In most German villages and suburbs, we have houses where refugees live. In 2015, one million refugees came to Germany and in 2016, seven hundred and fifty thousand arrived here (1). I had not been in contact with any refugees before and didn’t know many other people who were, except one colleague at work, who shared with me that she supports a family to go to process their residency applications with the authorities and to go to the doctors.
As I stopped listening to news’ broadcasts and reading newspapers many years ago, I did not have really any idea (and did not want to know) about what was going on in the world, and especially what was going on with refugees from other countries that have to leave their home countries because they are not safe there anymore.
Recently a community house where I run some singing groups suggested to me that I sing with the refugees who live in their area. They had already been in contact with them about the idea recently. The day I agreed that I would be running singing groups with refugees, I felt very unsettled. A lot went on in my body. I could feel the existing attitudes/mindsets in Germany surrounding refugees: the insecurity and fear of other cultures, the possibility of financial disadvantage, like less income as a consequence of so many refugees. I also felt touched by the fact that people have to leave everything behind (their house, friends and often part of their family) and escape to a foreign country and could feel how this is not an easy situation to be in.
On the day, I was taken to a house where the refugees live and introduced to them; it was a great experience to break through the ideals, beliefs and fears I held around refugees. I experienced beautiful and loving people who were very open and welcoming to guests like me.
Two days later I went to pick them up from their house. The two children took my hand and we all walked together to the community house. I remember the feeling of union and brotherhood, and how joyfully we sang on the way to the community house. We had a fabulous time and danced a lot.
Since I started to be in contact with some of the families from Syria and Iraq, I also started reading articles about these countries, as well as articles about the laws and situations of refugees in Germany.
I listened to audios of children sharing their experiences and the long and dangerous journey most of them had to take before finally arriving in a safe country, like Germany. Many refugees have to cross the ocean, which means a journey of seven or more days, squashed in an unstable boat, with no space to move or really sit, no food or drink and the risk of either dying of exhaustion or simply because the boat will not make it.
I read an article from an organisation which mentioned that many refugees have had traumatic experiences when they leave their home countries. Having to travel a long way and undertaking a dangerous boat trip with their children across the sea causes many people to suffer (2).
Journalists and humanitarian organisations are asking for changes to the refugee legislation and to allow refugees in directly, rather than force them to make the journey in makeshift boats. Such changes would remove this risk to their lives, which only adds more to their trauma.
We need to remember that all of us, including refugees, are equal human beings. Because one group of people live in another part of the world, we cannot simply look away and ignore the fact that, for example, 46,000 migrants and refugees are stuck in camps in Greece under conditions we would not even keep our animals in here in Germany (3). In these camps they have few rights or privileges.
I have been looking the other way from this situation for a long time; I did not want to know what was going on in the world. I am now very interested to read about war, violence, hate, rape… it is very confronting and, yes, painful. I have been inspired by the contact I have with the families from Syria, really enjoying being together with them, and I started to open up myself to the whole world and what is actually going on. It is easy to look away as long as our life is safe and comfortable.
But what about all these people who are suffering in the world – is it not our responsibility to support them in whatever way we can? Are we not being asked to start talking about what is going on in our world? What have we allowed or accepted that we now have the consequences of so many refugees worldwide having to leave their home?
Is the fact that so many countries (not only Syria) are at war, where people fight against each other day in and day out and citizens are not safe, a consequence of a worldwide policy where political and economic interests and strategies prevail? Why is it not about love, brotherhood and respect but more about provoking the differences between religions so they start fighting against each other, even though they might have lived harmoniously before?
If there is war in other countries and destruction, is that not a reflection that there is something very wrong in every country? Have we failed as a worldwide society to take better care of each other and have we failed to support countries when it was still possible to do so?
I see the refugee situation for us in Germany as a great opportunity to stop staying individual and thinking “What is best for me?,” and to open up our hearts and see that other cultures, like the Syrian culture, where there is huge valuing of family and supporting each other, can inspire us to live less in separation from other people.
And as we have a shortage of employees in many areas of the job market, let’s welcome people like this and allow them to integrate into our society as best as possible! But we need to work together to do this.
Having met many beautiful refugees, I have learnt that we have to say ‘no’ to racism and hatred towards another fellow human being because, in our hearts, we are all the same, and in truth there is no such thing as separate nationalities. When I close my eyes and open my heart and feel the person, we are connected – we are one.
By Janina Koch
References:
- So geht die Flüchtlingskrise 2016 weiter [Translation: (Politics | Germany) Refugees – that the way the refugees crisis 2016 continues] wiwo.de/politik/deutschland/fluechtlinge-so-geht-die-fluechtlingskrise-2016-weiter/12774248.html
- Deutsches Rotes Kreuz Gemeinsam mit Flüchtlingen, Angebote des DRK zum mitmachen (Translation: German Red Cross together with refugees, proposals from the DRK to participate) drk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Gemeinsam_mit_Fluechtlingen.pdf
- Trapped in Greece: An Avoidable Refugee Crisis, 2016 Amnesty International amnesty.eu/content/assets/Docs_2016/ReportsBriefings/Trapped_in_Greece_final_140416.pdf
Further reading:
The Deafening Sound of War and Peace
Refugees
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
From the outside looking in we can think people are different but when we meet them with an open heart we know we are all the same.
