around the home or days on end; the TVwill oten be on, but they won’t be able even to ocus on the program. Many o the patientssuer rom dissociation disorders, perceiving themselves to be cut o rom the world,rom their own thoughts and their own bodies. Their relationships with amily membersand others suer because these illnesses prevent the experience and expression o normalemotions. Patients themselves report exhaustion, hopelessness and loss o enjoyment inlie, as well as eelings o isolation and thoughts o suicide.101

Those suering rom anxieties are sometimes unable to leave their homes, rendering them

incapable o pursuing employment. A specialist related a typical case o a woman working



43

as a cleaner whose husband is sick and cannot be let alone; so she takes him towork every morning, where he sits or hours on a stool, waiting or his wie to take

him back home at the end o the day. Given the strong amily-centred traditionsprevailing in these communities, amilies bear the responsibilities o illnesses somatter-o-actly that even trained counsellors and social workers, who have builtup a close relationship o trust with the amilies, oten discover the daily burdensborne by the whole amily only accidentally and too late.102

In many amilies the ear o deportation and o being returned to what they con-sider to be a hostile environment in Kosovo looms so large that it is sucient toprovoke anxiety disorders and, among some people, ear or their lives. Sta atcounselling centres reports that ear o an impending deportation means parentsand children can no longer sleep at night. Parents have been known to spend hal

the night at the window, listening out or the sounds o engines. Children cansense the ear in the air and lie awake.103

Research by experts shows that even violence not experienced rsthand can pro-voke psychological illness. News rom Kosovo o the murder o a amily memberor the loss o home and property, as well as years o uncertainty about the ateso amily members, oten inficts psychological disorders. Where amily membershave been let behind and then murdered, eelings o guilt are not uncommon.

Attempts to deal with these problems are rustrated by the lack o public under-standing o the severity and extent o these illnesses. There is little appreciationo the way that psychiatric illness can distort the lie o a suerer and their amily.

Traumatised individuals are invalids and are in no way to be seen as people whoare ‘a little bit sad’ and trying to secure a temporary residence permit by trick-ery.104 In Germany the concept o post-traumatic stress disorder has become bet-ter appreciated due to the reports o German Armed Forces soldiers traumatisedby the experiences o war in Aghanistan. Discussion o the psychological suer-ing o reugees, however, has so ar been restricted to the specialist community.

Psychological illness aects children in two ways. Some experienced traumaticexperiences at rst hand while still young - or example, the death o a siblingwhile the amily was on the run. On the other hand, they suer as a result o theirparents’ psychological illnesses, when the person bringing them up and acting as

the guarantor o their emotional stability is partially or completely lost to them.Some children never experience their parents as autonomous individuals withwhom they enjoy a protective relationship.

Where one or both parents suer rom anxiety disorders, depressions and post-traumatic stress disorders, over the long-term a amily will be pushed into a des-perate situation. The state o crisis becomes a ormative experience or children.A sick mother or ather represents more than a lost parent or the child; they willalso tie up a great deal o the remaining amily members’ energies. Counsellorstell o amilies where the eldest daughter has to accompany her ather every-where because he is incapable o orientating himsel alone. There are many caseswhere at least one child must be present to give round-the-clock care to a sickparent. A urther aspect is that as part o their socialisation, children will imitate



44

the behaviour o their parents. A child whose mother does not dare to set oot outside thehouse, may themselves develop anxieties about walking around independently.105

Children in reugee and ’tolerated’ amilies oten take on a measure o responsibility ortheir parents and siblings beyond their cognitive and emotional ability to cope. Psycholo-gists describe this process where children are orced into a parenting role, oreiting theirown childhoods in the process, as ‘parentication’. Since children speak better Germanthan their parents, giving them a surer understanding o certain situations, there is alreadya tendency or them to have to act as mediators between their parents and the authorities,lawyers or doctors. They learn early on how to present the public ace o their amilies insuch a way that existing problems can at least be held in check.

This leads on the one hand to an inappropriate degree o intimacy between the genera-tions, or example, when children have to translate or a parent during a visit to the doc-

tor. On the other hand, the amily hierarchy is disturbed, with children quick to grasp theirparents’ dependence on them, undermining parental authority together with the infuenceneeded to bring up children. When children are obliged to take on a greater degree o re-sponsibility or their parents and siblings, this will be at the expense o their progress atschool. Counsellors and educational services alike reported that 14 year-olds rom Romaamilies acted like 17 year-olds. One expert counsellor described children rom Roma andAshkali amilies orced to live under constant pressure rom an early age as ‘strugglerchildren’.106

Counsellors identied the uncertain status as a central problem encountered in their work.Secure personal circumstances are a prerequisite or health. Where the law ails to grant

security, as one expert put it during an interview, psychologists can’t create it by magicin therapy. Part o personal security as a victim is the knowledge that the perpetrator hasbeen punished and has lost their reedom o action. As ar as many patients are concerned,a return to Kosovo means living with the risk o being at the perpetrators’ mercy again.107

Anyone would become depressed, said a worker at a counselling centre, living a helplessand dependent lie or years, unable to see amily members as a result o their residenceobligation, cut o in an accommodation centre and threatened with the possibility o be-ing sent out o the country. In that sense, patients are reacting normally to their situation.Those wanting to see an improvement in these people’s health must rst improve the con-ditions in which they live. Given current conditions healing is barely possible, rather eorts

are ocussed around suicide prevention, providing some relie rom suering and bringingabout a state o equilibrium, at least temporarily, and however ragile. This has broughtresults, nevertheless, such as reductions in the high requency o visits to the doctor, andclients becoming independent o aids and medication.108

Counsellors describe patients rom Roma and Ashkali amilies as regular and punctualvisitors to their therapy sessions, even ater Aliens Authorities have ceased their apprais-al and attendance is no longer compulsory. Even though psychotherapy is new to mostpatients, they experience tangible relie, expressing gratitude or this opportunity to talkabout experiences with which they have struggled or years.109

The counselling centres or migrants do not apply any therapies specically or members

o Kosovan minorities, who are subject to the same treatment as other individuals trauma-



45

tised by persecution, war and fight. In this sense, patients are able to understandtheir reactions as normal responses to extreme situations, rather than the result

o personal inadequacies. During interviews, experts emphasised how importantit was to the patients that their stories and suerings were accorded respect. Pa-tients experience consideration in these sessions which they encounter hardlyanywhere else.110

2.3.5.3 Lack o access to therapy

Access to therapy varies rom region to region. In Saxony-Anhalt in early 2010 acounselling centre in Halle supported by the charity ‘Diakonisches Werk’ were re-porting a waiting list o between our and ve months. Interviewed experts state

that welare oces rarely agree to reimburse travel costs, so amilies must coverthe journey rom their accommodation – which might lie at some distance romHalle - rom their own meagre monthly budget. From 2009 the counselling centrewon the discretion to reimburse travel costs itsel, resulting in an easing o thesituation.111

The ‘residence obligation’ requires ’tolerated’ individuals and asylum-seekers toapply or a ‘leave pass’ in order to travel out o their district. While therapy appearsto be accessible in the Stuttgart area, in Münster the provision o nearby therapyhas been judged as inadequate. Without access to psychotherapeutic treatment,patients are oten let to all back on the insucient option o medication.112

2.3.5.4 Long-term humanitarian leave to remain

Where the Aliens Authorities identiy a psychological illness as an impedimentto leaving the country, they may issue a temporary residence permit on humani-tarian grounds. Counsellors note that the problem with this measure is that thetemporary residence permits only last or as long as the illness is present. Thisputs the patient in a dicult situation. While the degree o suering borne by thepatient is so high that no one would deliberately delay the process o recovery,patients are nevertheless aware that recovery means the end o their amily’s se-

curity o residence. This adds a subconscious complication to the therapy.113

It has been the practice to question the veracity o illnesses that are only diag-nosed and raised late on in the asylum application procedure. There may be genu-ine reasons why illnesses only become apparent, even to social workers withlong-term contact with the amily, ater a period o years have passed. Shame andtaboos can prevent women rom speaking about rape. Many ear being stigma-tised as ‘crazy’, and amilies with such little exposure to education have hardly anyunderstanding o psychotherapeutic treatments. A ew people also do not nd outuntil late that their psychological suering can be taken into account in granting atemporary residence permit on humanitarian grounds.



46

2.3.5.5 The threat o deportation and psychological suering

Besides psychological illnesses, the threat o deportation heightens the tension in amilies.The Stuttgart social worker and educational specialist Brigitte John-Onyeali has describedthese amilies as being under constant pressure and in constant ear.114 A young womanrom a Roma amily bore out this assessment: “Sometimes I go to sleep in my clothes.Perhaps we’ll be deported during the night. Who knows? (...) The ear is always there.”115 Children are immediately exposed to this atmosphere o ear, especially those that have totranslate letters about their legal situation or their parents.116

This ear nds expression in dierent ways. Practitioners rom advice centres, social ser-vices and schools describe children with concentration problems, slackening perormanceat school or aggression as a result o the threat o deportation. Children nd it hard to cope

with the sensation o being not just an unwanted part o society, but as an element theircountry o residence is actively trying to expel. 117 A teacher rom Münster explained thatchildren were simply unable to understand why they couldn’t stay.118 A social worker addedthat children did not want to talk about the issue, were ashamed and tried to block out theirear.119 Many observers in the amilies’ communities reported a certain ‘over-conormity’provoked by ear, an attempt to meet all demands made o them as inconspicuously aspossible, regardless o whether these seemed reasonable or not.

The high rate o illnesses in many amilies has made them earul o being unable to accessor aord desperately needed treatments and medication in Kosovo. Such ears are hardlyassuaged by assurances that medicines must surely be available in Kosovo, since they arealready aware o numerous reports about the poor provision o medical care there.120

2.3.6 Identity

Integration research regards identity as an important indicator. Consequently, intervieweeswere asked questions about what home meant to them and about their sense o belong-ing. Some children, who had grown up in segregated accommodation centres, identiedwith a group no larger than the inhabitants o their immediate environment, and when outtogether in the surrounding district they associated themselves with an underdog perso-na. Children who had grown up in an environment with other population groups identied

more strongly with their city district. Children and social workers rom Münster-Coerdereported a “we lot rom Coerde” sense o identity, expressed in opposition to what thechildren perceive to be the better-o neighbouring districts.121

All the children and young people questioned consider their surrounding environment,where they have spent their childhood, to be their home. Erdzan, a twenty-three year-oldrom Münster’s Coerde district, was asked about his home and responded: “We grew uphere, we know everything around here, we went to school here”.122The young man is activein the ‘AWO-Jugendwerk’, the AWO youth organisation. He not only takes part in leisureactivities there, but also runs some o them, such as a cooking course or children. A youthin Stuttgart replied. “There’s no city I like as much as Stuttgart. This is where our lie is.“ 123



47

2.3.6.1 ‘Toleration’ status as a symbol o exclusion

At the same time, or 23 year-old Erdzan rom Münster, who came to Germany atthe age o 1, his toleration status remains a constant symbol o exclusion, suchas when he goes to a disco: “Say I go out, to have a good time, and the bouncerasks to see my identity, then I’ll be ashamed to show it to him, even though I haveit with me. Imagine what they think when they see it, even ater 22 years livingin Germany.”124 Since many discos, according to the young people, have an uno-cial quota system anyway, and bouncers have instructions only to let in a certainnumber o oreigners, the young people eel that their toleration status amountsto additional discrimination.

2.3.6.2 Perspectives on KosovoThose children and youths interviewed, unanimously declared that there was nouture or them in Kosovo. They are greatly araid o being deported to a countrythey consider to be alien. Every amily, says social worker Gabriele Hess romMünster, knows amilies who have already been deported, “the horror stories getaround.”125This ear is only amplied by the e-mail and Internet contact that youthshave tried to establish with those who have already been deported to Kosovo. 126 Children at their own age have been telling them o their desperation at no longerbeing able to make themselves understood in German. They know that their de-ported relatives are attempting to save money to return to Western Europe, be-

cause they see no uture in Kosovo. Once deported, children oten pressure theirparents into returning to the country they consider to be their home. Hess thinksthat the amilies will attempt to return, should they indeed be deported, even atthe cost o indebting themselves and having to make do with worse conditions.127

Esat, a twenty-six year-old, related the story o a relative who has already beensent back: “He’s just said; ‘it is really really bad here, I can’t see any lie or me atall, I’d rather go with my amily and drown than live like this.’ That’s pretty bru-tal.”128 Hess suggested this is quite representative o the attitude o young Roma:“They won’t stay there. It will be impossible or them to accept a lie like that. Theyhave been ‘Europeanised’, and they have the expectations that go with that. The

young people want a car, a house, a good wie, two kids and want to live in peace,just as other Europeans do. That’s their dream. That is not something they will beable to attain in Kosovo, because they know very well that when they go into thevillage there will be people looking to beat them up, and people who will look theother way. (...) I you were to put them up in a ten-room villa with a DSL connec-tion, they still wouldn’t stay there.“129

Other specialists also reported that a large number o children and young peopledo not regard Kosovo as their country. A young Roma rom Stuttgart said: “Imag-ine it – you live here or 20 years. You don’t know any other country any more. Forus, Germany is our country.”130



48

2.3.7. Excursus: one example among many:

Family X, rom Ahaus

Whenever one looks into the stories o members o Kosovan minorities with ‘toleration’status living in German cities, the same themes emerge again and again, however par-ticular the case o each individual amily may also be. The situation o ‘amily X’ rom theNorth-Rhine Westphalian town o Ahaus, near the Dutch border, is in many respects rep-resentative o the situation o a great many Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians with ‘toleration’status. It shows how even integrated amilies all at the hurdle o the ‘long-stayer regula-tion’ and highlights the scant regard oten given to the best interests o the children, aswell as the psychological and social eects o deportation.

