He has been living for six years in Berlin, and is married to a German woman, yet Rabee [who gave only one name] has no German friends.
The 22-year-old Muslim Lebanese, who emigrated to Germany illegally in search of better work opportunities, is part of an about 120,000-strong Arab community whose members reside in Berlin but have limited interaction with Germans and other Europeans.
Many of them fear integration in German society would mean they would have to abandon their identity, including cultural and religious practices. Some say the German society has failed to accommodate them even after tens of years of living in the country, while others blame the emigrants themselves for not taking enough steps to become part of the society.
“I do not have German friends because they drink a lot and behave inappropriately,” Rabee told The Jordan Times at Um Khalthum café in Neukölln, an area with large immigrant communities, mainly Arabs and Turks.
He gave as examples public drinking and kissing, practices that are considered inappropriate by many Arabs and Muslims.
Rabee, married to a Muslim German of Croatian origin who “only became a practising Muslim” after they got married, arrived in Berlin six years ago, passing through Turkey and France, after paying 8,000 euros to a Lebanese mediator. Since he did not finish high school, opportunities in his hometown, in the south of Lebanon, were limited.
His current “refugee” status grants him an apartment, health insurance, child education and a monthly aid of 200 euros. He has an undeclared job in a car sale company that adds 400 more euros, much needed by his family, per month.
Another young Lebanese, who spoke on condition of anonymity, supplements his income by selling small amounts of drugs, an illegal business that booms among many Arab refugees in certain areas of the German capital.
“How do you expect 200 euros per month to be enough for me and my family?” asked the father of three.
If he seems to find it natural, Firas [who only gave one name], a 29-year-old PhD student who was born in Germany to Palestinian parents, believes drug dealers harm the Arabs’ reputation in the country and contribute to forming a bad image, especially with teenagers being involved.
He fears a day will come in Germany when some would call for foreigners to be expelled from the country, to secure jobs for unemployed Germans who are feeling the pressure of the global economic crisis.
A self-proclaimed practising Muslim, Firas has many German friends, but says contact with Arab peers remains stronger. Unlike many other Arabs here, he does not mind being in a gathering where alcohol is served.
“Some would not want to go out with you if you do not drink,” he told The Jordan Times, sipping tea at a cafژ in Kreuzberg, a neighbourhood resided mostly by Turks.
Lebanese Abu Mohammad, a 50-year-old café owner in Neukölln, agreed with Firas, blaming the society for what he described as the absence of willingness to accept the Arab culture.
“Several situations might appear to be silly, but they show how some people hate you,” he said, describing how one young European man kicked his Mercedes Benz and shouted at him recently.
In June, outrage erupted in Berlin following central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin’s statement that Turkish, Arab and African immigrants are making Germany “more stupid”, in reference to their level of education.
Sarrazin was last year stripped of key responsibilities in the central bank after accusing Arabs and Turks of neglecting their children’s education and “constantly produc[ing] little girls in headscarves”.
His statements have been received with anger and criticism by major German parties and politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A request for an interview was refused by Neukölln Mayor Heinz Buschkowsky, as he “generally does not give any interviews in foreign languages”, said an e-mail sent to The Jordan Times by his office.
During the last few years, Kreuzberg and Neukölln have been witnessing an inflow of young artists and students who come to the area because of cheaper rents, bringing with them a European lifestyle the more conservative émigrés do not appreciate.
Abu Marouf, a bearded Lebanese married to a German, who have seven children, believes the question is how to fit in a much more liberal society while maintaining one’s own identity and religious practices.
“We live in a Western society and we should be aware of that... these people are not bad, but it’s just their culture and traditions that is different from ours,” he said, adding that he has only a few German friends because he does not like to frequent places where alcohol is served.
Marianne, a sociology student from eastern Germany who has recently moved to Neukölln, believes that the difference in customs and traditions is only being used by each side as an excuse to not interact with the other, “because people are afraid”.
“Arabs are sort of a closed community simply because they are of a different ethnicity. It’s nobody’s fault, but rather a normal process in which common factors such as language play a major role,” she said.
During Lebanon’s civil war (1975-1990), thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian refugees there fled to Europe. Some 30,000 chose Berlin; they did so because they were mainly less educated and life in Berlin was cheaper than in other cities of the region, according to Palestinian social worker Nader Khalil.
He said that these people were not aware enough of the education opportunities offered to them by the German government, and felt fine with only the financial aid.
Khalil, who works as a case manager at the Arab-German Centre for Education and Integration, also said that many Arab couples tend to have many children and thus are less able to take good care of them. This causes many to enter the world of delinquency, added Khalil, who is also a member of the Christian Democratic Union, Merkel’s party.
At the centre, Khalil works in special programmes to rehabilitate the youngsters and help them integrate in the society by learning the language and finding jobs. He charged that many Germans are not ready yet to accept other ethnicities as part of their society, but also blamed those Arabs and Muslims who do not take initiatives to adapt.
Social activities and gatherings, he said, are ways in which Muslims and Arabs can “promote their culture which is still ambiguous for the Europeans”, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US.
As far as Khalil is concerned, dialogue has to be launched between the two sides through social gatherings and activities, as well as through different NGOs, in order to break the cultural barriers and get Germany’s immigrants together with the Germans.
Meanwhile, the identity of a new generation of Arabs here remains blurred, hanging between their Middle Eastern roots and a Western environment.