The invasion

They're coming.
The invasion has begun.
It's not the undead. The zombie apocalypse is not here yet. What we are facing is a horde of... refugees.
Ok, when you put it like that, it sounds less scary. Some of them are brown people. They are going to need jobs and health care and places to live. Maybe that sounds scarier.

The flood of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans makes headlines here every day, and with good reason. It's the largest refugee crisis since World War II .  Germany is stepping up to the challenge. As Europe's political and economic leader (I guess that could be debated, but nobody messes with Angela), Germany has opened its doors to more refugees than any other EU country. It will accept about 500,000 asylum seekers this year.

Germany's public services are responding. Shelters and tent cities are springing up around the country. In Hannover, a school gym has been converted into a refugee shelter. There are rumors that Waterlooplatz, originally a training ground for the Prussian army, will soon be filled with trailer homes for refugees. 

Some refugee shelters in Germany have already been burned down. As many Germans as there are who want to help, there are plenty who are afraid. There's also a slimy underbelly of those who are afraid and react with violence.

I think that Der Spiegel does a great job of describing the mindset of the German public:

"These are people who are determined to do everything right and to atone for Germany's sins, even 70 years later. They know that they owe something to their collective conscience, and that whenever they give something up, they also gain something in return. That something is the feeling of doing the right thing, the important thing.
 
But there is also the fear of being overwhelmed. It is the fear of people who are willing to give, but only to a point, only as long as it doesn't hurt them. People who are willing to share as long as they don't have to make sacrifices. And that, all generosity aside, is why so many people now feel that limits should be imposed on immigration. They may not know where these limits should lie, but they are convinced that they should exist."

I was subbing in fifth grade last year as the students worked on research projects. One girl was researching refugees. Her survey to the class asked whether Germany should be accepting refugees or not. Most of the ten and eleven-year-olds in the class answered, something like "yes, but..." or 'yes, to a point..." or "yes, as long as...". Even though many of these kids had immigrated once themselves, they (or their parents) wanted to put a limit on just how welcoming Germany could be. 

The flow of refugees might be easier to swallow if all of the refugees came from Eastern Europe. It might be easier if they were not so different, at least on the outside. Dark-skinned people and women in head scarves don't blend in well in small German cities. It's harder to forget they are there.

It's not like my country has a spotless record on immigration either. I am not pointing fingers. We've had our share of failures, racism, deportations. We have just been doing immigration - messy or complicated or illegal or successful - for a really long time. Whether it's been a melting pot or a mixed salad or a tapestry or whatever you try to call it, we have some experience with this stuff. And, not so long ago, some of the refugees we took in were from Germany.

I'm interested to see whether the trailer park goes up in Waterlooplatz. If it does, I wonder how Hannoverians will react. My guess is that the trailers, and the people living in them, will make some locals uneasy. Most will smile and shrug and accept. Only a few will be out trying to stop the invasion. When Angela Merkel spoke in Heidenau, where a refugee shelter was burned down recently, only 200 people booed and called her a traitor. I don't think that Angela gets rattled that easily. She would probably be a good zombie killer.
 

In Hannover, again

Brian and I just returned from four weeks Stateside. Actually, we didn't just return. We've been back in Hannover for over a week. We are back to work already and it seems like that month in the U.S. is already long gone.

I find that I don't write much on visits back home. I'm not sure why. It could be because there are too many people to see and not enough rainy Hannover days pulling me back to the blog. Or maybe since I have a limited time to be in that American part of my life, I put my energy into doing things than reflecting on them.

It's not that I wasn't thinking about you people at all. I did have an idea for a blog post during our trip. In an odd reverse-tourism kind of way, I wanted to take photos of all the odd American things that a German tourist would find interesting. It would have included a mailbox shaped like a fish, a sign on the church doorways that said no firearms allowed, and a whole supermarket aisle full of salad dressing.

But I never got around to taking those pictures. There was a lake to swim in, a taco to eat, a friend to visit. And all those salad dressings to choose from. As much as I was ready to get back to my own bed and my car-free lifestyle in Germany, it was, as always, hard to say goodbye.

I did add a few photos from the trip. None are of fish mailboxes, but you might appreciate them anyway.
And now, dear readers, you are back with me in Hannover again, over and over.

Powers lake

Me and Phoebe

Dad and the nephews

Sunset, Minneapolis

A proud Minnesota moment: T-bone bingo

Brian won meat too - what a night!

"Dragging" the field , St Paul Saints

Americana

One of our favorite places

On vacation

I'll be back on the blog soon!