At our Saturday meeting on 5 April, Women in Exile in cooperation with Moveglobal held an empowerment workshop. Almost 60 refugee women* from Berlin and Brandenburg took part in the workshop. Challenges such as isolation, gender-based violence, discrimination and everyday racism were identified during the workshop. The workshop helped to explore and share experiences of dilemmas. It helped to identify how often and in what forms these challenges occur.

In response to the question “What were your expectations when you arrived in Germany? Many of the women* said that they had not expected to encounter such discrimination and barriers from the authorities and part of society, which prevented them from integrating into mainstream society.

On a daily basis, black women* in particular, and depending on the cashier, experience racist remarks in supermarkets, on trains and buses. Cashiers “acting as security” ask them to empty their bags before they can serve them, while bus and train conductors “acting as police” ask them to show their ID cards. We thought this was only happening in Brandenburg, where we know the population is becoming increasingly anti-immigrant, but it is also happening in the multi-cultural metropolis of Berlin.

Racism is not the only challenge the women* face, they are regularly subjected to sexual assault and harassment. This happens in the camps and on the trains. One woman told how she had to move her seat on the train to get away from a man who was harassing her. The man followed her to where she had moved. Of course, he was courageous because he knew that no one would raise their voices to defend this woman because she was the odd one out.

The point of discussion was the solidarity that we would expect from those around us when we are faced with these dilemmas, both collectively and on an individual level.