13.07.2016

A lot of useful information for refugees in Germany is available, especially on the internet. We present some of these websites to give an overview about different topics concerning migrants in Germany.

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In this over­view, we pre­sent some web­sites with useful infor­ma­ti­on for refu­gees in Ger­ma­ny. Pho­to: Trä­ger­kreis für jun­ge Flücht­lin­ge e.V.

Even when we try to check the lin­ked web­sites short­ly, we can’t gua­ran­tee for qua­li­ty and cor­rect­ness of the pre­sen­ted infor­ma­ti­on. The lin­ked web­sites aren’t mana­ged by PRO ASYL, the­r­e­fo­re we don’t have any influence on con­tents or changes.

Last updated: 12.10.2023

„Hand­book Ger­ma­ny“ pres­ents gene­ral infor­ma­ti­on in dif­fe­rent lan­guages (e.g. Alba­ni­an, Ara­bic, Far­si, Tig­ri­nya)

Some hints for first ori­en­ta­ti­on in Ger­ma­ny are pre­sen­ted by „Refu­gee Gui­de“ in some lan­guages, for exam­p­le Ara­bic, Alba­ni­an, Pash­to, Dari or Tig­ri­nya.

On the web­site „Asyl in Deutsch­land“ you can find an infor­ma­ti­ve film for refu­gees with tips and advice for the inter­view at the Bun­des­amt fĂĽr Migra­ti­on und FlĂĽcht­lin­ge (BAMF). The film has been trans­la­ted into 10 dif­fe­rent lan­guages inclu­ding Ara­bic, Alba­ni­an, Eng­lish, Kur­man­ji and Farsi.

Infor­ma­ti­ons­ver­bund Asyl & Migra­ti­on gives infor­ma­ti­on for the hea­rings in the asyl­um pro­cess, for exam­p­le in Alba­ni­an, Bos­ni­an, Kur­man­ji, Ara­bic, Eng­lish or Per­si­an. (PDF – files)

Hel­pful advice for ope­ning a bank account is given here in Eng­lish and Ara­bic.

Infor­ma­ti­on about cheap pos­si­bi­li­ties for mobi­le com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on is pre­sen­ted by Stif­tung Waren­test in Eng­lish (pdf-down­load) and Ara­bic (pdf-down­load).

The plat­form „Wefu­gee“ gives refu­gees the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ask ques­ti­ons on many dif­fe­rent topics.

On www.queer-refugees.de you can find detail­ed infor­ma­ti­on regar­ding the right to asyl­um for les­bi­ans and gays, a list for regio­nal cont­act points and many other useful links about the LGBTIQ topic.

The Goe­the-Insti­tu­te pro­vi­des an over­view over pos­si­bi­li­ties to learn Ger­man in Eng­lish, French and Ara­bic. The­re is also their own online-cour­se, also available in Eng­lish.

Some chap­ters of the Ger­man-Ara­bic dic­tion­a­ry (pdf) from Lan­gen­scheidt-Ver­lag have been made available for free.

In addi­ti­on to stan­dard dic­tio­n­a­ries bab.la offers a lar­ge coll­ec­tion of phra­ses for dif­fe­rent topics like appli­ca­ti­ons or busi­ness cor­re­spon­dence in many languages.

Trans­la­ti­ons for basic terms can be found under www.babadada.com. Seve­ral lan­guages are con­tai­ned, for exam­p­le Ara­bic, Kur­dish, Urdu, Pash­tu, Dari, Tigrinya.

Some basic terms are trans­la­ted and illus­tra­ted also in the pic­tu­re dic­tion­a­ry (pdf) of „Deutsch-Ara­bi­sche Freundschaftsgesellschaft“.

The web­site of Deut­sche Wel­le exists in over 30 lan­guages (Alba­ni­an, Amha­ric, Ara­bic, Ben­ga­li, Dari, Hin­di, Pash­to, Urdu and more – lan­guage can be chan­ged under the link „DW.com in 30 lan­guages“, on the right upper side of the site) and has published its own por­tal to learn German.

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Lear­ning Ger­man is the first step. The­re are many pos­si­bi­li­tys to learn online. Pho­to: Trä­ger­kreis Jun­ge Flücht­lin­ge e.V.

