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Pressure on shelters
In 2001/2002, the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft
für Wohnungslosehilfe did
a survey among its member organizations on their experience with undocumented
migrants. It shows that the quota of
migrants varies between organizations, towns and regions. In some organizations
20% are migrants, while in others only 3 to 5%. It also shows that the majority
are people from Eastern Europe and the former USSR states, many of which come as
migrant workers with the aim to find work, and don’t have the intention to
apply for asylum. They often come with a three-months permit to work in the
fields, and then decide to stay without papers after those few months. An
example that dates back to the 1990s in Berlin exemplifies this tendency. In
that decade, a lot of building work was being done in the city, including the
building of the Parliament, and many companies employed undocumented migrants
(mostly from Russia, Poland, and hecoslovacia) to work on building sites. When
building companies had no work for them, they were fired and many ended up on
the streets with neither documents nor money and went to shelters in great
numbers for help.
Werena Rosenke from the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft
für Wohnungslosehilfe explains that the presence of undocumented people in Germany has become
more significant since the last four or five years, and that the homeless sector
is facing increased demand within its institutions. When they have no community
network to stay with and no income to pay rent, they will stay in shelters if
there is space.
Night shelters
To stay in night shelters, people don’t usually have to show any documentation. They are accessible to all only very temporarily (for a night or two) and don’t provide any social work. If there aren’t many undocumented migrants in a shelter, others won’t be turned away. It frequently happens, especially in winter, that homeless shelters are packed and there’s no room for the homeless people for whom the centers were originally created. For this reason several shelters in big towns are limiting the space they provide to the many undocumented people whom ask for their help.
Homeless vs houseless
When it is obvious that someone needs more intensive
support, long-term homeless shelters cannot provide the necessary attention due
to a lack of money as well as language and cultural differences. Long-term
shelters are generally inaccessible to undocumented migrants, while only
a few migrants with a legal status in Germany (such as Eastern Europeans with a
temporary work permit or people with a refugee status) can sometimes get a space
there. The assistance provided aims at helping people get back into their own
housing, providing them with a shared house or flat and help against alcoholism,
drug addictions and debt. No subsidies to homeless shelters go to helping
undocumented migrants, due to this help being illegal.[3]
Contacts aren’t generally very well established between
homeless institutions and organizations specializing in help to (undocumented)
migrants. These contacts usually depend on the social workers’ (working within
the homeless shelters) knowledge and interest on migration.
Women
Women sometimes do have access to long-term shelters
while men generally don’t. These aren’t ordinary women’s long-term
homeless shelters, but centers for battered women and Frauenhause. An increasing amount of undocumented Turkish women seek
help there, having left their traditionally orientated families or fearing
arranged marriage in Germany or their country, or having divorced their husband
of German nationality. These places receive money from the local authorities on
a somewhat different basis than other publicly funded long-term shelters,
because they have no obligation to reveal who is staying in their facilities.
[3] In Germany, it is punishable by law to provide assistance to
undocumented migrants, see art 90 Aliens Act.