Abdi from Somalia talks about his arrival in Germany

My name is Abdi and I am 25 years old. I was born in Somalia, but came to Germany at the age of eleven under the family reunification scheme. I now have German citizenship, am studying Business Informatics and am about to complete my bachelor’s degree.

My family is large; there are ten of us siblings. I’m in the middle in terms of age. My eldest brother is already in his mid-30s and my youngest sister is 17. They’re all here now. But I think it’s fair to say that my older siblings spent the most formative years of their lives in Somalia, whilst the younger ones can hardly remember anything other than Germany. That’s why I often find myself acting as a sort of mediator between my older and younger siblings.

But even for me, the memories of Mogadishu, where I spent the first ten years of my life, have already faded considerably.

My parents and grandparents were very good at ensuring that we children never felt the insecurity and fear that prevailed in that city back then and still prevails today. The country has, after all, been embroiled in a seemingly endless, bloody civil war for decades. Amidst all the other crises and wars in the world, this is often forgotten. But there is a good reason why the Foreign Office has issued a travel warning for Somalia.

Of course, our escape wasn’t as dramatic or dangerous as, say, that of people who had to flee across the sea in a rubber dinghy. My father brought us over through family reunification. We simply got on a plane and flew to Germany. Even so, it was an incredible experience for me. I can’t remember much of it now, but I do remember drinking apple juice for the first time in my life on the plane. And when we landed in Munich, I actually saw white people for the first time.

After he arrived, my father had been assigned a place in a camp in Augsburg. He then stayed in Augsburg and, as soon as he was allowed to, started working for a security firm. He still does that today.

So we went straight to Augsburg and, of course, didn’t have to go to a camp, but were able to move straight into our flat. One of my earliest memories in Augsburg is that we received an invitation from another Somali family. The warmth and hospitality with which we were welcomed was overwhelming.

We arrived on 4 April 2012, and just one month later I was already able to start school. I was really looking forward to it. I was desperate to go to school, and I enjoyed it right from the start. I was initially placed in a German class, but I put a bit of pressure on myself because I wanted to move into a mainstream class as quickly as possible. I managed to do that after just three months. I went to secondary school and got very good grades. Unfortunately, I lost a year because my parents didn’t know they had to apply for a transfer to a secondary modern school. We thought that would happen automatically if my grades were good enough.

As well as school, I played a lot of football and was very good at it. I even made it to a trial session with the FC Augsburg youth team, and they wanted to test me there for a limited period. But my home club would have had to give its consent for that, which it didn’t. So I played in the U15 Bavarian League. Football was very important to me back then, and I let my schoolwork slide a bit. As a result, I didn’t manage to finish my school-leaving certificate.

But then we were relegated and I had to decide what I wanted to do. A teacher sat down with me and had a long, in-depth chat about it. She didn’t put any pressure on me at all, but I realised that I couldn’t rely on football.

So I applied to be allowed to take my secondary school leaving certificate after all. To do that, however, I had to demonstrate particular commitment. I then organised and hosted the graduation ceremony for my year group. Of course, it wasn’t easy for me to see the others celebrating something I hadn’t managed to achieve. The headteacher thought I’d done very well, though, so I was allowed to repeat the year and then it all worked out.

I then went on to complete my secondary school leaving certificate at the Goethe School in Lechhausen and my A-levels at Holbein Grammar School in 2023. I’d always wanted to go to university, but at first I wasn’t quite sure what to study. I considered whether I should spend a year travelling and seeing the world first. In the end, though, I just travelled around Germany a lot and saw quite a bit. And I went back to Somalia, but of course only to the north of Somalia, where it’s not quite as dangerous.

After I came back, I started my degree. I’ve always been interested in computer science, and Business Informatics seemed like the right choice for me. I’m enjoying it too. I’m about to start my sixth semester and am already thinking about my bachelor’s thesis.

At uni, I discovered International Relations, which is part of the Faculty of Economics. I find that really fascinating because I’m also very interested in political and social issues.

From the very beginning, Café Schülertreff has been an important place for me to turn to, where I’ve always been looked after and supported. It’s meant so much to me; I did work experience there whilst I was still at school, and now I volunteer there too, because I want to pass on to others what I’ve received myself. I organise projects, such as football tournaments, give tuition, and try to motivate the pupils.

After the pandemic, my eldest brother opened the first Somali café and restaurant in Augsburg. Back when my grandmother and my mother kept us all going with their cooking in Somalia, we’d already gained a lot of experience in the catering trade. It’s going quite well and, of course, we get lots of guests who, like us, have fled to or migrated to Germany. I’ve started helping people there who have problems with German bureaucracy, for example with filling in forms. It just happened that way. Now so many people are asking for help that I’m already thinking about whether I should open a sort of office where I can offer my assistance.

I’ve actually noticed that when dealing with government offices and authorities, it makes a huge difference whether you speak the language or not. People sometimes tell me that they get shouted at or treated unfairly because they don’t understand anything. When I then call on their behalf or go with them to the authorities, speak to the officials and say that I’m a student, I notice immediately how their attitude changes. Of course, the staff are under a lot of pressure when people can’t speak German, but that’s no reason to show them no respect or to discriminate against them.

Racism is, of course, something I’ve experienced time and again right from the start. At school, it bothered me when other pupils used the N-word and the teachers didn’t even address it.

It really upsets me what’s going on in the world at the moment, and I also feel that racism has got worse recently – in Germany, but of course in other countries too. You only have to look at the US and think of the inhumane things Trump has said there about Somali immigrants. I admire Ilhan Omar, the Member of Congress from Somalia, who is standing up against this.

I’ve joined a political party myself because I think it’s important to get involved in politics. You have to try to make a difference yourself and not just wait for others to do it for you.

My family is doing well here in Germany; we’ve ‘settled in’, as they say. Everyone has a good job or an apprenticeship; only some of my sisters are still at home because they have young children at the moment. So I’m already an uncle several times over.

It’s important to us that we don’t live off anyone else and that we can give something back to the country that has taken us in.

 

 

 

Thank you Abdi for having the courage to tell this story here!