Vedat and Serji X are married and have our children: Senaid, 18; Senjur, 15; Erduan, 7; and

their daughter Altenesa, 9. Family X has lived in Germany or 18 years. Their eldest sonarrived at the age o six-months old, the other children were born in Germany. Their young-est son Erduan has a serious asthma condition.

Vedat X, the ather, has been in employment or ten years, and during this time he hasonly once claimed social welare payments: during a period o a ew months ollowingthe insolvency o his then employer. Since 2008 Mr X has worked as a powder-coater at acompany in Ahaus. His wie Serji works as a cleaner in a health centre. Their daughter goesto primary school in Ahaus, two sons attend the Don Bosco special school and their old-est son Senaid has completed a vocational course. People who have known the amily oryears describe them as integrated to an exemplary degree. One testimony to this is Mr X’syears o employment, despite his three-month toleration status, which acts as a red fag ormany employers. Vedat X claims that beore each expiry, his boss makes a point o askinghim i he can reckon on his continued presence, since he values his work.

Both the headteacher o the Don Bosco School and the social worker there arm that theamily is successully integrated, that the parents support their children’s school careers,attend parents’ evenings and otherwise stay in close contact with the school. In languageterms too, integration is at an advanced stage: the children speak German among them-selves, while the parents speak both German and Romany. The mother, Serji X, attended atwo-year German language course or adults at the Don Bosco School.

The amily eels at home in Ahaus. Vedat X cannot imagine a uture or his children in Ko-

sovo: “The children have been born here and belong here.” He, too, has put down his ownroots: “Germany is my country now. I say that not only with words, but I eel it to be true inmy heart.“ Many in Ahaus sympathise; the headteacher said the amily has received muchsupport since the local press reported their story.

Vedat X comes rom Vushtrri, also Vučitrn, in northern Kosovo. His amily, he remembers,was well established there and owned a two-storey house. In the 1970s and 1980s his a-ther worked as a Yugoslav guest worker at a mine in Oberhausen. During the Kosovo Warthe house was destroyed and all relatives and riends let the city. The rest o his amilynow live in Germany. He tells how last year his uncle attempted to inspect the amily plot,but was challenged by local Albanians and was only able to take a photograph beorequickly leaving the area.



49

Vedat X believes that the Aliens Authority responsible or his amily’s case reusedhim a temporary residence permit under the provisions o the ‘long-stayer regu-

lation’ because his name is recorded in the Federal Central Criminal Register asthe result o two convictions, whose combined daily-rate ne total exceeds themaximum stipulated by the ‘long-stayer regulation’. “I made two mistakes,” hesays. The convictions concerned relate to two occasions, in 1996 and 2006, whenhe used his EC debit card without sucient sums being present in his account.Under the ‘long-stayer regulation’, this is sucient grounds to deny the wholeamily their chance o a temporary residence permit. “I paid or the mistake,” saysVedat X, “I accepted the punishment, but do not understand why they are nowinficting this pressure on my children.”

The school social worker explained how the pressure has aected the children’s

everyday lives; how 15 year-old Senjur X had been one o the most reliable andleast troublesome o pupils, even being appointed class preect or a time. Sincethe amily has lived in ear o deportation, however, Senjur has been preoccupied,morose and withdrawn. This account rang true during the interview with the am-ily, during which Senjur sat silently as i in shock. Senjur’s case is representativeo numerous children his age among local Kosovan Roma amilies. Many reuseto sleep in the parental home any more due to ear o deportation to Kosovo.

The headteacher o the special school said that in her opinion the act that an unu-sually high proportion o children rom Kosovan Roma amilies require specialassistance is due to these amilies’ ragile situations. Fear o being orced to leavetheir home hinders their progress at school. The restlessness suered by childrenliving under threat o deportation aects even their classmates. She quotes letterswritten by these classmates to the Borken district commissioner: “Dear DistrictCommissioner, we have learnt that my best riend Senjur X is to be deported. I amnot happy that he is to be deported because we play together outside every day.Without him it will be very boring. He never causes any trouble o any kind. Hespeaks good German. So I don’t understand why he is to be deported. He is veryinterested in school, he doesn’t bunk school. His brothers and sister are all reallynice, and Senjur’s parents are also really nice and unny. Senjur’s parents areriendly and have lived in Germany or 18 years. He was born in Ahaus. That’s whyI am asking that he be allowed to stay. I will be very happy i he is allowed to stay.”

An application on behal o the amily to the North Rhine-Westphalia State Hard-ship Commission in February 2010 ailed. The Caritas Reugee Advice Centre inneighbouring Gronau, in cooperation with the headteacher o the Don BoscoSchool and an integration assistant, have submitted an application to the petitioncommittee o the State parliament. At the time o writing, no answer had yet beenreceived.



50

2.4 Right o residece title betwee

political itetio ad social realit

2.4.1 A lie with a uture as a precondition or integration

The perspective to obtain a residence title is according to the ‘long-stayer regulation’ areward or successul integration. Social work practitioners – as well as many migrationresearchers – claim this relationship must be appreciated rom the opposite perspective:those who are to be integrated must rst have a uture, and this requires legal security andsecurity o status.

Without exception, those specialists interviewed stressed that a secure prospect o resi-

dence or amilies was essential i children and youths were to be well integrated in theirschools, training places, the employment market and in their local environment. “It wouldall be easier, explained a teacher in Münster, i it just went without saying that the childrenbelong here.”131 Practitioners describe the atmosphere o insecurity as the key problemaecting their work. Among the experts rom social services, schools and psychologicalcounselling centres interviewed, not a single person considered the deportation o chil-dren who have grown up in Germany to be deensible. Many o these experts did acceptthe principle that those with ‘toleration’ status be sent back to their countries o origin - in-cluding by orce i need be. But this should be done earlier on and not ater ten, teen oreighteen years, when many parents and almost all children born and brought up in Ger-many have eectively become nationals in all but law. Numerous experts interviewed ex-pressed the same view independently o one another: children who had spent so many otheir ormative years in Germany should be ‘allowed to arrive’. Years living “in a vacuum”,as one social worker put it, renders people “broken inside.”132

2.4.2 Integration prospects change traditional

behaviour patterns

The direct connection between integration and uture prospects has been well document-ed by reports rom the eld concerning cultural change across the generations, speci-

cally the extent to which children align themselves between the traditional expectations otheir parents on one hand, and the lie choices common in the host society on the other.A large proportion o the parents socialised in Kosovo live according to the traditions othe amily-centric rural societies rom which they came, ullling the roles expected othem according to their gender and generation. According to these traditions, amilies arestarted young and children play a more important role than is usual in the majority Ger-man population. On the one hand, such traditions bring about a strong sense o solidarityamong the amily– one o ew reserves o strength available to these amilies, as one othe social workers interviewed or the report commented. On the other hand, such tradi-tions circumscribe an individual’s prospects o personal development. Young women o-ten break o their education and pass up their opportunity or proessional training, even

those who were successul students, in order to look ater sick parents or siblings and tostart their own amily.



51

At the same time, say social workers, these attitudes are not xed. In act, childrenrenegotiate the interplay between their inherited traditions and the imperativeso everyday lie in Germany depending on the prospects they identiy. There are

signs that amilies are beginning to reassess their perspectives, in avour o pro-essional training or young women, or example.133 However, or children to beable to ollow the thread o such new expectations, allowing the ree expressiono their tendency to integrate, they need to eel more secure and sel-condent.But the exclusion perpetuated by their toleration status, and the pressure im-posed by the threat o deportation, pushes them back into reliance on the appar-ent alternative security o the behaviour patterns o their origins: o a rural societydependent on amilial solidarity.134

One social worker told the story o a young man who had the prospect o a train-ing place. In the end, the employer had chosen another applicant who did not

have the disadvantage o toleration status. Lacking alternative prospects, theyoung man then did his ather’s bidding and let himsel be cajoled into a mar-riage. Since then he has had to make do with a series o temporary jobs. Theyoung man would have preerred to ollow the ‘German way’, explained the socialworker, but then his path was blocked: “The hardest thing or us to watch is whenyou have healthy and bright children with real potential, who are really achievingand want to integrate, but their willingness is trampled underoot. They then drito into an utterly dierent existence, when only a small legal change would havegiven them a uture. He would have paid his taxes throughout his lie.”135

Many o the amilies who all at the hurdle o the ‘long-stayer regulation’ were

also marginalised in Kosovo. Some parents have no educational history o theirown and exist both socially and in terms o employment at the lower end o so-ciety. Advisers note that amilies rom minorities that had once been well estab-lished in Kosovo - running a carpenters’ workshop or a shoe store - have beenable to capitalise on their experience and make the most o their lives in Germany.Such people have tended to be granted temporary residence permits.136

Social marginalisation, which according to current research is a tenacious enoughproblem in normal circumstances, becomes an especially stubborn problemamong disadvantaged amilies living a ‘tolerated’ existence. These amilies havelived in conditions intended to suce only or a short-term stay that has nowbeen stretched out over years and years, and have been subjected to restrictionsthat deliberately prevent integration in so many ways, rather than acilitating it– rom segregated accommodation to restricted access to language courses, thelabour market, vocational training and urther education.Integration in the German school system is a great opportunity or the children:their generation stands a chance o breaking through the social automatism thatwould otherwise dictate that their parents’ excluded status be handed down tothem. In this sense, the deportations threaten to terminate the integration whichis now underway in Germany. The children could then be consigned in their turnto an existence on the margins, a ate conorming to stereotype.



52

THE SITuATIOn

In KOSOvO

3



53

3 The Situation in KosovoVerena Knaus

3.1 Repatriatios to Kosoo

3.1.1 Political Context

Following a act-nding visit to Kosovo in March 2009, Thomas Hammarberg, theCouncil o Europe Commissioner or Human Rights, noted in his report that “Ko-sovo is under political pressure to accept these agreements, without having inplace the budget or the capacity to receive these amilies in dignity and securi-ty”.137 Alarmed by the prospect o 14,399 Kosovans, including 11,770 Roma, Ashkaliand Egyptians, to be sent back rom Germany in the coming years138, by orce inecessary, Human Rights Commissioner Hammarberg sent a personal letter toGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel on 25 November 2009, asking her to take allnecessary measures to prevent the orced return o Roma in particular.139

Political pressure on the government in Prishtinë/Priština to accept and accom-modate increasing numbers o orced returns, including members o vulnerableminority communities like Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, has increased since inde-pendence. For one, because countries like Germany, with sizable Kosovan minor-ity communities are eager to return them. Secondly, because Prishtinë/Priština, iseager to ulll the necessary conditions to start a visa dialogue that would leadto visa ree travel or Kosovo’s citizens. The European Council Conclusions o De-cember 2009 specically state that Kosovo should also benet rom the perspec-tive o eventual visa liberalisation once all the conditions are met; these includethe signing o bilateral readmission agreements and a Law on Readmission.140 Given that today Kosovo is still very isolated, and that Kosovan citizens can travel

only to ve countries without a visa, readmission agreements seem a price worthpaying in return or an eventual liting o visa restrictions.141

But who actually pays the price? This study takes a closer look at those hiding be-hind the gures and statistics on returns and repatriation. By doing so, it aims toshit the current debate about the expected orced returns o almost 11,700 Roma,Ashkali and Egyptians, o whom between 5,000 and 6,000 are children,142 rom apurely technical and legal matter to one ocusing on individual experiences andthe best interests o the child, in particular.143



54

3.1.1.1 Forced and “voluntary” Between 2007 and end o May 2010, according to UNHCR statistics, a total o 9,980 individ-uals have been returned by orce, mainly rom Western Europe. O those, 1,544 belongedto minority communities (about 15.5 percent), including Ashkali, Egyptian, Gorani, Bos-niaks, Turks, as well as Serbs, Albanians in minority situations and recently also Roma.144

In the last two years since independence, there has been a marked increase in ‘orced mi-norities’ returns’ rom Western Europe; especially the number o orced returns o Serbsand Roma has increased dramatically. The number o Roma returned by orce rom WesternEurope has more than doubled rom 54 in 2008 to 127 in 2009.145 In the rst three monthso 2010 alone, another 114 Roma and 72 Ashkali have been repatriated to Kosovo. 146

Table 1: Forced returns between 2007 and May 2010

2007 2008 2009 2010 (Jan-May) Total 2007- May 2010

Majority (orced) 2,787 2,134 2,492 1,023 8,436

Minorities (orced)* 432 416 470 226 1,544

Total 3,219 2,550 2,962 1,249 9,980

Source: UNHCR OCM Prishtinë/Priština, May 2010 *Including all minorities, Ashkali, Egyptian, Gorani, Bosniaks,Turks, Serbs, Romas and Albanians in minority situations

Germany leads the statistics both in terms o readmission requests and actual repatria-

tions. Between January and March, Germany submitted 596 requests – almost 48 percent– out o a total o 1,245 readmission requests received by the Kosovo Ministry o Interior.During the same period, Germany actually repatriated 283 individuals – almost 20 percent– out o a total o 1,429.147

The Haziri Family

Many o those returned by orce share the experience o Halime Haziri and her three chil-dren. The Haziri amily was separated and the two oldest children still live in Germany.148

At 3 AM one morning in 2006, seventeen German police ocers knocked on the doors othe Haziri amily. By that time, the amily had been living in Germany or 15 years; the threeyoungest children, 14, 9 and 3 years old, were born in Germany. They were told that theyhad one hour to pack all their belongings and return to Kosovo. Halime’s husband had justdied some months beore; she was shocked and did not know what to do. Araid that hertwo older sons, 16 and 14 years old, would try to run away, police handcued them. Anhour later, the whole amily was driven to Stuttgart airport and put on an old Macedonian-operated plane. By 3 PM the next day, the Haziri amily arrived in Prishtinë/Priština.