There is an Airline that has employees from all around the world working for them as they are a huge organisation and I am told that everyone gets on and works together no matter what religion or country they come from, each person is contributing to the overall success of the Airline.
And yet in many of these countries there is civil unrest as one religion fights for dominance over another. Too me what this Airline is showing the world is that we can all get on with each other, by respecting cultural differences, and choices because who is to say one religion is ‘better’ than another? To see that there is a bigger picture than just being an individual with religious intolerances.
We can get on together, we are all equal, a great example of this in life Mary.
I love living in London because of the vast mix of different people there. Sticking with ‘your own’ helps create bias which breeds judgement and comparison.
Feeling the inner equality of everyone is so simple when we are connected to our essence, so one day this will become a normal way of understanding that life is about the energy we can connect to as you have shared Janina.
“Why is it not about love, brotherhood and respect but more about provoking the differences between religions so they start fighting against each other…” Our news is saturated with corruption and violence, wars and various difficulties, as a global community we aren’t talking about values enough, things like integrity, respect, decency and love, these are what we need to build together. My feeling is that we will not halt the deep negativity in this world until we begin to live these values together and nurture them in each other.
Absolutely, we need to build values like decency, care, and love, ‘things like integrity, respect, decency and love, these are what we need to build together.’
‘I have been looking the other way from this situation for a long time; I did not want to know what was going on in the world. I am now very interested to read about war, violence, hate, rape… it is very confronting and, yes, painful. I have been inspired by the contact I have with the families from Syria, really enjoying being together with them, and I started to open up myself to the whole world and what is actually going on. It is easy to look away as long as our life is safe and comfortable.’ Amazing and very inspiring. Absolutely we are all equal and every person deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. What came to me while reading this was the trauma these people have already been through in within their countries that is huge let alone then getting into an unstable boat to travel over 7 days in cramped conditions leaving all that they know behind. This is like trauma on top of trauma. So it is great that you could connect to some of these people and bring all that you are and allow them to be all that they are.
It is lovely to read how Janina connected with these people and shared her qualities and love with them.
Regardless of our place of origin, we can each find a place in the heart of our neighbour or even better – find place in our heart for our neighbour. I remember being brought up in Bulgaria, we were educated to despise Turkey & the Ottoman Empire. Our whole history revolves around the poor Bulgarian people who were born and lived during the time when the Ottoman Empire had rule over Bulgarian Land. So, I grew up hating Turkish people, so much so that I was beside myself when my parents wanted to go on holiday to Turkey. But come 2008/2009 when my family and I moved to a quiet suburb area of North West London with some Turkish neighbours. These people were so warm, so welcoming and so genuine that my whole perception and everything I had built against Turkish people had to disappear – I no longer had a ground to stand on and say that Turkish people are horrible people. So it really doesn’t matter our place of birth, the history of the country we were born in or whatever else we choose to hook onto in order to hate another nation or a person of a different race – our disconnection and discrimination comes from our own values and perceptions of the world.
I spent some time in Japan over 20 years ago, when I was in homestay with a family the teenage daughter and her friends were in a deep discussion about something, I asked them what they were talking about and they replied that it was ‘about the Koreans and how much they hated them.’ I then found out it was a common thing in Japan to have racism towards Koreans, I’m not sure why but your story reminded me of this and how racism and bigotry can be generational. I’m sure the girls would have been surprised to actually meet Korean teenagers and realise they were just the same, not horrible at all. As babies we don’t discriminate, just meet each other and play together, so we can see from these two stories how beliefs and unhealed hurts can lead to division…. and later war. As human beings we all need to get together with different people and talk and break down these silly barriers that come from our mind, and come back to living from our hearts.
Our schooling system actually educates us to discriminate.
How sad that this changes as we grow older, ‘As babies we don’t discriminate, just meet each other and play together’.
The treatment or mis-treatment I should say of refugees is disgraceful, whenever we treat a fellow brother as being less this highlights the fact that we are still living in a very supremacist society. We need more conversations like these to break down the racism that still exists in the world today.
It is great to clock where I still hold people as different because of the colour of their skin or their culture or language or so on.
We spend so much time focusing on differences and fears (that are often born from ignorance), we really need to remain open to learning and open to understanding our fellow human beings, after all we are not so different wherever we are born. I feel that we have everything within us to work together to bring harmony and support for whole communities that bring in refugees, there is truly nothing we cannot achieve if we work together.
Absolutely, working together we are more powerful, ‘we need to work together’.
No matter what nationality we are, people are people, there is no difference really in our substance. Why we make it that we are different is something unknown to the heart.
Exactly, we are the same, ‘ in our hearts, we are all the same, and in truth there is no such thing as separate nationalities.’
If we should all bear in mind that we were all refugees at least once in previous lives that would and should change our perspective permanently.
