GERMANY
Barriers to providing HE to refugees must be breached
Four recent tragic events that happened in mid-July in Germany – the Würzburg train attack, the Munich mall shooting, the Reutlingen machete attack and the Ansbach suicide bombing – have, along with global awareness, precipitously increased Germans’ concerns about the constant threat of terrorism and homegrown radicalisation.Although these attacks had been somewhat anticipated following recent terrorism in France, Belgium, the United States and all over the Middle East, they have had a chilling effect on the German population.
In the midst of the country’s unprecedented challenge of integrating more than one million asylum seekers who arrived in the country last year, the unfortunate association between the attackers and the Middle East – according to media reports one was a German teenager with Iranian heritage, one was a refugee from Afghanistan, and two were refugees from Syria – may begin to change the public’s initially mostly welcoming posture to one of suspicion.
Populists in Germany and other countries are trying to capitalise on this fact.
In this scenario, the question of how young migrants, particularly the young men among them, will be regarded and integrated is especially critical. Policy-makers for the most part understand the key role that education plays in this process.
To varying degrees and with diverse initiatives, higher education institutions throughout Europe have been responding to the need for asylum seekers to have pathways into higher education. The higher education sector has the opportunity, indeed the obligation, to now more than ever lead the way in helping the public support tolerance and acceptance.
Challenges ahead for German universities
After several waves of immigration to Germany, the country has been repeatedly referred to as a ‘land of migration’, even if domestically this label has always been somewhat controversial.
Today, Germany is a popular destination for skilled workers and international students from in and outside the European Union.
Similarly, thousands of asylum seekers hope to find a better and safer life in Germany. In 2015 alone, the country received 1.1 million asylum seekers, many of whom originated from war-torn countries such as Syria.
Since the refugee crisis accelerated in early 2015, numerous federal agencies, research foundations, philanthropic organisations and public and private initiatives have been engaged in the immediate challenge of processing, placing and integrating the refugee influx.
Limited research so far on the process of integrating migrants into higher education institutions shows that the country's institutions are working quickly to devise mechanisms for helping those who seek to continue their education.
The German Academic Exchange Service estimates that, out of those asylum seekers who arrived in 2015, between 30,000 and 50,000 could meet the formal requirements and be willing to enrol at a higher education institution in Germany.
So far, however, actual student applications are still quite low and exact data is not yet available. The federal government has pledged to increase funding for uni-assist, Germany’s biggest university admissions platform, so that up to 70,000 additional applications can be processed between 2016 and 2019.
According to the 2015 Stifterverband University Barometer, many university presidents are convinced that higher education institutions can play an important role in the integration of refugees.
As many as 72% of them – and 98% of presidents at research universities – report that their institution has in some way helped newly arrived asylum seekers settle in or has helped them take up or continue their studies.
At the same time, close to nine out of 10 presidents polled believe that government actors at the federal and state (Länder) levels have not done enough to help refugees take up studies in Germany and the majority warn that their institutions are ill-prepared to serve refugees because they lack the necessary resources.
Efforts to help
Ever since last summer when the number of newcomers started to skyrocket, students and higher education staff all over Germany have volunteered to help refugees, especially those who were housed in makeshift emergency shelters on university premises. The Technical University of Dresden is just one example.
Many higher education institutions have opened their doors to refugees by inviting them to audit courses, learn German, make use of counselling services and in some cases pair them with German students (‘buddy programmes’). The Berlin School of Economics and Law does this, as does the Free University of Berlin.
Most of these efforts, however, are still quite ad hoc, decentralised and not necessarily geared towards the actual needs of newcomers.
For example, most asylum seekers who are interested in studying STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – or medicine (these appear to be the two most sought after study fields) are advised to participate in auditing courses and are disappointed when they find out that doing so will not help them enter their desired programme.
What these students need are intensive German classes (most degree programmes in Germany require advanced language skills at a C1 level) and academic preparation. However, since most higher education institutions’ efforts are not yet part of standard procedures and service provision (understandably so), pathways to actual degree programmes are still hard to find.
The state-funded integration courses (which help newcomers obtain intermediate German language skills at a B1 level) and pathway colleges (Studienkollegs) can serve as important stepping stones towards higher education, but access to both is still very restricted for newcomers who have not yet received their asylum decision. In tens of thousands of cases this can take well over a year.
The biggest remaining barriers
At the moment, the biggest barriers to access that migrants seeking university entrance face are the following:
- • Recognition of foreign credentials: Interestingly, the much-cited problem of refugees being unable to produce their diplomas has not yet been an issue for most higher education institutions, since applicants by and large are able to produce their documents (although this may change with rising numbers of applicants). Applicants have more problems because their Syrian, Eritrean or other foreign diplomas are not enough to guarantee admission to the desired degree programme. Therefore, to meet the academic prerequisites many are required to attend a Studienkolleg or another preparatory course, which only enrol a very limited number of students and in many cases are only offered in another city from the one they are living in.
- • German language skills: In many cases, refugees need to have a good command of German in order to be admitted. But many prospective students have to wait months and in some cases well over a year to be admitted into state-funded integration courses and even those courses do not get them to the level they need. As a result, higher education institutions offer language courses here and there, but so far many of these are offered voluntarily. Without further government funding their sustainability has to be questioned.
- • Funding: Although studying at a German university is still free of charge (with the exception of a very modest biannual administrative fee of around €100 to €300), newcomers are required to pay for learning materials and their own living expenses. But once they take up studies social welfare authorities may decide that they lose their right to financial assistance. Technically, many newcomers are eligible for government-backed stipends (BAföG), but are barred from applying until their asylum case has been decided (or until 15 months after their arrival if asylum processing is further delayed).
- • Residency requirements: Many asylum seekers are required to move to another city in order to enrol at a university. But during the months-long wait for an asylum decision these prospective students are required to obtain official permission in order to be allowed to move to another jurisdiction within Germany. And although there is legal precedence for this, the red tape involved has discouraged most prospective students from trying. With the new Integration Act having just taken effect, this situation may get even more complicated for would-be students.
Challenges that lie ahead
Major challenges remain. Events like those in July – whether related to ISIS directives or inspired by homegrown radicalism or due to individual mental illness issues – raise the public's anxiety level considerably and undoubtedly have a major impact on their degree of willingness to help migrants.
But now is precisely the time to remain focused on the fact that the vast majority of migrants seek shelter from destruction in their home countries, economic opportunity and the chance for a new beginning for their families in Germany. They are not bent on destruction of the very country that has been most generous to them.
Distinguishing the dangerous elements from the majority of well-intentioned newcomers is no easy task for authorities, but education policy-makers and institutional practitioners must now work harder than ever to keep the greater good of educational opportunity in mind amid the distractions of these horrific events that threaten to move public opinion in the wrong direction.
Bernhard Streitwieser is an assistant professor of international education at the George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development, Washington, DC, USA. Simon Morris-Lange is deputy head of the Research Unit at the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration in Berlin, Germany.