Ater waiting or two hours, Kosovan police ocers inormed them that they would notbe allowed to enter Kosovo. The amily was put back on the plane, this time heading to

Skopje. In Skopje, police would not let them leave the plane or hours. Eventually the



56

given one hour to pack their belongings, put on a plane and deported by orce.

The socio-economic situation in Kosovo today is such that very ew minorities chose to

return voluntarily. In act, in 2009, with 14,200 cases, Kosovo ranked 5th in the number oasylum applicants in the EU-27, ater Iraq, Somalia, Russia and Aghanistan.150 Over the lastthree years (2007-2009), or every person that returned ‘voluntarily’, another 5 were sentback by orce.151

Table 3: Total minority return to Kosovo (rom Western Europe), 2007 – May 2010

2007 2008 2009 Jan – May 2010 Total 2007 – May 2010

Minorities (voluntary) 102 77 116 71 366

Minorities (orced)* 432 416 470 226 1,544

534 493 586 297 1,910

*Including all minorities, Ashkali, Egyptian, Gorani, Bosniaks,Turks, Serbs, Romas and Albanians in minority situations Source: UNHCR OCM Prishtinë/Priština, May 2010

From the perspective o the receiving community in Kosovo, it matters little i a amilyhas been returned voluntarily or by orce. Their human needs are the same and include atthe very least the provision o housing, schooling, access to basic health care and someincome opportunities.

Table 4: Total Returns rom all countries, 2007- Mai 2010

2007 2008 2009 Jan-May 2010 Total 2007- May 2010

Voluntary returns* 3,836 2,382 3,544 2,096 11,858

Forced returns 3,219 2,550 2,962 1,249 9,980

7,055 4,932 6,506 3,345 21,838

*From all countries, including returns rom FYROM, Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina, and IOM-assisted returns.Source: UNHCR OCM Prishtinë/Priština, May 2010

The nancial and institutional capabilities o Kosovo’s municipalities and central institu-tions to take care o all returnees – and to ‘receive them in dignity and security’ as Ham-

marberg called or – do not exist. At present municipalities and state institutions are un-able to provide or even the most basic needs to such a large number o returnees. Asthe ollowing chapter will show, it is above all the children who will bear the brunt o thisdecision.

3.1.1.2 Repatriated Children

‘I did not know what was going on at the beginning. We were dropped in Kosovo

without any reasons. I let my school; I let my riends; I let everything behind

against my will. We could not even say good-bye to our riends at school. It was

terrible.’ 152



57

This is how 19-year old Filloreta Krasniqi remembers her orced return to Kosovoin 2006. Living in a small village near Prizren, she still keeps contact with her old

riends rom her school in Germany.According to estimates by the Auslaenderbehoerden in Stuttgart, Magdeburg andMuenster, the share o children among the 11,770 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptiansconsidered ‘ausreisepfichtig’ (obliged to leave) ranges rom 42 to 50 percent, orbetween 4,914 and 5,850 children.153 Hiding behind this number are toddlersthat just learned to walk, boys and girls attending primary school and teenagersdreaming o iPods and a uture in dignity. An estimated three out o ve, or be-tween 3,000 and 3,500 o them have been born and raised in Germany, and likeNazmi Hyseni, consider Germany their home.154

‘Look at me, I used to have a normal lie, going to school every day, playing ootball twice per week in my school team. I had my dream or the uture,

and in the end, one day early in the morning, all o these good dreams

were over and I suddenly ound mysel in a place where I have never been

beore. And then was told this is your country, where you are going to live.

But this is not my country. I was born in Germany, I don’t have riends here.

Look at me now: I have nothing, no school, no riends. And now I end up

on the street. This is not the kind o lie I want to live.’ 155

As we have described in the previous chapter, many Roma, Ashkali and Egyptianchildren like Nazmi simply eel ‘German’. They cheer or the German ootball team

and celebrated with Eurovision winner Lena Meyer-Landrut. Many speak Germanwith their own brothers and sisters at home. For most o them, Kosovo is a dis-tant country they know only rom stories told to them by their parents or relativesand rom news reports. They hope or nothing more than the legal right to stay inGermany. And, those who have already been returned to Kosovo by orce, dreamo returning to what they consider their ‘home’.

During our interview with ourteen-year old Fellona Berisha, she told us in perectGerman:

‘Every night I cry and I want to go back, all o us cry every night, believe

me. The only thing I would like in my lie is to go back to Germany and

continue my normal lie, my school and everything I let there’.156

Fellona’s parents let Gjakovë/Đakovica in 1992. Fellona and two o her siblingswere born near Saarbrucken. She hersel went to school in Wemmetsweiler. Untilthe day o her deportation, she had never been to Kosovo.



58

3.2 The Sitatio i Kosoo

3.2.1 Security and Rights on Paper

It is not inter-ethnic violence or outright discrimination that children like Fellona, Nazmiand Filloreta are araid o. It is the socio-economic reality they inevitably ace in Kosovotoday that is threatening their uture development.

The authorities in Germany argue, whenever challenged by NGOs or parliamentary inquir-ies, that the current legal system does not take into account poverty or socio-economicdiculties as sucient cause or asylum or ‘Bleiberecht’. Since 1999, Germany has alsounded programmes like REAG (Reintegration and Emigration Programme or Asylum-

Seekers in Germany) and GARP (Government-Assisted Repatriation Programme) to assistreturnees. The Diakonie Trier provides vocational training opportunities to returnees andthe Arbeiterwohlahrt Nuernberg oers reintegration assistance to voluntary returneesrom Germany.157 Currently, the Bund and our Laender (Baden-Wuerttemberg, Nieder-sachsen, North Rhine-Westphalia and Sachsen-Anhalt) und the reintegration programme‘URA-2’, providing counseling, employment assistance and nancial support to voluntaryand orced returnees.

In act, with regard to security and inter-ethnic relations, the situation in Kosovo has dra-matically improved since 1999. The German government thereore also argues that rom asecurity perspective, most parts o Kosovo are sae or the return o Roma.158

Over 70 percent o Kosovo’s Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians live in ethnically mixed commu-nities. Relations are generally good and violent incidences rare. Trust in the Kosovo insti-tutions is commonly high: 86 percent o respondents ranked Kosovan police as the mosttrusted institution to provide security, ahead o EULEX trailing at 3 percent.159Twenty-twopercent o respondents elt discriminated to some degree by municipal institutions, but 62percent did not eel any discrimination. Judicial institutions, one o the most challengingsectors in Kosovo are also trusted; 22 percent eel some discrimination, but 51 percent donot.160

In terms o legal and constitutional provisions protecting the rights o its Roma, Ashkaliand Egyptian minorities, Kosovo may even be setting a positive example in the region and

parts o Europe. A Human Rights Coordinator in the Prime Minister’s Oce oversees theimplementation o the Law on Anti-Discrimination. Human Rights Complaints can be ledwith the Ombudsperson’s oce in Prishtinë/Priština. Twenty seats in the Kosovo Parlia-ment are also reserved or minority representatives.

It is also true that, at least on paper, Kosovo guarantees the rights to education and health-care or all minorities. German authorities can also point to the Strategy or Reintegrationo Repatriated Persons adopted by the Kosovo government on 10 October 2007, and theAction Plan approved in April 2008 containing detailed budgetary provisions and actionsrequired by central and local authorities to accommodate and integrate returnees.161 Onpaper, and maybe rom the perspective o the Auslaenderzentralbehoerden in Karlsruhe

and Bieleeld, all seems ne. The reality on the ground, however, is very dierent.



60

‘How you expect me to help orced returnees rom Germany when the municipal

returns ofce here in Prizren has zero budget or them? My job is to deal with IDPs

rom Kosovo and Montenegro and with returnees rom Serbia’ 168

In Gjakovë/Đjakovica we were told that municipal return ocers who tried to raise theissue with the municipal assembly ailed.

‘The Ofce or Returns has proposed to the Municipal Assembly to add a budget

line to the Directorate o Social Welare or help returnees and people with health

problems, but the municipality rejected this arguing they are not responsible or

these things’.169

The persistent lack o awareness at the municipal level is compounded by great weak-

nesses in the ‘reerral and coordination mechanisms between central and local levels’.Within the Ministry o Local Government Administration nobody has yet been appointedto coordinate all repatriation-related activities. There is also no direct line o communica-tion between the Ministry o Internal Aairs and the Ministry o Local Government to co-ordinate reintegration eorts. In act, none o the municipalities in Kosovo have receivedadvance notice rom the central level about orthcoming incoming returns.170

The situation is no better in the other line ministries with key responsibilities or repatriat-ed persons. The Ministry o Labour and Social Welare, responsible or all immediate needso repatriated persons, including admission, provision o basic inormation and temporaryhousing, has outsourced the operation o its ‘Transit Housing Centres’ to a local NGO.

The reporting system between the NGO and the Ministry o Labour and Social Welare,however, is unclear and not transparent.171 Few, i any, employment ocers or social wel-are centre have proactively inormed repatriated persons about existing social schemesor training programmes. As the OSCE study ound, ‘employment programs specicallytargeting repatriated persons do not exist in any o the regions o Kosovo’.172 Repatriatedpersons are mostly reerred to international organizations or advice and help concerningemployment and proessional training.

The Ministry o Health has also ailed to do its part; the designated oce within the Min-istry o Health to coordinate mobile health teams, the provision o medical services andregistration o medical needs upon arrival, has not yet been established. Neither the Min-

istry o Education nor the responsible Municipal Education Departments have made anypractical or budgetary provisions to organize language and catch-up classes or returneechildren, provide or children with special needs or plan or their integration in the educa-tion system as is oreseen in the reintegration strategy. The Ministry o Education is usuallyonly inormed about needs related to children’s education by the Municipal Directors oEducation, ater the arrival o repatriated children.173

In general, the review identied a series o ‘inormation-related’ shortcomings. There is alack o reliable and up-to-date inormation about the numbers, the needs and the charac-teristics o repatriated persons. The problem starts already in repatriating countries. ‘Hostcountries do not present sucient inormation on potential repatriated persons’, the re-

view notes, and ‘this is most worrying with regards to repatriated persons with medicaland special needs as well as with criminal backgrounds’.174 The database on repatriated



61

persons within the Department or Citizenship, Asylum and Migration (DCAM) isalso incomplete and not up-to-date. According to the OSCE, less than hal o all

municipalities collect data on repatriated persons, and then only rom those whodirectly approached the municipalities or assistance.175

As a result, the majority o orced returns arrive in their respective municipalitieswithout anyone taking notice. With the exception o URA, the German-unded re-integration programme, none o the other donor-unded assistance programmestargets orced returns.

The AWO (Arbeiterwohlahrt Nuernberg) assistance programme or returneesrom Germany, or example, is open only to voluntary returns. The InternationalOrganisation or Migration (IOM), which implements most internationally undedreturn and reintegration programmes in Kosovo, also does not provide any as-

sistance to orced returns – on the basis o principle. The various programmes inIOM’s portolio, rom employment assistance support to tailor-made packages orindividual returnees, are not available or orced returns. This lack o nancial andinstitutional support or the most vulnerable group o returnees has been criti-cized by the OSCE. The report notes that ‘while the vast majority o internationalassistance in the eld o return is aimed to support voluntary returns, repatriatedpersons upon their return to Kosovo oten remain without any assistance by ei-ther Kosovo institutions o international organizations.’176

3.3 Retr as see adexperieced b childre

In search o an answer to how Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children experiencetheir repatriation rom Germany, the research team met and interviewed 116 chil-dren younger than 18 years. Given that most o the amilies have been living inGermany already since 1991/1992 in, approximately two-thirds o the returneechildren had been born in Germany and had spent all their childhood in towns likeMuenster, Ulm or Stuttgart. They elt at home in Germany.

Among the 116 children, 66 were o school age between 6 and 18 years. Whilemost children had attended school regularly in Germany, once they returned toKosovo, three quarters dropped out o school, mainly due to poverty, languagebarriers and the lack o school certicates rom Germany. O these 66, only 17 chil-dren continued to attend school in Kosovo. Research also showed that 48 childrenwere not registered in Kosovo at all and thus do not appear on any ocial statis-tics. These ndings suggest that there is clearly a wide gap between what exists‘on paper’ and what actually happens - according to the dierent strategies, lawsand reintegration programmes - and how children actually experience their returnand repatriation to Kosovo.