„Lan­guage Trans­fer“ has put their com­ple­te cour­se Ger­man online.

Alma­ni Be Far­si offers over 300 Ger­man lec­tures for Far­si spea­king people.

Espe­ci­al­ly for ara­bic-spea­king peo­p­le the­re is a low-thres­hold Ger­man cour­se, which is pre­sen­ted on You­tube and is also appro­pria­te for alphabetization.

The pro­ject „Wel­co­me Groo­ves“ has published some Ger­man les­sons as audio files. Addi­tio­nal­ly the con­tent has been trans­la­ted in writ­ten form in many dif­fe­rent lan­guages, inclu­ding for exam­p­le Eng­lish, French, Ara­bic, Pash­to, Urdu, Tig­ri­nya, Soma­li, Hausa and Alba­ni­an (PDF – files).

Access to inte­gra­ti­on courses

After being entit­led to asyl­um, an inte­gra­ti­on cour­se is obli­ga­to­ry in Ger­ma­ny. Through a post­code-search you can find an orga­ni­zer near­by here.

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The­re are many initia­ti­ves that helps refu­gees to get access to edu­ca­ti­on & work. Pho­to: Trä­ger­kreis Jun­ge Flücht­lin­ge e.V.

Tes­tAS is an assess­ment test that exami­nes both the gene­ral and sub­ject-rela­ted abili­ties for aca­de­mic stu­dies. It assists refu­gees in con­ti­nuing or start­ing aca­de­mic stu­dies in Ger­ma­ny. Uni­ver­si­ties use Tes­tAS indi­vi­du­al­ly or as part of uni-assist’s docu­men­ta­ti­on-exami­na­ti­on pro­ce­du­re for refugees.

Workeer.de espe­ci­al­ly addres­ses refu­gees and employ­ers which want to hire them. Requests and offers can be published there.

social­bee is a plat­form for refu­gees to enter the Ger­man labor market.

Jobs, paid intern­ships and app­ren­ti­ce­ship places can be found on „careers4refugees“.

The­re is an own cate­go­ry „Job offers for refu­gees“ at the por­tal „Job­bör­se“

„hr-inte­gra­te“ wants to help refu­gees to find an appro­pria­te occu­pa­ti­on in Ger­ma­ny with sup­port of professionals.

Kiron Uni­ver­si­ty is an online uni­ver­si­ty spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for refu­gees. Dona­ti­ons make it pos­si­ble for refu­gees to stu­dy here. Detail­ed infor­ma­ti­on in Eng­lish is available here.

Many Ger­man uni­ver­si­ties have estab­lished pro­grams for refu­gees or offer the pos­si­bi­li­ty to attend lec­tures as a guest.

The Ger­man Aca­de­mic Exch­an­ge Ser­vice (DAAD) imple­ments various pro­grams and mea­su­res with uni­ver­si­ties and part­ner orga­niza­ti­ons to sup­port refu­gees at Ger­man uni­ver­si­ties and offers exten­si­ve information.

The Fede­ral Minis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Rese­arch also pro­vi­des hel­pful infor­ma­ti­on and an over­view of stu­dy oppor­tu­ni­ties for refugees.

Many online offers in edu­ca­ti­on-sec­tor are pre­sen­ted by Hoch­schul­fo­rum Digi­ta­li­sie­rung in Eng­lish & Ara­bic.

In Ger­ma­ny the­re are various local initia­ti­ves for Refu­gee Aid, they often help with admi­nis­tra­ti­ve and bureau­cra­tic issues, give lec­tures in Ger­man for free, offer lei­su­re acti­vi­ties or orga­ni­ze flats for refugees.

Find out from the refu­gee coun­cils what inde­pen­dent struc­tures alre­a­dy exist locally.

The­re is the pos­si­bi­li­ty of an „First Aid“-Contact at PRO ASYL via mail. An over­view about con­sul­ting cen­tres in the fede­ral sta­tes can be found on the web­sites of the fede­ral migra­ti­on coun­cils.