“I see the refugee situation for us in Germany as a great opportunity to stop staying individual and thinking “What is best for me?,” I totally agree, it’s a great opportunity to stop only considering what is best for ourselves and to begin to really care about everyone else on the planet and begin to ask – what is best for everyone?
We are all connected energetically, so what we do to another has an effect on self.
I agree Meg we all have to live on this planet, it’s all we have so it would make much more sense if we all got on together instead of highlighting our differences. As someone said in the comments as children we play with each other regardless of colour or nationality. So where do these prejudices come from?
Things have to be really desperate if you are prepared to risk your own life and those of your children in order to flee a country that no longer offers you any safety, it is part of our human nature to accept others and offer a helping hand, however it is always a choice and when we choose love first we welcome others with no judgment.
“But we need to work together” when we meet someone, or people, and connect with them we realise that the language they speak may be different but the language of the heart is the same in all of us.
If we listen to the news and the hype about refugees (both for and against) we muddy our willingness and ability to just meet them as people. As in this blog, this is where the magic of finding we are really all the same can happen.
A super powerful article Janina on how we can be together with each other, regardless of background or culture. Seeing past that to the essence of what is within a person helps us realise that there are no differences.
“When I close my eyes and open my heart and feel the person, we are connected – we are one” – this is so beautiful, and true. We all know this to be true.
Culture is what we have used to divide us – but really we are all the same – we all start off exactly the same and it is our conditions that can shape us. But if we choose to see beyond the environment, there is little difference. It is part of our evolution to see each other as equals.
We curse each other with labels when actually as you’ve shared we are all equal and capable of great brotherhood and openness.
How convenient it is to keep the shutters down and the sunglasses on and the blinds drawn from the fact that we are simply all one… Because then how on earth could we justify the separation.
Thank you Janina, your experience shows us we are all people first and we are not so different from each other. We are all responsible for the quality of the world we live in and how we treat each other.
There is an energy running in the world that is old and gets fed and recycled here and there: the energy of forceful destruction. Its consequences are always devastating. And, we do not seem to learn that we have to deal with this energy at its root. Instead of asking ourselves, why is this energy still at play, we made it about ‘their’ problem, avoiding looking if there is anything in my life feeding it. Although, not an easy one, and painful as it is, the fight is about the management of the consequences; which is necessary if the energy is not addressed.
Eduardo what you are saying makes sense to me
“we do not seem to learn that we have to deal with this energy at its root.”
because none of us want to take responsibility for this energy of destruction by reining it it in, we are all feeding the energy by buying into the false ideals, beliefs etc., which are not ours to begin with but are given to us by this forceful energy, so we are recycling the same energy which keeps us all stuck in the energy of being bigots.
Taking the blinkers off from the abuse in our world is the first step to resolving that behaviour. Only with each one of us seeing it, and saying no longer can it continue will the world change.
When people connect with people they are impulsed to act, to change, to share the atrocities we are choosing not to see. Such is and has been the work of those on the ‘front line’ for eons. Yet within moments the readers, the listeners, yes we, can get distracted by our comfort and forget what is going on out there. The fact we have countries and borders and treat people as less than we would treat ourselves is impulse enough to live a more connected and engaged way.
Things have to be pretty dire at home for people to risk their lives and the lives of their young children, and then to relocate without knowing what the future holds.
Every single human being on this planet is in essence the same, no one is more or less than another, this is not possible as we come from a whole and a oneness which has an identical source. We are all learning to live in brotherhood again and to love each and everyone the same.
“When I close my eyes and open my heart and feel the person, we are connected – we are one.” Such beautiful words Janina, ones that have the power to heal the separation we have created between us. Refugees are people too, just like you and I, and their unique expression has a part in the world, just as ours does. So perhaps if we began to heal the separation within us the separation within countries and people will slowly begin to heal as well. We won’t know until we make the choice to do so.
We support each other in learning to reveal again our own self-worth. This is a reflection we can share with everyone.
The refugee problem in the world belongs to all of us and it is up to us to work together so that we end the reason why we have refugees in the first place.
As a very wise man said once… Let us, that is humanity, live without Borders, without separation, just for a while, experience the true connection that is possible, and see what happens.
We are all equal sons of God, everyone deserves to be treated with decency and respect and to be reminded the truth of who we really are, anything less than that creates separation.
Yes, everyone deserves to be treated with decency and respect.
When we stand opposite another human being with our eyes closed and allow ourselves to feel the essence of the other and surrender to what our body wants, we all are magnetically pulled towards the other. And it doesn’t matter where that other person is born, lives or what age he/she is when we don’t hold back we just also literally want to be close to another and connect.
The key is keeping our hearts open to other human beings and being willing to learn first hand what is going on, and not letting the media or societal prejudices influence our true nature of connecting in harmony and understanding with one another.
People are people no matter where they are from. The fact that we allow skin color, culture, religion, language and boarders to keep us separated causes us endless misery and disharmony.
“We need to remember that all of us, including refugees, are equal human beings”. If every single one of us lived with this knowing what a different world we would live in; a world based on equality and brotherhood and a world without war.