62

Table 5: Key fndings concerning children returnees

173 amily members 116 children (0-18) 67 %116 children (0-18) 69 born in Germany 59 %

116 children (0-18) 48 not registered in Kosovo 41 %

116 children 66 school age (6-18) 57%

66 school aged children 17 attend school 26 %

Source: Face-to-ace interviews between February – May 2010

3.3.1 Getting to Germany

For most Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian amilies interviewed, their journey began almost twodecades ago. The peak years o migration to Germany were the dicult early 1990s. Dur-ing those years Milosevic was rolling out his policy o repression in Kosovo, ollowing theorceul revocation o Kosovo’s autonomy, the closing down o Albanian-language schoolsand the mass dismissals o more than 80,000 rom public service jobs. More than hal othe 40 interviewed amilies let between 1991 and 1992. This also refects the history o mi-gration fows rom Kosovo; according to ocial German government data, between 1991and 1993, 10,412 Kosovan citizens arrived in Germany, more than during the worst yearso the war (1998/99) when 7,470 arrived in Germany.177

Table 6: Migration patterns to Germany

Years o Emigration to Germany

1988-89-90 6

1991 - 92 21

1993 - 96 4

1999 6

2003 -2006 3

Total 40

Source: Face-to-ace interviews with 40 returnee amilies, February – May 2010.

The story o Selim Selimaj speaks or many who let Kosovo in those days. Selim Selimajpacked his bags in the winter o 1992 and together with his pregnant wie and eleven-year-old daughter embarked on their journey. Like most, Selim had lost hopes that he couldprovide or his amily in Kosovo. They went rom Suharekë/Suva Reka to Skopje, and withtheir last savings, bought their bus tickets to Germany. What was meant to be a two-daytrip, turned into a our-week long nightmare. First, the bus broke down in Bulgaria. Then,the bus got stuck in no-man’s land between Romania and Moldova due to heavy snow.All passengers were orced to wait or several days in the cold; there was not enoughood or the children. Eventually all passengers were transerred to a dierent bus. Atertwo more weeks erring through the Balkans, the bus nally arrived at the Austrian borderwhere the police oered medical aid. The next day, the bus continued to Düsseldor. Ater



63

a ew weeks o uncertainty, the Selimaj amily ended up being accommodated atan asylum centre in Laer, near Muenster. For the next teen years, this was their

home.As o 30 June 2009, the three Laender with the highest concentration o Kos-ovan citizens were North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria.178 Meanwhile, the largest communities o Roma to be repatriated live in NorthRhine-Westphalia, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Niedersachsen.179 It is thus no sur-prise that among the 40 amilies interviewed almost 90 percent had also lived inthose three Laender .

Table 7: Place o residence in Germany o returnee amilies interviewed

District o Residence in Germany

North Rhine-Westphalia 19 47.5%

Baden-Wuerttemberg 11 27.5%

Niedersachsen 5 12.5%

Hamburg 1 2.5%

Bremen 1 2.5%

Berlin 1 2.5%

Saarland 1 2.5%

Bayern 1 2.5%

40 100%


In Germany, most o the interviewed amilies lived, as we described in the pre-vious chapter, in great uncertainty about the next extension o their ‘Duldung’, partly dependent on social assistance, oten struggling to overcome illness andpsychological problems, but in general relatively well integrated in their localcommunities.

On average, the amilies we portrayed lived in Germany or 14 years. Long enoughto put down roots and eel at home, especially the 69 children interviewed that

were born and raised in Germany. Most o them had never been to Kosovo untilthe day they were deported.



64

Table 8: Year o return o returnee amilies interviewed

Year o Return to Kosovo2003 1

2004 2

2005 2

2006 5

2007 8

2008 6

2009 8

2010 8

Total 40


Sanije’s Story

‘My mother tongue is German and my home is Olsberg in Germany. I don’t know why theybrought me here’.

This was Sanije Kryeziu’s reply to our question where home is. Sanije was born in Germa-ny in 1995, the same year her ather died o a heart attack. Stress and illness had also takena toll on her mother’s health; Sanije’s mother suers rom asthma and experienced two

heart attacks while living in Germany. Sanije had just turned twelve, when police turnedup in the middle o the night to send them back to Kosovo. The mother required medicalsupervision throughout the trip due to her rail state.

When the parents let Kosovo in 1992, they had sold their house, thinking they would neverreturn. Sanije now lives with her sick mother and older sister Florentina at their uncle’shouse. It is uncertain how long the uncle will continue to house them; occasionally he asksthem to leave.

In Germany, Sanije went to school regularly. She was highly motivated and a good stu-dent. Back in Kosovo, she stopped going to school. She simply could not write in Albanianand had troubles speaking it. Nobody was organizing any language courses or catch-up

classes to help her. Her sister Florentina is very worried about her; Sanije is withdrawn,disoriented and very lonely. Neither the mother, nor the two daughters have any civildocuments. Ocially, they do not exist. Nobody rom the municipality has been in touchwith them or tried to help. Without civil registration, Sanije’s mother also cannot apply orsocial assistance or invalid’s pension, even i she were to qualiy as a single mother withserious health problems. The mother and two daughters live rom hand to mouth.

There are many such amilies, like the the Sanijes, among the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptianchildren returned rom Germany in the past ew years. Many ace the same problems likeher: poor living conditions, diculties with civil registration, health issues and problemswith schooling because o language and poverty.



65

3.3.2 Civil Registration

Like in the story above, one particular problem that many children who were bornin Germany ace upon their return concerns the lack o original birth certicatesand school certicates rom Germany. According to the Law on Civil Status Regis-tries (2000/13) to be registered in Kosovo, all Kosovan citizens born abroad mustprovide their original birth certicates rom the country where they were born.180 In other words, children born in Germany cannot be registered in Kosovo withoutproviding an original German birth certicate. As our research conrmed, manychildren return to Kosovo without their birth certicates and thus simply cannotbe registered.

As a result, o the 173 individuals interviewed as part o this study, 65, including

48 children, are not registered and do not possess any Kosovan documents. Inother words, 38 percent are de-acto stateless in their own state. This problemis also conrmed by the KFOS survey data: o the 49 returnees rom the Westcovered by the KFOS survey, 20 percent were not registered or did not have anydocuments.181

I one takes a closer look at the situation o children, the gures are even morealarming. Among children (under 18 years) that have not let, i.e. remained inKosovo in the past, 18 percent are not registered, but nearly hal o all children be-tween 0-17 years o age (42 percent) that have lived abroad during or ater the warare not registered today. These gures refect the act that children born abroadlack birth certicates causing many diculties.

Table 9: Civil registration among returnee and non-returnee children

Lived abroad Have not lived abroad

Children (0-17 years) not registered 42 % 17.5%

Children (0-6 years) not registered 37 % 14 %

Source: The Position o Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities in Kosovo, Baseline Survey (KFOS – SOROS), COM- PASS Research & Consulting Company, 2009.

Without civil registration, children simply do not appear in any ocial statistics.The responsible authorities cannot track them to ensure at least compulsory edu-cation, they risk being let out o national vaccination programmes and also donot count i their parents want to apply or social assistance. 182 All applicants orsocial assistance benets must be in possession o a valid Kosovan ID card andable to provide birth certicates or all amily members younger than 16 years.

Recognising this problem, the review conducted by the Ministry o Internal A-airs, specically called on sending countries to provide ‘as much inormation aspossible on the number o persons to be repatriated, their gender, ethnic back-

ground, age group, municipality o origin, medical records, criminal background



66

records’183 and to ‘supply them with civil documents, especially children that were born inthe requesting countries and those that attended school’.184

Without school certicates, children also ace big problems getting registered at the ap-propriate grade back in Kosovo. When Alexander Bobic, or example, tried to register his15-year-old son Saša at school without school leaving certicates, the teacher turned himback. Also 16-year-old Rasim and his younger brother Sinan Kastrioti in Prizren, had torepeat their classes twice because they did not have any school certicates to prove theirgrade and because o problems with the Albanian language. Luljeta and Eliza Hyseni hadcompleted our years o primary school in Dortmund, beore they were sent back to Banjae Pejes. The director o the local primary school, however, reused to register them in the5th class and orced them to start all over at rst grade. As a result, both Luljeta and Elizadropped out o school at the age o 11 and 10 respectively.

Most o the time when amilies are picked up in the middle o the night by police orcesand only allowed to pack one bag per person, parents are under shock and may not thinkabout birth and school certicates rst. They also may not even have them ready at home.As our interviews conrmed, orced returns took place all year round – without considera-tion o the school calendar – and many children got pulled out o school in the middle othe school year. It was thus impossible or them to have a school certicate, proo or theongoing school year.

Practitioners, including the director o the German-unded URA-2 reintegration assistanceprogramme, also conrmed the practical diculties caused by the lack o birth and schoolcerticates. Occasionally, URA sta have been trying to assist amilies obtain birth certi-

cates rom Germany, but as procedures vary greatly in dierent German municipalities,a consistent policy by the responsible authorities in Germany is needed to ensure thatreturnee amilies have all the documents they need or a new start in Kosovo.185

3.3.3 Kosovo’s Poverty Trap

At present, almost hal o the whole population in Kosovo is considered poor. Thismakes Kosovo the poorest country in Europe and by ar the poorest country in theregion; poverty rates in Kosovo are our times higher than in Serbia and Montene-gro and two times higher than in Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina and Macedonia.186

Children are the most vulnerable to poverty; nearly one in two children in Kosovo(49 percent) live in poverty (below the World Bank poverty line o 1.42 Euros perday), and nearly one in ve (19 percent) live in extreme poverty – below the oodpoverty line o 0.93 Euros per day.187



67

Table 10: Poverty levels in Kosovo

All Children under 19 yearsFood Poverty Line (93 cents per day) 17.5 % 19 %

Total Poverty Line (1.42 euros per day 46 % 49 %

Source: Child Poverty in Kosovo: Analysis o the 2006/2007 Household Budget Survey, University o York, Social Policy Research Unit, Yekaterina Chzhen, December 2008

There are signicant dierences in child poverty rates by ethnicity and byregion. According to the UNDP Development Report in 2004, 37 percento Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians in Kosovo live in extreme poverty, com-pared to 13 percent among Kosovo-Albanians and 4 percent among Kos-ovo-Serbs.188 As conrmed by various studies, extreme poverty is highestamong children belonging to non-Serb minorities, including Roma, Ashkaliand Egyptian children.189

Table 11: Poverty rates by type o household

Ethnicity o household head Child poverty rate (ood) Child poverty rate (total)

Albanian 18.5 % 48.5 %

Serb 18.0 % 40.5 %

Other 30.5 % 60.5 %

Source: Child Poverty in Kosovo: Analysis o the 2006/2007 Household Budget Survey, University o York, Social Policy Research Unit, Yekaterina Chzhen, December 2008

Whereas 18 percent o Albanian and Serb children live in extreme poverty,close to 31 percent o non-Albanian and non-Serb minority children livebelow the ood poverty rate.190 There are also several concentrated pocketso poverty where more than two out o three children live below the pov-erty line. These include Kaçanik/Kačanik, Vushtrri/Vučitrn, Lipjan, Ferizaj/ Uroševac, Shtime/Štimlje and Mitrovicë/Mitrovica.

Table 12: Pockets o Child Poverty in Kosovo

Municipalities Child poverty rate

Kaçanik/Kačanik 92%

Vushtrri/Vuč trn 71 %

Lipjan 68 %

Ferizaj/Uroševac 67 %

Shtime/Štimlje 66 %

Mitrovicë/Mitrovica 64 %

Source: Child Poverty in Kosovo: Analysis o the 2006/2007 Household Budget Survey, University o York, Social Policy

Research Unit, Yekaterina Chzhen, December 2008



68

3.3.4 School dropout

Poverty is also a prime cause or school dropouts among the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptianamilies surveyed. As our research conrmed, the lethal combination o poverty, disori-entation, language barriers and lack o school certicates resulted in a dropout rate o 74percent among the 66 returnee children o school age interviewed. Only 17 Roma childrencontinued to attend school upon their return to Kosovo.191 From a German point o view,this is worrying. All the money and eorts by the Bund , the Laender and communes, inproviding education to Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children during their stay in Germany,risk being lost once they return to Kosovo. Another generation o Roma, Ashkali and Egyp-tian children is deprived o the skills and tools to escape poverty; consequently, povertyends up being inherited rom one generation to the next.

The responsible institutions in Kosovo ail to prevent poverty-related school dropouts; onpaper, municipal education departments and the Ministry o Education are responsible toidentiy children in need, oer schoolbooks or transport or ree and provide remedial andcatch-up classes or repatriated children. In practice, as conrmed by our research and asthe OSCE pointed out in its report, “municipal education departments have no plans orthe reintegration o repatriated children; they don’t hold any special language courses orchildren that might not know their mother tongue or any other local language”.192 In gen-eral, there are no educational or extra-curricular activities targeting returnee children.

The reason is not the ‘lack o interest’ (or ‘Bildungserne’) o Roma or Ashkali parents. Onthe contrary, most parents interviewed were proud o their children’s educational achieve-

ments in Germany and worried about the act that language problems and lack o moneyorced them to quit school. Almost all o the children missed their schools and riends inGermany. When we met 13-year-old Albana Gashi in Gjakovë/Đakovica, she actually stillcarried her school bag and told us:

“I miss my school, my school riends, and my books. I still carry my schoolbag

with me, waiting or my ather to send me back to my old school. ”193

Her younger sister, Fatmire, interrupted her, to let us know that:

‘This is not my home, my home is in Steinurt, and here I have no riends. I miss my riends and my teacher Frau Wegmann. I want to go to my school; I have done

all my homework. Why did my ather bring me here? I have to show my home-

work to my teacher’

Children with special needs are most disadvantaged. Farije and Mehmet Aliu were borndea and mute. In Blomberg, in North Rhine-Westphalia, where they grew up, they bothattended a special school. Their ather Zenun Aliu considered them “lucky to be born inGermany, where they could get proper treatment and were able to go school, make riendsand have a normal lie just like other children”.194 This is not the case in Kosovo. There isno school or children with special needs in Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje, where the amily

lives since 2007. The only school or Farije and Mehmet is in Prizren. The ather managed



69

to register them both at the school in Prizren, but very soon, he had to take themout again as he just could not aord to pay or daily transport or accommodation

costs in Prizren. Farije and Mehmet were 13 and 7 at that time.

