LIVING IN GERMANY

ANNOUNCEMENT The extraordinary seminar programme offered by the State of Berlin on the topic of start-ups and self-employment for people with a migration background interested in starting a business begins a new round in May! For exactly 20 years, the state of Berlin has been strengthening and honouring the economic growth and cultural diversity of Berlin’s start-ups and has been running the …

A number of new laws, amendments to laws and edicts affecting everyday life enter into effect in May and some will affect you too. Beer is to become more expensive and offers on online platforms such as Amazon and eBay to become more transparent for consumers. More on these and other important changes taking effect from May here: —— Submission …

Hamburg-based actress, author, model and TV presenter Dayan Kodua has issued an alert for her new book My Black Skin: Life Journeys. The German-Ghanaian beauty, the first woman of African descent to win a state beauty contest in Germany, published the book alert on her Facebook page on Friday, announcing: “The coffee table book comes in two languages: English & …

Voters will go to the polls in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) on 15 May to elect the state parliament. Up for grabs are at least 181 seats in the parliament which are being contested by the major political parties, including the CDU, SPD and the Greens. An African is contesting and if he wins, he will make history as the first …

A group supporting African war refugees from Ukraine who are currently seeking refuge in Germany will hold two information sessions in May. The virtual events, ‘Information Session on Studying in Germany’ and ‘Legal Advice for Africans from Ukraine’, are organised by Help for Africans from Ukraine in Germany (HAUG) to provide orientation guide for the refugees. ‘Information Session on Studying …

The first beneficiaries of the new Hamburg regulation for third country students from Ukraine received their Fiktionsbescheinigung (Transitional Residence Permit) yesterday. A Fiktionsbescheinigung is issued if a decision has not yet been taken on an applied-for residence title or if the decision could not yet be taken. It is therefore a provisional right to stay in Germany. As we reported last week, …

Students fleeing the war in Ukraine should be able to continue their studies in Hamburg even if they come from a third country, the city’s authorities have now decided. Hamburg, one of Germany’s 16 federal states, now issues a 6-month provisional residency right to non-Ukrainian students from Ukraine. Speaking in an interview with Hamburg Journal, a spokesperson of the city, …

As the Federal Statistical Office announced in Wiesbaden on Tuesday, 22.3 million people living in Germany have a so-called migration background. This corresponds to a population share of 27.2 per cent. People with a migration background are those who themselves or at least one parent was not born with German citizenship. According to the data determined on the basis of …

I attended the opening of a new private dental practice in the Bavarian town of Neusäss on Friday, 8 April. The clinic, Zahnarztpraxis OloWow, belongs to Nigerian-born Dr Margaret Mosun Olowookere. When I started The African Courier and with it my press coverage of the African community in January 1998, there were very few African doctors and dentists in private …

The edict allowing people fleeing the war in Ukraine to enter Germany without a visa and reside in the country without a permit has been extended. The Ukraine Residence Transition Ordinance (UkraineAufenthÜV), issued by the Federal Ministry of the Interior on 7 March 2022, is currently valid until 23 May 2022. An amendment** of the edict was approved by the …

Some important changes in general regulations and laws enter into force in April. For example, many coronavirus pandemic-related restrictions will finally be abolished, people working in nursing care will receive more money and those who move from one place to the other for job-related reasons will be able to make bigger deductions from their taxes, among others. —— COVID-19 restrictions …

Here’s the speech delivered by Dr Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, member of the European Parliament, at a public demonstration against the war in Ukraine, which took place in the southeastern German city of Erlangen on Saturday, 26 March. The Malian-born European parliamentarian makes a strong case for African students displaced by the war who are currently seeking refuge in the EU ——– …

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, about 4 million Ukrainians and people of other nationalities resident in the country have been seeking refuge in European countries, according to the UN refugee agency. Among the refugees are Africans and Asians, many of whom are students, who are resident in Ukraine. Non-Ukrainians fleeing the war have …

The Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs (BMI) has launched a portal to provide information and orientation support to people seeking refuge in Germany from fleeing the war in Ukraine. “Germany4Ukraine.de is an information service for refugees from Ukraine. It provides them with a trustworthy, secure, digital contact point with the most important initial information after their arrival …

"There is still a feeling that everything that's local is primitive"

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, speaking in the Bundestag (federal parliament) on Wednesday, said the registration of displaced persons from the war in Ukraine was currently being improved. Refugees who are admitted to initial reception centres are registered there. This should be further intensified, she said. As at Wednesday (16 March), the Federal Police had registered around 175,000 refugees from …

Germany has suffered defeat at the European Court of Justice over the detention of persons to be deported. The court ruled that would-be deportees should not be remanded in a place that could be described as a prison People who are to be deported may not be detained as if they were prisoners, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has …

Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, has assured that Germany will accept all refugees from Ukraine regardless of their nationality. “We want to save lives. That does not depend on passport,” Faeser told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag, referring to the increasing number of people coming to Germany from Ukraine. Faeser said that the vast majority of the refugees …

Every month, new laws and amendments to laws are introduced that affect everyday life in Germany. What will change in March 2022 in terms of Corona rules, gambling and consumer protection is revealed here. —– Relaxation of Corona Restrictions The federal and state governments agreed to gradually relax the regulations on contact and access restrictions in the month of March. …

Due to the decreasing incidence of the new coronavirus infections in Germany, the federal and state governments have agreed on a step-by-step plan to relax restrictive measures in force. After a meeting on Wednesday between Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the premiers of the Laender, a three-step plan with the removal of the vast majority of restrictions which should bring Germany …