Those scare tactics are working. All the aid workers we met in Hungary told us sentiment has turned against refugees. People grudgingly hire them because Hungary has a labor shortage, but landlords don't want to rent apartments to them. A refugee may have a job but no place to live. "Finding accommodation now is almost impossible," said Lilla Zentai, coordinator of social work at Hungarian aid organization Menedek. Germany, which I visited with Hoyle and CNET reporter Katie Collins, couldn't have been more different. Anti-refugee sentiment is growing in Germany, but there are still many welcoming people, particularly in places we visited like Berlin, Munich and Potsdam. On our second night in Berlin, we went on a refugee-led tour that was mostly attended by Berliners who wanted to meet Syrians and learn more about them.
Regular Germans staff the Lighthouse Welcome Center to greet refugees as they arrive in Munich, In Munich, Germans take turns volunteering at the Lighthouse Welcome surfing time iphone case Center outside the Bayern-Kaserne refugee shelter, Originally a military camp, built by Hitler in the 1930s, the center is typically the first place new arrivals live, The volunteers, people like college student Sophia Ertlhaier and retiree Brigitte Fingerle-Trischler, sit in a bright yellow hut outside a former Nazi building and chat with refugees, serve them tea and make them feel welcome in their new country..
They "want to show a friendly face" to the new arrivals, Fingerle-Trischler told us. As a contrast to the xenophobic billboards in Hungary, there were signs along the East Side Gallery -- a chunk of the Berlin Wall that's now an open-air museum -- from the political Pirate Party in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough of Berlin. They said (in English), "Racist you are? Off you can fuck! Sincerely, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg." On the back side of the Berlin Wall is a temporary exhibit with photos showing the destruction in Syria.
And then there were postcards outside a bathroom in a popular Munich restaurant that explained to locals that they shouldn't scoff at refugees who have expensive phones, "What would you take with you if you had to flee?" it asks (via our translation from German), "Cellphones are vital for refugees to protect themselves against military attacks, to find relatives or surfing time iphone case an escape route and to communicate with those at home, Often it is the only technical device that they have."A sign from the political Pirate Party in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough of Berlin sits next to the East Side Gallery, a chunk of the Berlin Wall that's now an open-air museum..
We knew from almost our first meeting in Germany what our story was: how tech helps people connect with each other in real life. For refugees to truly integrate and adjust to their new lives, it requires other people. Technology is the bridge. It's the connector. It's high tech solving a low-tech issue. The most memorable part of my trip to Germany wasn't tech related. There were no virtual-reality goggles, drones or robots. There were just little girls, dancing to music played on an aid worker's phone in a room in their shelter in the Lichtenberg borough of Berlin. Once a week, child-aid organizations Blu:Boks and World Vision lead dance classes to bring together young refugee girls from different backgrounds and teach them to express themselves.