3.3.5 Health Problems

Poor amilies, dependent on social assistance or the help rom neighbours andrelatives, like the Aliu amily in Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje or the Berisha amilyin Pejë/Peć, just cannot pay or any medical costs or health treatments.

‘I used to take my medicaments every day in Germany, but now, since we

are back I have not even been to a doctor. I still can’t believe that I have tolive here.’

Lulzim Berisha is 16-years-old; he was born in Rothenberg and lived there all hislie – until his orced return early this year. Lulzim has diabetes, his mother suersrom a mental disorder and his older brother Nazmi tried twice to commit suicidedue to a severe depression. The amily budget is barely enough to buy bread;medicine or a doctor’s visit is simply beyond reach.

As we have shown in the previous chapter, the traumas o war, the stress thatcomes with a lie o great uncertainty (‘au Abru ’), poor living conditions in gen-eral and the great diculties aced upon return, result in a relatively high concen-tration o chronic diseases and psychological problems among the Roma, Ashkaliand Egyptian community both in Germany and in Kosovo. Every second returneeamily interviewed, had between 1 and 3 amily members suering rom somechronic or recurring illness, including asthma, depression and other psychologi-cal disorders, kidney or heart problems.

On paper, the Ministry o Health and the municipal health departments are re-sponsible to inorm the responsible authorities which health care services cur-rently cannot be provided in Kosovo, provide emergency medical services, regis-ter special needs, and provide health care services, including mobile health teams,to repatriated persons. As o today, as the review by the Ministry o Internal A-

airs and our research conrmed, none o this has happened. As a result, pov-erty and a general lack o healthcare provisions prevent many repatriated amiliesrom accessing basic health care and essential medicines. Certain treatments arealso simply not available in Kosovo today; the lack o personal documents andcomplete medical records o returnee children also create additional problemsin terms o ollow-up treatments and registration in health institutions. LulzimBerisha and his amily are thus let alone to end on their own.



70

3.3.6 Housing

Another challenge most returnee amilies ace concerns housing. According to the gov-ernment Strategy or Reintegration o Repatriated Persons, municipalities have the pri-mary responsibility to provide housing either by assisting nancially to renovate houses,to provide social accommodation or temporary shelter.195 A Drat Law on Special HousingProgrammes also oresees the use o municipal and state properties or persons in needand the Housing Strategy by the Ministry o Environment and Spatial Planning oreseesthe reconstruction o houses or people in need, including repatriated persons. Besides,the Kosovo Property Agency manages a rental scheme o properties across Kosovo. Inpractice, however, municipalities lack the unds to provide or any housing or repatriatedpersons, the Law on Special Housing Programmes is stuck in Parliament, the HousingStrategy has not yet been approved and the KPA rental scheme does not provide or low

income amilies dependent on social assistance. Apart rom a ew donor-unded projectslike the Roma Mahalla reconstruction project or Internally Displaced Persons in Mitrovicë/ Mitrovica, there are no unds or donor money or housing or repatriated persons.196

The task is daunting: according to data provided by municipalities there are already 41Temporary Collective Centres in Kosovo today, accommodating 4,503 persons. Another8,677 amilies – or an estimated 37,000 persons - are in need or reconstruction assistanceo social housing.197 Alarmed by the present situation, the Ministry o Internal Aairs, inits review o current repatriation practices, rightly calls or ‘better and more sustainableplanning ..... in view o the increased needs by an expected infux o repatriated persons,particularly vulnerable categories (disabled, elderly and children in need).198

The lack o housing and unds or repatriated persons is a particular cause or concern– and as such has also been raised by Council o Europe Human Rights CommissionerThomas Hammarberg. Among the 40 returnee amilies interviewed, about hal live in theirown homes; while the other hal is staying with relatives, either or ree or paying rent.For lack o alternatives, however, three amilies interviewed ended up living in one o thecamps or Internally Displaced People (IDP) in North Mitrovicë/Mitrovica and Leposaviq/ Leposavić. In act, during our research, we met 20 persons, including 9 children, who havebeen returned rom Germany and ended up living in one o the three IDP camps in Mitro-vicë/Mitrovica region.199

The living conditions in the camps are catastrophic. Due to the proximity o the Zveçan/

Zvečan lead smelter, especially children living in the two camps in Mitrovicë/MitrovicaNorth, in Osterode and Qesmin Llug, have been conrmed to have elevated lead levels intheir blood, which has been qualied by the World Health Organisation as a medical emer-gency requiring evacuation.200



71

Table 13: Housing situation o returnee amilies interviewed

Housing situationOwn house 16 40%

Free/relatives 10 25%

Rent/relatives 10 25%

Camp 3 7.5%

Other 1 2.5%

40 100%


The Leposaviq/Leposavić camp, on the border with Serbia, used to be a ware-

house and storage or tanks o the Yugoslav Army. Today, it accommodates 36amilies, mostly Roma displaced rom Mitrovicë/Mitrovica South. They are housedin makeshit rooms built o cheap wood panels. UNHCR supplied wooden stovesor heating and cooking. Families have to etch water rom pipes in the court-yard; there is no running water in the rooms and no hot water anywhere. Thereare no proper toilets in the camp. The room where Elvira Mesini lives with twosons, Arland and Arim, has no urniture. They sleep on sponges rolled out onthe wooden foor. The Mesini amily used to live in the Roma Mahalla in SouthMitrovicë/Mitrovica. Their house was destroyed during the war. When the Mesiniamily returned to Kosovo in October 2009, they had no place to stay. Eventually,Skender Gushani, leader o the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Community in Mitro-

vicë/Mitrovica accommodated them in the Leposaviq/Leposavić camp.

“I see no uture and perspective or my children here in Kosovo’, Elvira

told us. ‘The children are rustrated and scared. My son Arland told me, i

we do not return to Germany, he will commit suicide because he cannot

live like this, here in the camp.”

Like Sanije, also thirteen-year old Arland and twelve-year old Arim dropped outo school. The local school director reused to accept them, telling Elvira that theyare ‘too old’. They are also both not registered and now live in Kosovo without any

civil documents.

“In Germany, all my children went to school, they speak the language

perectly and they were good at school. They were ully integrated, had

riends and never made any problems. Now that we returned, they have

problems with the language, since they don’t speak Albanian or Serbian”,

explains Elvira

As we are leaving the camp, Elvira tells us quietly:

“The only thing I want is to go back to Germany where my children can

continue their education and have a normal lie”.



72

Not ar rom the camp, in Kamin village, Mira Bobic lives with her parents and ve broth-ers and sisters. They returned to Kosovo in March 2010. Upon their return, the reintegra-

tion programme URA assisted them. URA sta provided transport rom Prishtinë/Prištinato Kamin, money or ood and helped Mira’s ather nd a job or six months. Most o thewindows in the house they live in are covered in plastic sheets; there is no running water,no toilet and no bathroom. The amily also does not have a ridge. Mira struggles to cometo term with this new reality:

“I eel lost, with nothing let. It is better in prison in Germany than in this house.

…. I hate this place; Germany is my home, my country. I eel like a tourist here, I

can’t believe that I am back here. I just don’t want to believe it.” 201

3.4 The challege o reitegratioURA-2 is a ollow-up programme unded by the Bund and our Laender (Baden-Wuerttem-berg, Niedersachsen, North Rhine-Westphalia and Sachsen-Anhalt). It is the most exten-sive programme providing reintegration assistance to returnees in Kosovo open to bothvoluntary and orced returnees rom Germany, provided they are sent back rom one o thecontributing Laender . Its assistance package includes psychological counseling, subsidiesor rent, nancial support to purchase ood, medicine or urniture, as well as support orbusiness start-ups and employment subsidies payable up to six months. Many returneeamilies interviewed as part o the study have been assisted by URA upon their return;

the ollowing ndings refect their personal experiences and additional insights based oninterviews with the management o URA-2 in Prishtinë/Priština.202

By its design, the URA-2 reintegration assistance programme ocuses almost exclusivelyon the needs o parents and does not pay much attention to the needs o returning chil-dren. In the past, URA-2 oered some Albanian language courses or children, but as chil-dren are sent back by orce at dierent times throughout the year and as courses wereoered only in Prishtinë/Priština, ew children rom other parts o Kosovo attended. Ingeneral, URA’s centralized structure – there is only one oce in Prishtinë/Priština - meansthat providing consistent support to amilies across Kosovo as well as monitoring the pro-gramme’s reach and eectiveness is dicult. The programme’s one-year unding cycle also

makes it dicult to plan long-term and enter into partnerships with NGOs or local au-thorities.203 Considering that an estimated 42 to 50 percent o expected Roma, Ashkali andEgyptian returns rom Germany will be children under the age o 18, the lack o attention tothe specic needs o children – rom education to health and child-centered reintegrationmeasures –is surprising.

A key pillar o URA’s assistance programme ocuses on income generation and eortsto help returnees integrate in the local labour market. This is a hugely challenging task,especially given the lack o skills among many Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian returnees andthe dicult employment situation in Kosovo in general. The unemployment rate amongthe Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian community presently living in Kosovo – estimated at 58

percent - is well above the national average o 43 percent (or the average among Kosovo’s



73

Serb community o 30 percent).204 A sample done by the International LabourOrganisation o 12,126 workers employed in more than 1.500 enterprises also

showed that the share o Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian workers was only 0.1 per-cent.205

As o December 2009, URA provided employment assistance (‘Arbeitsvermittlung/

Lohnkostenzuschuss’ ) to 77 returnees and provided unds to another 13 to starta small business (‘Existenzgruendung ’).206 As our research showed, the URA-2programme struggles to meet its own objectives to help amilies integrate in thelabour market. O the 14 heads o households that participated in the URA-undedjob placement programme, eight claim that they never actually worked (the em-ployer just received the subsidy, paid the salary or six months and did not askthem to work), three completed the six-months turn and ended up being unem-

ployed again and two were still in the initial six-months employment programmeat the time o the interview. Female-heads o households almost by deault areexcluded rom this programme, due to childcare duties and lack o skills.

Table 14: Participation in employment programmes among returnee amilies interviewed

Employment Programmes/Job placement

No participation/No employment assistance 26

URA job placement programme 14

O those - never actually worked 8

O those - nished/no more working 3

O those - still working 2


Few o the amilies interviewed have a regular income; almost hal make endsmeet on social assistance and the occasional per diem work carrying bricks, un-loading trucks or collecting cans and scrap metal. Coping strategies o poor ami-lies also include the collection o iron, searching through garbage and begging.207 Most amilies dependent on social assistance and per diem work are condemnedto a lie on the margins and in poverty. The average social welare benet per am-ily in Kosovo today is 61 Euros per month.208



74

Table 15: Main source o income among Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian returnee interviewed

Main source o IncomePer diem work 8 20%

Social Assistance 8 20%

Private sector (car repair/petrol station/radio station) 4 10%

Remittances 3 7.5%

URA (employment programme) 2 5%

Sel-employed (seasonal drum player) 2 5%

Charity 1 2.5%

Unable to provide answer 12 30%

40 100%


Our ndings thus mirror the results o the KFOS Baseline Survey published in 2009; itound that low-skill, low-wage and seasonal proessions dominate among Kosovo’s Roma,Ashkali and Egyptian community. They include physical work, cleaning, construction, thecollection o cans and scrap metal, working or municipal garbage companies, sellers,smiths, drum or fute players at weddings, some arming and a ew low-skilled jobs in theeducation sector (see table below).

Table 16: Overview o 10 most common proessions among Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian community

Percentage Gender

Physical work 25.7 % male

Cleaning 10.5 % male/emale

Construction 7.6 % male

Collecting cans & scrap metal 7.6 % male/children

Working or Municipal Garbage Companies 7.0 % male

Selling 5.8 % male/emale

Smith 4.7 % male

Playing music (drums, futes) 3.5 % male

Farming 2.9 % male

Education sector 2.3 % male/emale

Total 77.6 %

Source: The Position o Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities in Kosovo, Baseline Survey (KFOS – SOROS), COMPASS Re- search & Consulting Company, 2009.

The KFOS research also showed that amilies that have lived in the West and returned toKosovo are poorer than amilies that have experienced displacement in the region or havenot been displaced at all. Those who have returned have an average monthly income o 88Euros; in other words, they live in extreme poverty.



75

Table 17: Average monthly income among Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian community (KFOS, 2009)

Average monthly incomeFamilies having lived in the West 88 Euros

Families displaced internally or within the region 118 Euros

Families that have not experienced displacement 123 Euros


3.5 Cttig the Lielie

In 2006, the European Stability Initiative published a report titled ‘Cutting the lie-line’.209 It looked at the impact o migration on amily structures in Kosovo anddescribed the important role that remittances play in substituting or the absenceo a welare state in Kosovo.

