German town in far-right stronghold welcomes migrants
NEURUPPIN: The town of Neuruppin may be nestled in an eastern part of Germany, where the far-right AfD party enjoys some of its strongest support.
But it is offering to take in refugees again, five years after a huge migrant influx bitterly divided the country.
“We have room for 50 to 75 people,” Jens-Peter Golde, the mayor of the 31,000-strong town, said. “We are doing well here and we have the possibility (to help) people in need.”
At the height of the 2015 European Union migrant crisis, Angela Merkel announced that Germany’s borders would not be closed to refugees, a move hailed as historic by some but blamed by others for the subsequent rise in far-right nationalism.
The country had taken in more than one million asylum seekers.
The thorny issue of immigration in Europe has shot to the top of the bloc’s political agenda again, however, after a huge fire destroyed the biggest refugee camp in Greece, in Moria on the island of Lesbos.
Golde said Neuruppin’s experience from five years ago showed that the town could make it work this time, too.
Space used to house asylum seekers back in 2015 was now being freed up as migrants move to more permanent homes.
And that meant there was room to take in newcomers, he said.
“When you see the pictures in Moria, it is not a question of politics, it is a question of morals,” Golde said.
And not only that, it is about economics, too.
In 2015, the arrival of refugees proved a boon for entrepreneurs in the region.
“Local businesses are chasing the workforce,” according to Martin Osinski, former head of 18 asylum seekers hostels in the area, who remembers small- and medium-sized business owners knocking on their doors in search of labour.
Some 1,550 foreigners — including Syrians, Chechens and Poles — live in Neuruppin.
And the care sector in particular is one area where migrants are in high demand.
“I want to live in a town that is open to the world and that provides protection and care for people who have fled war or famine,” said Beate Schaedler, a specialist in social pedagogy.