Kosovo’s social assistance scheme has received much praise rom internationalobservers or being ‘ool-proo’ and resistant to ‘leakages’. It is true that very ewpeople in Kosovo receive social assistance undeservedly, but it is also true thatmany people in Kosovo in need do not receive any social assistance at all. Cover-age o the existing social assistance scheme is limited; among the poor, only oneout o ve (19 percent) and less than one in our children (23 percent) living in

poverty receives social assistance.210

This is due partly to the act that the application process is both complex andcostly. Eligibility criteria are strict, and include illogical provisions such as makingsocial assistance dependent on having at least one child under six years old, nottaking into account that costs incurred or children actually increase as childrenreach school age. Recipients must also reapply every six months, and repeat thesame costly and time-consuming procedure.

The average monthly social welare benets o 61 Euros leaves nearly all (95 per-cent) o children in households depending on social assistance or the poor. 211 Past trends are not very promising; instead o increasing the scope and depth o

its social protection system, Kosovo has actually decreased the number o recipi-ents and the overall amount spent on social assistance. As the poorest country inthe region, Kosovo spends the smallest share o its GDP on social protection212: amere 7.5 percent compared to 15.9 percent in Bosnia Herzegovina or 17.5 percentin Montenegro.213

The absence o an eective welare state in Kosovo led UNHCR to conclude re-cently that with regard to repatriated persons, the existing “social system doesnot provide or adequate protection”.214 As the number o orced returns is set toincrease in the coming years, Kosovo’s already limited social assistance schemeand nancial resources will be unable to cope. Most returnees are likely to receive

little or no assistance rom the state.



76

Following the internal review o the implementation o the Reintegration Strategy, the gov-ernment has taken a ew rst steps in the right direction. In May 2010, a revised Reintegra-

tion Strategy has been approved and the establishment o a special und to pay or partso the costs to provide or returnees and or their reintegration. The government is hopingthat donors will also come orth and contribute to the und. Unortunately, the potentiallypositive eect o this special und is likely to be oset – inter alia – by the impact o theperspective o an increased number o repatriations rom Western Europe, and especiallyrom Germany, to Kosovo.

The ‘lieline’ that remittances represent is an important aspect that is easily orgotten in thedebate about orced returns. Despite their own economic diculties, many Roma present-ly living in Germany send money home to support their amilies in Kosovo. Every secondamily with relatives in Germany receives help; 52 percent o Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian

amilies with relatives abroad depend on remittances as their main source o householdincome.215

According to the KFOS Baseline survey, the dierence in average income between amilieswith relatives abroad and those without is 31 Euro a month. This may seem small at rstglance, but over a year, the dierence is the equivalent o seven months o social assis-tance.216 As Table 19 shows, diaspora connections directly increase average incomes. Theshare o amilies with more than 121 Euros is 48 percent among amilies with relativesabroad compared to 31 percent otherwise.217 Far ewer amilies with diaspora connectionsdepend on social assistance (30 percent compared to 70 percent). The share o amilies thatdo not have enough money to buy ood is also twice as high among Roma, Ashkali andEgyptian amilies with no relatives abroad. Families with diaspora connections are also alot more optimistic about the uture; 54 percent believe that lie will get better compared to36 percent in general.218 Remittances really help to reduce poverty overall; it goes withoutsaying that children are key beneciaries.

Table 18: Average monthly income among amilies with/without diaspora

Average Monthly Income

Families with relatives abroad 145 Euros

Families with no relatives abroad 114 Euros


Table 19: Average income among amilies with/without diaspora

With diaspora Without diaspora

0-80 Euros 35% 49%

81-120 Euros 17% 21%

121-300+ Euros 48% 31%

Source: The Position o Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities in Kosovo, Baseline Survey (KFOS – SOROS), COMPASS Re-

search & Consulting Company, 2009.



77

Remittances are even more eective in terms o social protection than a privatesector job.219They are also crucial when it comes to education.

Table 20: Main source o household income & child poverty rates

Main source o household income Children in poverty

Social Assistance 95 %

Pension 67 %

Daily labour (per diem work) 66 %

Private sector income 43 %

Remittances 38 %

Public sector income 37 %

Family business (excluding arming/day labour) 26 %


Remittances help to pay or school materials, reduce school dropouts and therebyincrease overall levels o education. There is also a strong correlation betweenhaving relatives abroad and having higher levels o education. The share o thosewho have completed only 1-4 years o education is ten percentage points higheramong those without relatives abroad than those with amily in Germany. Theshare o those who completed secondary education or more is twice as high in

amilies with diaspora connections.220



78

Table 21: Education levels with/without diaspora

With diaspora connections Without diasporaIlliterate 19% 20%

Between 1–4 years o education 15% 25%



13 years o education or more 5% 2%


Remittances also greatly improve living standards at home; amilies with relatives abroad

live in more spacious houses, can aord modern bathrooms, have more electric cookersand central heating, have 10 percent more washing machines and twice as many com-puters than Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian amilies without help rom abroad.221 In short,remittances are an irreplaceable source o amily income and the most eective protectionagainst poverty.

The possible large-scale return o Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian amilies rom Germanyand other European countries risks cutting the important lieline and saety net that remit-tances represent or many amilies today even i it was to take place in a phased manneras German authorities arm.222 Since Kosovo’s welare system is unable to pick up the bill,poverty levels amongst Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians in Kosovo will inevitably increase,with negative consequences or children i the possible loss o remittances is not compen-sated or.

3.6 SstaiabilitKeeping track o people that are no longer in Kosovo is dicult, to say the least. Locating orcounting amilies that have returned to Germany is impossible. There are many indicationspointing to the act that many Roma and Ashkali amilies that have been returned by orcedo not stay in Kosovo. The director o URA described this problem as the ‘revolving-door-

phenomenon’; he personally encountered many who ater a ew months, packed theirthings again and let the country. The UNHCR’s own estimates o amilies ‘re-migrating’ isabout 60 percent. A municipal community ocer in Ferizaj/Uroševac personally knows o23 amilies that have been returned, but then let again. Skender Gushani, leader o theRoma, Ashkali and Egyptian community in Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, told us bluntly:

‘I guarantee you that amilies, especially those with children that were born in

Germany and are now young adults, will never stay in Kosovo. They will emigrate

legally or illegally to get to Germany or another Western country or a better lie’.223

According to a municipal community ofcer in Pejë/Pe ć , 86 amilies that have been sent back between 2006 and 2010 let Kosovo again. The majority went to Montenegro, some



79

let or Serbia and maybe 20 percent headed or Germany. “You cannot orce peo-ple to live in a place where they eel like oreigners”, he tells us. His colleague in

Prizren also wondered “ how anyone can seriously expect that you can just sendpeople back, who were born in Germany and lived there or more than 20 years?”In the course o the research, we have personally witnessed the case o a ather

returning to Kosovo to take back his children and wie who ended up living in

a camp ater being returned by orce. The amily today lives in Germany again,

without residence permit.

Those who end up migrating to Germany again are orced to do so clandestinely.

In Germany, they will try to live beneath the radar screen o public institutions.

The children will have lost several years o schooling, and will very likely not be

able return to school in Germany. They will lack the skills and the means to inte-

grate ormally in the labour market. Entire amilies will be pushed into illegality,with all its negative consequences or the individuals and the German state.

The children interviewed in the course o the research were very clear about their

own wishes or the uture: they all wanted to go back to Germany. In the words o

six-year-old Leon Osmani: “I don’t like Kosovo, because there is so much rubbishand the streets are not clean. I want my Nesquick or breakast again to becomestrong and big.”

Seventeen-year-old Bujar Besholli also elt strongly about going back. “I we do

not go back to Germany and I can continue my lie sooner or later, I will commit

suicide”, he told us when we meet him in Gjakovë/Đakovica. As we say good bye

to teenager Lulzim Berisha, he says, “I only I could go back to Germany, I would eel like being born or a second time”.



80

RECOMMEnDATIOnS



81

RecommendationsPlacig emphasis o the best

iterests o the child:In decisions on resident permits or long-term tolerated individuals,

greater weight should be given to the best interests o the child, so that

Aliens Authorities can take this aspect more into account when exer-

cising their administrative discretion. It is not sucient to rely on the StateHardship Case Commissions to compensate or the considerable blindness o theregulations to the best interests o the child. The burden o looming deportation,prolonged in many cases over years, has already inficted harm on large numberso children and young people socialized in Germany, since it discourages themrom pursuing long-term goals in their school careers or proessional training.Section 104b o the German Residence Act, whereby the children o parents to berepatriated are aorded the possibility o a temporary residence permit, ails toconorm to the principle o the best interests o the child since it can lead to thebreaking up o amilies.

Greater emphasis on the best interests o the child also means taking

a more fexible approach to the other conditions that persons with tol-eration status are required to ulll beore they can acquire a residence title, orexample, in cases where residence has been interrupted or where people havebeen convicted o more minor inractions o the penal code. In such cases AliensAuthorities should be given a broader scope to reach a decision on an individualbasis, rather than having their hands tied by strict regulations. In this respect, theregulations in Section 104a o the Residence Act – which have been characterizedas ‘kinship punishment’ by many experts – should be reconsidered, so that amilymembers living together with someone who has been convicted o a crime do notall oreit their right to a residence title.

Oerig better prospects

to childre ad og people:Children and young people who have grown up in German society need

the certainty that they will be allowed to remain in Germany so they mayconcentrate their energies on their schooling and proessional training, and inorder or them to be able to call the land in which they have spent their entire

lives, their own. Social workers have observed that young people with a prospect



82

or secure residence are more likely to invest in proessional and vocational training thanchose to earn money in short-term jobs. The stability aorded by secure residence also

encourages young women to reinterpret their traditional cultural roles, to complete theireducation and undertake proessional and vocational training.

Targeted support or young people rom Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian

amilies would also constitute an investment in uture generations: young peoplerom these ethnic groups who are successul in the employment market send a signal tothose who ollow them that they are welcome and that they have prospects. A positivesel-perpetuating dynamic would be activated.

Releasig potetial:A series o measures have proven successul in reducing the unnecessarily high rate oreerral o children rom Kosovan Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian amilies to special schoolsin Kosovo. Mentoring programs provide children rom amilies lacking educational tradi-tion with the kind o support their parents cannot oer. Combined elementary schools

with an inclusive educational provision hold open the door or children with special needsto the regular school system, and protect them rom stigmatization. Better inorming

teaching sta about the children’s overall situation can allow teachers to more ac-curately assess the children, and to provide better individual support or them.

Children and parents who have suered the traumas o war and the burdens o

lie as reugees and ’tolerated’ individuals need ully equipped and accessible coun-

selling acilities where specialists trained in migration psychology can oer therapy.Measures such as these will likely lead to savings in other areas: patients rendered unableto work could be supported to achieve a state where they can rejoin the workorce; special-ists have also reported that therapy oten reduces reliance on medication and medical aidsto cope with such psychosomatic illnesses.

Preetig impoerishmet:Children and young people who are already repatriated must be protected rom

alling into permanent poverty or a marginal existence. Programs to support re-patriated persons must be strengthened, with special emphasis placed on the needs ochildren. Most urgently, children must have uncomplicated access to education, so evenmore time is not lost. Accessible language courses and bridging classes are a necessity.One should also explore the possibility o allowing children who have not attended schoolsince their deportation to make up or the classes and certicates they have missed. Be-yond that, consideration must be given to children with special educational needs.

Children repatriated to Kosovo must have direct access to documents issued in

Germany relating to their personal situation or their school career. Germany and Kosovo

need to undertake the appropriate bilateral measures to ensure that repatriated children



83

are automatically registered and schooled in Kosovo on the basis o the schoolgrades and certicates attained in Germany.

The local authorities in Kosovo must be supported in integrating repatri-

ated amilies into society and in taking responsibility or the best inter-

ests o the child. As a matter o priority, the responsible oces and sources othe necessary nancing are to be identied. All children and young people mustbe registered with the local authorities. Further, regular monitoring that thesemeasures are in place will be necessary over a long time to come.

In the name o the best interests o the child, responsibility must be

taken or the physical and psychological health o children and young

people in Kosovo. Given the presence o widespread psychological and psycho-somatic illness, there is not only a need or medical treatment and medication,

but also readily available psychological counseling.Support programmes or repatriated persons must take into account the

needs o children. Forced repatriations o Roma, Ashkali und Egyptian childrenrom Germany to Kosovo should be restricted as long as the best interest o thesechildren cannot be adequately ensured.



86

22.4.2010, the Oce o Al ies Aairs, Müster o 27.4.2010.

23 Statemet rom the Bade-Württemberg State iterior miistr o 3.2.2010, the north Rhie-Westphalia State iterior mi-istr o 1.2.2010 ad the Saxo-Ahalt State iterior miistr o 22.4.2010. The respectie athorities were asked abot theage rages o those with ‘toleratio’ stats, sice the cities iestigated or this report were i these States. Correspodigiormatio was receied rom the State miistr o Baaria o 2.3.2010 ad rom the Berli State Oce or Pblic PolicAairs o 22.1.2010.

24 BT-Drs [Germa parliamet pblicatio] 17/423 o 10 Jaar 2010, p. 17.

25 BT-Drs [Germa parliamet pblicatio] 17/423 o 10 Jaar 2010, p. 9 ad p. 16.

26 BT-Drs [Germa parliamet pblicatio] 17/423 o 10 Jaar 2010, p. 16.27 The qota agreed der the Köigstei Agreemet is calclated aew each ear ad goes back to the Köigstei States

Treat o 1949. The qota was origiall desiged or the distribtio o scietic research cetres, bt is applied toda i aariet o political cotexts whereer the idiidal States’ allocatios o commo Federal dertakigs is ealated. O theKöigstei qota or 2010, see the website o the Joit Sciece Coerece o Federal States ad the Federal Goermet(GWK) at www.gwk-bo.de/leadmi/Papers/koeigsteier-schlessel-2010.pd (15.6.2010).

28 Schlmm Iteriew, Tretler Iteriew, Rdolph Iteriew.

29 Schlmm Iteriew, volker Maria Hügel Iteriew, GGuA (a o-prot orgaisatio spportig aslm-seekers), Müster,23.2.2010.

30 Collectio o the resoltios approed or pblicatio rom the 167th meetig o the Coerece o Federal Iterior Miistersad Seators o 10 Ma 2001 i Schierke/Harz. The coerece’s resoltios approed or pblicatio sice 2005 are aailableolie at >www.bdesrat.de/cl_051/_8758/DE/gremie-ko/achmiisterko/imk/imk-ode.html__=tre<; resol-tios sice 2002 ca be see at >www.berli.de/se/ieres/imk/beschlesse.html< (at the time o writig o 12.4.2010).

31 Collectio o the resoltios approed or pblicatio rom the 170th meetig o the Coerece o Federal Iterior Miistersad Seators o 6 Je 2002 i Bremerhae, the 171st meetig o 6 December 2002 i Breme ad the 172d meetig

o 15 Ma 2003 i Errt.32 Record, collectio o the resoltios approed or pblicatio rom the 174th meetig o the Coerece o Federal Iterior

Miisters ad Seators o Jl 2004 i Kiel, the 175th meetig o 19 noember 2004 i Lübeck ad the 180th meetig o5 Ma 2006 i Garmisch-Partekirche.

33 Accordig to Germa Crimial Law, crimial sactios ca be imposed b imprisomet or a moetar e. A e is im-posed i dail its. The cort shall base its calclatio o the amot o the dail it o the oe-da et icome o the o-eder or the aerage icome he cold achiee i oe da. The mber o dail its is depedet o the setecig, whichis geerall based o the gilt o the oeder.

34 Log-staer resoltio o the Iterior Miisters’ Coerece o 17.11.2006, i: collectio o the resoltios approed orpblicatio rom the 182d meetig o the Coerece o Federal Iterior Miisters ad Seators o 17 noember 2006 inremberg.

35 Act to Implemet Eropea uio Directies Reglatig Residece ad Aslm o 19 Agst 2007, Bdesgesetzblatt 2007,Part I no. 42, 27.8.2007, p. 1970-2115.

36 Federal Iterior Miistr, geeral admiistratie proisios to the Residece Act o 26 October 2009, i: Dass. (Eds.), Ge-meisames Miisterialblatt (60), 30. October 2009, no. 42-61, p.1262.

37 Federal Iterior Miistr, geeral admiistratie proisios, p. 1262.

38 Expir o the ‘Log-staer Reglatio’, Sectio 104a Residece Act o 31 December 2009, i: collectio o the resoltiosapproed or pblicatio rom the 189 Coerece o Federal Iterior Miisters ad Seators o 4 December 2009 i Breme.

39 Gabriele Hess Iteriew, AWO Coerde district oce, Müster, 22.2.2010; Brigitte Joh-Oeali Iteriew, workig grop‘Third World’ (AGDW); Stttgart, 11.3.2010.

40 BT-Drs [Germa parliamet pblicatio] 17/423 o 10.01.2010, p. 16.

41 Hess Iteriew.

42 Jürge Pawlak Iteriew, micipal social serices Müster, 26.2.2010; Hildegard Toar Iteriew, Oce or Childre, yothad Families, Müster, 24.2.2010.

43 Iteriew with Barbara Weders, Berg Fidel primar school, Müster, 24.2.2010.

44 Iteriew with Ismail Reka, Caritas Associatio or the Magdebrg bishopric, Magdebrg 3.3.2010.

45 Amedmets to the Emplomet Procedral Reglatio allow those with tolerated stats more opportit to d emplo-met. These amedmets ollowed rom the Act to Implemet Eropea uio Directies Reglatig Residece ad Aslm

o 19.8.2007. C. here also Klas Dieelt, Itrodctio, i: Asläderrecht, Mich 2009, p. XI-XLI, here p. XXvII.

46 Iteriew Doris Trabelsi, serice director or migratio ad itegratio, 10.3.2010; Adreas Baer Iteriew, Caritas Stttgart,10.3.2010; Reka Iteriew.

47 Thomas Grüewald Iteriew, GGuA (a o-prot orgaisatio spportig aslm-seekers), Müster, 23.2.2010; Frake So-ebrg Iteriew, Regee Cocil Saxo-Ahalt, Magdebrg, 8.2.2010; Pawlak Iteriew; Hess Iteriew; Hügel Iter-iew.

48 Coria Blits Iteriew, Social-Pedagogical Cetre Trattmasdorstrasse, Müster, 22.2.2010; Hügel Iteriew.

49 Weders Iteriew.

50 Federal Iterior Miistr, geeral admiistratie proisios, p. 1263.

51 Statemet rom the itegratio ad migratio serice at the Caritas Adice Cetre Groa o 22.4.2010.

52 Federal Act o the Residece, Emplomet ad Itegratio o Foreigers o 30.7.2004 (Residece Act), Sectio 104a, Sec-tio. 6; Federal Iterior Miistr, geeral admiistratie proisios, p. 1265.

53 Residece Act, Sectio 104b, BMI, Federal Iterior Miistr, geeral admiistratie proisios, p. 1266.

54 Klas Dieelt, jdge at the Darmstadt Costittio Cort, addresses this criticism i his preace to: Asläderrecht. 23rdreised editio, Mich 2009, p. XI-XLI, here p. XIv.



87

55 Coetio o the Rights o the Child, article 9.

56 Labor Migratio Reglatio Law o 20 December 2008, Bdesgesetzblatt I (2008), no. 63, p. 2847, rescidedthe limit imposed b the Immigratio Law o 30 Jl 2004, article 15, sectio 4.

57 Ealatio gidelies or the hardship case commissio o the Federal State o north Rhie-Westphalia,13.12.2005, > www.im.rw.de/as/doks/Etscheidgsgrdsaetze.pd< (at the time o writig o 7.6.2010).

58 Hardship case commissio, State o Saxo-Ahalt (Eds.), Bericht über die Tätigkeit der Härteallkommissiodes Lades Sachse-Ahalt im Jahr 2009, Magdebrg 2009, p.2 as well as the cmlatie statistics or theears 2005 to 2009 i attachmet 2.

59 Statemet rom the oce o the hardship case commissio o the north Rhie-Westphalia iterior miistr o7.6.2010.

60 Hardship case commissio o the Bade-Württemberg iterior miistr (Eds.), vierter Tätigkeitsbericht derHärteallkommissio beim Iemiisterim Bade-Württemberg (1.1.-31.12.2009), p.2-6.

61 Statemet rom the Citizes’ Iitiatie agaist Xeophobia, Schwäbisch-Gmüd o 19.3.2010.

62 Schwäbisch Gmüd Sports Associatio 1844, ope letter o 2 December 2009; statemet o the Citize’s Iitia-tie Agaist Xeophobia, Schwäbisch Gmüd o 19.3.2010; Rems-Zeitg ewspaper ad Gmüder Tagespostewspaper o 17 noember 2009.

63 Hügel Iteriew.

64 Iteriew Karl-Heiz Witer, the rieds’ associatio ‘Alte Post’ Berg Fidel, Müster, 22.2.2010.; resoltio o theassociatio agaist the deportatio o Roma amilies rom Berg Fidel to Kosoo, noember 2009; MüsterscheZeitg ewspaper o 30 September 2009.

65 Westälische nachrichte ewspaper o 30 September 2009.

66 C or example the Klas nierma Iteriew, Lorez-Süd district hose rser, Müster, 26.2.2010; Hess

Iteriew, Hügel Iteriew; Soebrg Iteriew as well as a series o other iteriewees.67 Friedrich Heckma, Itegratiosweise eropäischer Gesellschate: Erolge, atioale Besoderheite, Ko-

ergeze, i: Klas J. Bade, Michael Bommes ad Raier Müz, Migratiosreport 2004, Frakrt am Mai/ new york 2004, p. 203-224.

68 Pawlak Iteriew.

69 Björ Harmeig/Terre des hommes Germa, School Attedace o Regee Childre ad Childre with oLaw Stats i Germa. Report to the Special Rapporter o the Right o Edcatio, Osabrück, 15 Febrar2006; Ibid. Aktelle Etwicklge März 2006: Schlpficht s. Schlrecht o Flüchtligskider i Detschlad,Berli 2006; Ibid. “Wir bleibe drasse“. Schlpficht d Schlrecht o Flüchtligskider i Detschlad, Os-abrück 2005, p. 52-56; Bade-Württemberg State parliamet, pblicatio 14/3551 o 13.11.2008.

70 O the eects o dierget complsor schoolig laws c. Brigitte Mihok/Peter Widma, Die Lage o Kideras Roma-Familie i Detschlad. Fallbeispiele as ü Städte, i: Reihard Schlagitweit/Marlee Rp-precht (Eds.), Zwische Itegratio d Isolatio. Zr Lage o Kider as Roma-Familie i Detschlad dSüdosteropa, Berli 2007, p. 55-66.

71 Iteriew Pro. ul Press-Lasitz, Istitte or Edcatioal Sciece, Berli Techical uiersit (Tu), 20.4.2010.

72 Mihok/Widma, Lage o Kider, p. 67-71; Peter Widma, A de Räder der Städte. Siti d Jeische ider detsche Kommalpolitik, Berli 2001.

73 C. here e.g. Jsti. J.W. Powell/Sadra Wager, Date d Fakte z Migratejgedliche a Soderschlei der Bdesrepblik Detschlad. Jior Research Grop Workig Paper 1/2001 at the Max Plack Istitteor Hma Deelopmet, Berli 2001; Press-Lasitz Iteriew.

74 Toar Iteriew; Grüewald Iteriew; Trabelsi Iteriew; Baer Iteriew.

75 Florim H Iteriew, 11.3.2010, Stttgart.

76 Gisela Küllmer Iteriew, rom the workig grop ‘Third World’ (AGDW), Stttgart, 11.3.2010; Iteriew Soe-brg.

77 Weders Iteriew.

78 Iteriew with Christiae Wortberg, Coerde Secodar School, Müster, 22.2.2010; Michel Bosse Iteriew,Lorez-Süd district hose, Müster, 26.2.2010; Pawlak Iteriew, nierma Iteriew; Hess Iteriew.

79 Press-Lasitz Iteriew, Oeali Iteriew.

80 Oeali Iteriew.

81 C. here the edcatioal program at Berg Fidel primar school at: >http://www.mester.org/ggsbe/cms/star-et/media/Schlprogramm.pd< ( 7.6.2010).

82 Erdza Iteriew, Müster 22.2.2010; valdet Iteriew, Stttgart 11.3.2010.

83 Trabelsi Iteriew.

84 valdet Iteriew.

85 Trabelsi Iteriew; Baer Iteriew; Pawlak Iteriew; Bosse Iteriew; nierma Iteriew; Hess Iteriew;Wortberg Iteriew.

86 Aa Lameier Iteriew, Charitable Societ or the Spport o Aslm-Seekers, Müster, 23.2.2010; HügelIteriew; Grüewald Iteriew. A oeriew o the project is aailable o the iteret at: www.gga.de/Die-Schlaberger.45.0.html< (24.4.2010), c. also the report ‘Die Schlaberger-Schmiede’, Westälische nachrichte,22.2.2010.

87 Iteriew Küllmer.

88 Iteriew with Joche Köhke, Departmet or Migratio ad Itercltral Aairs, Müster, 24.2.2010; MüsterMicipal Coordiatio Cetre or Migratio ad Itercltral Aairs, Das Wohkozept ür Flüchtlige i Mü-



88

ster. >http://www.mester.de/stadt/zwaderg/a_wohkozept.html< (29.4.2010).

89 Müster Micipal Coordiatio Cetre or Migratio ad Itercltral Aairs, Flüchtlige d Spätassieldler i Müster,Jaar 2004.

90 Hess Iteriew.

91 Witer Iteriew, Pawlak Iteriew; Bosse Iteriew; nierma Iteriew.

92 Pawlak Iteriew; Bosse Iteriew; nierma Iteriew.

93 Ibid.

94 Ibid ad Grüewald Iteriew.

95 Soebrg Iteriew.

96 C. here the docmets rom the pblic hearig o expert speakers o 4 Ma 2009 i: Germa parliamet, Committee orEmplomet ad Social Aairs, committee pblicatio o. 16 (11) 1350 o 30 April 2009.

97 Kama, Heiko/Riedelsheimer, Albert, Flüchtligskider i Detschlad – Politischer d gesellschatlicher Hadlgsb-edar i dieser Legislatrperiode, Frakrt am Mai, noember 2009.

98 Iteriew with Dieter Daid, director o the Cosellg Cetre or victims o Political Persectio ad Expellees, Stttgart,9.3.2010; Iteriew nadie Sadrig, Pscho-Social Cetre or Migrats, i Halle, Saxo-Ahalt. 17.3.2010; Iteriew Chris-tiae Treeck, Pscho-Social Cetre or Migrats i Halle, Saxo-Ahalt. 17.3.2010; Grüewald Iteriew; Blits Iteriew.

99 Sadrig Iteriew; Treeck Iteriew.

100 Daid Iteriew.

101 Daid Iteriew; Sadrig Iteriew; Treeck Iteriew.


103 Daid Iteriew, Sadrig Iteriew; Treeck Iteriew.

104 Sadrig Iteriew.



107 Daid Iteriew, Sadrig Iteriew; Treeck Iteriew.

108 Ibid.

109 Ibid.

110 Daid Iteriew.


112 Grüewald Iteriew.


114 Oeali Iteriew.

115 violetta Iteriew, 11.3.2010, Stttgart.

116 Sadrig Iteriew; Treeck Iteriew

117 Daid Iteriew.

118 Weders Iteriew.

119 Hess Iteriew.

120 Represetatie o ma: Iteriew Bajram D. ad Melde S, Müster 22.2.2010, Iteriew ‘Famil S’, Magdebrg, 16.3.2010, Iteriew Florim H., Stttgart, 11.3.2010.

121 Iteriew Hess.

122 Iteriew Erdza.

123 Iteriew Arto, Stttgart, 11.3.2010.

124 Iteriew Erdza.

125 Iteriew Hess.

126 Iteriew Oeali, Iteriew Hess, Iteriew Pawlak; Iteriew Bosse; Iteriew nierma.

127 Iteriew Hess.

128 Iteriew Esat.

129 Iteriew Hess.

130 Iteriew violetta.

131 Iteriew Weders.

132 Iteriew Wortberg; Iteriew Oeali; Iteriew Soebrg; Iteriew Pawlak; Iteriew Bosse; Iteriew nierma;Iteriew Hess.

133 Iteriew Wortberg; Iteriew Hess; Iteriew Trabelsi; Iteriew Baer.

134 Iteriew Hügel, Iteriew Hess; Iteriew Oeali; Iteriew Trabelsi; Iteriew Baer.

135 Iteriew Hess.

136 Iteriew Hügel; Iteriew Grüewald; Iteriew Toar.

137 Report o the Cocil o Erope Commissio or Hma Rights’ Special Missio to Kosoo, 23-27 March 2009, article 156.

138 I the corse o egotiatig the bilateral readmissio agreemet betwee Germa ad Kosoo, the Germa athoritiespromised that the mber o repatriatio reqests wold ot exceed the 2008 aerage o abot 2,500 reqests per am



89

ad that attetio wold be paid b the Germa athorities to esre a ethic balace amog the repatriatedpersos. Sorce: Kleie Arage der Abgeordete ulla Jelpke .a. d der Fraktio DIE LInKE, Abschiebgei de Kosoo, BT-Drcksache 16/14084, Z 4, p. 2

139 Kleie Arage der Abgeordete Jose Philip Wikler, Marielise Beck, volker Beck .a d der Fraktio Bed-is 90/Die Gree, Drcksache 17/505, p.2.

140 Cocil Coclsios o elargemet/stabilisatio ad associatio process, 2984th Geeral Aairs Cocilmeetig, Brssels, 7 –8 December 2009, article 29. http://www.cosilim.eropa.e/edocs/cms_data/docs/ pressdata/En/gea/111830.pd

141 Isolatig Kosoo? Kosoo s. Aghaista 5:22, ESI Discssio Paper, 19 noember 2009, www.esiweb.org,

p.2

142 I the absece o ocial breakdows b age grops, the mber o childre cosidered ‘asreisepfichtig’(legall obliged to depart) rom Germa ca ol be estimated. Accordig to estimates b the Aslaederbe-hoerde i Stttgart, Magdebrg ad Mester, the share o miors amog the 11,770 Kosoo Roma, Ashkaliad Egptias that were cosidered ‘asreisepfichtig’ rages rom 42 to 50 percet (see Part I). The estimatedmber o childre likel to be aected is ths betwee 4,914 ad 5,850 childre.

143 Accordig to ocial Germa goermet data, as o 30 Je 2009, a total o 9,842 Roma, 1.755 Ashkali ad 173Egptias rom Kosoo were ormall ‚asreisepfichtig’ (legall obliged to depart rom Germa). See Atwortder Bdesregierg a die Kleie Arage der Abgeordete ulla Jelpke .a. d der Fraktio DIE LInKE,Abschiebge i de Kosoo, BT-Drcksache 16/14084. 9.Oktobe 2009.

144 Statistical Oeriew proided b unHCR OCM, Ma 2010; A total o 1,318 orced retrees beloged to mior-it commities (aeragig abot 440 per ear), icldig Ashkali, Egptia, Gorai, Bosiaks ad Trks. Pls,aother 332 miorities coered b the unHCR Positio Paper (Serbs, Romas or Albaias i miorit sitatios)were orcibl retred i the ears 2007-2009 (a aerage o arod 110 eer ear)

145 Statistical Oeriew proided b unHCR OCM Prishtia, Ma 2010

146 Repatriatio Statistics or the period Jaar – March 2010, proided b the Kosoo Miistr o Iterior.

147 Repatriatio Statistics or the period Jaar – March 2010, proided b the Kosoo Miistr o Iterior.

148 I the iterest o priac ad i the best iterest o amilies ad childre iteriewed ad portraed as part othis std, the ames o all those qoted i the report hae bee chaged b the athors. All qotes hae beerecorded as cited drig ace-to-ace iteriews betwee Febrar ad Ma 2010 ad refect solel the iewsad opiios o the amilies, childre ad ocials iteriewed.

149 Directie 2008/115/EC o the Eropea Parliamet ad o the Cocil o 16 December 2008 o commo stad-ards ad procedres i Member States or retrig illegall staig third-cotr atioals, Article 10

150 http://epp.erostat.ec.eropa.e/cache/ITy_PuBLIC/3-04052010-BP/En/3-04052010-BP-En.PDF

151 Icldig all oltar ad orced retrs, o aerage 6,228 idiidals hae retred eer ear betwee 2007ad 2009 (see Table 3) . Sorce: unHCR OCM Prishtia

152 Face-to-ace iteriew i sprig 2010.

153 See ootote 6 i this std

154 The share o childre bor i Germa amog the 116 childre iteriewed ace-to-ace as part o or std was59 percet (69 ot o 116 childre were bor i Germa). Gie that most Roma, Ashkali, Egptia amilieshae staed i Germa or ma ears, ad assmig a similar ratio o two ot o three childre bor i Ger-ma amog the estimated 5,000 childre cosidered ‘asreisepfichtig’ as o 30 Je 2009, 2,990 childre mahae bee bor i Germa.



157 Atwort der Bdesregierg a die Kleie Arage der Abgeordete ulla Jelpke, .a. d der Fraktio DIELInKE., Drcksache 17/423, 12 Jaar 2010, p.13

158 Atwort der Bdesregierg a die Kleie Arage der Abgeordete ulla Jelpke, .a. d der Fraktio DIELInKE., Drcksache 17/423, 12 Jaar 2010.

159 The Positio o Roma, Ashkali ad Egptia Commities i Kosoo, Baselie Sre codcted po the re-qest ad with dig rom the Kosoo Fodatio or Ope Societ (KFOS – SOROS), COMPASS

Research & Cosltig Compa, 2009. p.51


Research & Cosltig Compa, 2009. p.50

161 The Goermet adopted the reised itegratio strateg or repatriated persos i Ma 2010. The implemeta-tio strateg is crretl drated, icldig bdget allocatio.

162 Implemetatio o the Strateg or Reitegratio o Repatriated Persos i Kosoo’s Micipalities, Orgaiza-tio or Secrit ad Co-operatio i Erope (OSCE), Missio i Kosoo, Departmet o Hma Rights adCommities, noember 2009

163 Implemetatio o the Strateg or Reitegratio o Repatriated Persos i Kosoo’s Micipalities, Orgaiza-tio or Secrit ad Co-operatio i Erope (OSCE), Missio i Kosoo, Departmet o Hma Rights adCommities, noember 2009, p.1

164 Implemetatio o the Strateg or Reitegratio o Repatriated Persos i Kosoo’s Micipalities, Orgaiza-tio or Secrit ad Co-operatio i Erope (OSCE), Missio i Kosoo, Departmet o Hma Rights adCommities, noember 2009, p.1

165 Iteriews with Miister Bajram Rexhepi ad Seior Adisors ad sta i the Kosoo Miistr o Iterior.



91

197 Assessmet o the Mechaism or Reitegratio o Repatriated Persos, prepared b the Kosoo Miistr oIteral Aairs, April 2010, p.18–19

198 Assessmet o the Mechaism or Reitegratio o Repatriated Persos, prepared b the Kosoo Miistr oIteral Aairs, p.19

199 I the corse o the research, we met 5 retrees rom Germa crretl liig i Leposaic camp (icldiga mother with 2 childre ad 2 sigle wome), ad tee persos liig i Osterode camp (icldig a amilwith see childre, two elderl coples ad two brothers).

200 Ombdsperso Istittio o Kosoo, Cocerig the lead cotamiatio aectig the Roma commit liigi the camps located i the orther part o Mitroicë/Mitroica, Ex Ocio no. 304/2008, April 2009.

201 Face-to-ace iteriew, Ma 2010.

202 The research team has o seeral occasios reqested additioal iormatio rom uRA, icldig statisticaldata o the prole o recipiets ad the assistace proided to Roma, Ashkali, Egptias ad orced retrs iparticlar. The ol data proided b uRA, besides backgrod iormatio shared drig the iteriew, was thedata cotaied i the Atwort der Bdesregierg rom 12 Jaar 2010 (Drcksache 17/423) that was alreadaailable to the research team.

203 Iteriew with uRA-2 maagemet i Prishtia.

204 Strateg or the Itegratio o Roma, Ashkali ad Egptia Commities i the Repblic o Kosoo, 2009-2015,December 2008, p.13

205 Iteratioal Labor Orgaisatio (ILO) Wage ad Skills Sre, March 2006, qoted i Strateg or the Itegra-tio o Roma, Ashkali ad Egptia Commities i the Repblic o Kosoo, 2009-2015, December 2008, p.13

206 Atwort der Bdesregierg a die Kleie Arage der Abgeordete ulla Jelpke .a, Drcksache 17/423, 12Jaar 2010, p.5

207 Impact o Social Assistace Cash Beet Scheme o Childre i Kosoo, Report to unICEF, Maastricht Grad-ate School o Goerace, Fraziska Gassma ad Keetie Roele, Jl 2009, p.2

208 Impact o Social Assistace Cash Beet Scheme o Childre i Kosoo, Report to unICEF, Maastricht Grad-ate School o Goerace, Fraziska Gassma ad Keetie Roele, Jl 2009, Table 10, nmber o social as-sistace beeciaries ad amot o total social assistace beet per micipalit, December 2008, p.25

209 Cttig the lielie. Migratio, Families ad the Ftre o Kosoo. Eropea Stabilit Iitiatie, 2006.The ll report ca be iewed ad dowloaded o www.esiweb.org, see http://www.esiweb.org/idex.php?lag=e&id=156&docmet_ID=80

210 Impact o Social Assistace Cash Beet Scheme o Childre i Kosoo, Report to unICEF, Maastricht Grad-ate School o Goerace, Fraziska Gassma ad Keetie Roele, Jl 2009. p.2

211 Child Poert i Kosoo: Aalsis o the 2006/2007 Hosehold Bdget Sre, uiersit o york , Social PolicResearch uit, yekateria Chzhe, December 2008.

212 Impact o Social Assistace Cash Beet Scheme o Childre i Kosoo, Report to unICEF, Maastricht Grad-ate School o Goerace, Fraziska Gassma ad Keetie Roele, Jl 2009.

213 Impact o Social Assistace Cash Beet Scheme o Childre i Kosoo, Report to unICEF, Maastricht Grad-

ate School o Goerace, Fraziska Gassma ad Keetie Roele, Jl 2009 ad Child Poert i Kosoo,Polic Optios Paper & Sthesis Report, unICEF, Ma 2010, p.9.

214 Atwort der Bdesregierg a die Kleie Arage der Abgeordete ulla Jelpke .a,, Drcksache 17/505, p.2


Research & Cosltig Compa, 2009.

216 The aerage social assistace pamet i Kosoo toda is 61 Ero per moth. A mothl icome dierece o31 Ero is ths the eqialet o six moths o social assistace.

217 Extrapolated data, Dataset Kosoo Fodatio or Ope Societ (KFOS – SOROS), COMPASS




219 Child Poert i Kosoo: Aalsis o the 2006/2007 Hosehold Bdget Sre, uiersit o york , Social PolicResearch uit, yekateria Chzhe, December 2008. p.7


Research & Cosltig Compa, 2009. Especiall childre growig p i emale-headed hoseholds rel oremittaces – arod 38 percet o childre i emale-headed hoseholds lie o remittaces compared to 9percet i male-headed hoseholds.



222 Iormall, the Germa goermet has promised ot to icrease the mber o readmissio reqests aboe2008 leels (abot 2,500 aall) ad esre a ethic balace.

223 Face-to-ace iteriew i April 2010.



92

Katalogimi në botim – (CIP)

Biblioteka Kombëtare dhe Universitare e Kosovës

341.234(496.51)

Knaus, VerenaIntegration Subject to Conditions : a report on the

situation o Kosovan Roma, Ashkali and Egyptianchildren in Germany and their repatrition to Kosovo / Verena Knaus, Peter Widmann. - Prishtina : UNICEF,2010. - 92 . : ilustr. ; 30 cm.

List o Acronyms : . 5. - Foreword : . 6-8. - Authors :. 84. – Endnotes : . 85-91

1 Widmann, Peter

ISBN 978-9951-601-00-9



United Nations Children’s Fund – UNICEF

l h l

raestudy eng web

Documents