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Every year PRO ASYL gets thou­sands of pho­ne-calls, let­ters and emails from refu­gees. Whe­re­ver pos­si­ble, our advi­sors give prac­ti­cal sup­port. Pho­to: PRO ASYL

All across Ger­ma­ny, Dia­ko­ni­sches Werk has con­sul­ting cen­tres, some of them can help in migra­ti­on-issues. Here they give an over­view, whe­re con­sul­ta­ti­on for migrants is offered.

In 24 Ger­man cities, Jugend­mi­gra­ti­ons­dienst has star­ted a pro­ject for young refu­gees (12 – 27 years old). A map with all loca­ti­ons can be found here.

This video shows what to do, if you’re an asyl­um-see­ker and you’ve got to go to the doctor.

When you’re going to the doc­tor, you will find trans­la­ti­ons for basic terms in a Goog­le-Sheet, made by Refu­gee Phras­e­book. Available lan­guages are for exam­p­le: Alba­ni­an, Ara­bic, Dari, Far­si, Pash­to, Sora­ni, Kurmanji.

Trans­la­ti­ons of ana­mne­sis- and exami­na­ti­on-tran­scripts in many lan­guages can be found on tipcdoc.de. They crea­ted a health-bro­chu­re (pdf)  as well, which can be prin­ted and car­ri­ed to the doc­tor for an easier con­ver­sa­ti­on. It includes trans­la­ti­ons in Alba­ni­an, Ara­bic, Dari, Far­si, Urdu and Tigrinya.

A descrip­ti­ve ques­ti­on­n­aire Deutsch /Arabisch (pdf) has been crea­ted by “Phar­ma­zeu­ti­sche Zeitung”

Peo­p­le wit­hout papers, for exam­p­le refu­gees wit­hout resi­dence sta­tus get unbu­reau­cra­tic and free help in so-cal­led “Medi­bü­ros” in many Ger­man cities.

For vic­tims of tor­tu­re and trau­ma­ti­zed refu­gees the­re are psycho-social cen­tres, which help in a pro­fes­sio­nal way. The­re are thir­ty of the­se cen­tres all across Ger­ma­ny.

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www.refugees-welcome.net is a pro­ject which con­nects refu­gees and living com­mu­ni­ties with emp­ty rooms. Pho­to: Refu­gees Welcome

The pro­ject „Refu­gees Wel­co­me“ helps refu­gees to get emp­ty rooms in shared flats all over Ger­ma­ny. It exists in Greece, Por­tu­gal, Pol­and, Swe­den, Aus­tria, The Net­her­lands and Spain as well.

Refu­gee Radio offers dai­ly news for refu­gees in Ger­ma­ny (Ara­bic and Eng­lish). Available online or live via NDR (Mo.-Fr., 11:55 AM/PM).

Espe­ci­al­ly for child­ren: „Sen­dung mit der Maus“ inter­na­tio­nal. A famous Ger­man TV pro­gram for Kids has now published some con­tents in Ara­bic, Kur­dish and Dari.

“Pha­se 6“ is an appli­ca­ti­on for lear­ning Ger­man – espe­ci­al­ly for child­ren with no Ger­man lan­guage skills (iOS & Android).

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Lear­ning Ger­man with your mobi­le pho­ne? Hel­pful apps for refu­gees. Pho­to: Dia­ko­nie Niedersachsen

Dia­ko­nie Nie­der­sach­sen laun­ched an Android-App in more than 50 lan­guages hel­ping refu­gees to learn German.

For Ara­bic-spea­king refu­gees, this lan­guage lear­ning app is for free (iOS).

“Wel­co­me App” has been published recent­ly. They want to pro­vi­de useful, local infor­ma­ti­on direct­ly to your mobi­le pho­ne. Step by step, more and more cities shall be included (iOS & Android)

Infor­ma­ti­on for refu­gees arri­ving in Ger­ma­ny is given by “Refu­ger­ma­ny”, available for iOS and Android.

Fare-Net­work against racism in foot­ball has an Euro­pe-wide data base, whe­re some Ger­man pro­jects and clubs are included also. The­re are some spe­cial offers or teams for refu­gees. If there’s no club in your regi­on: Many other sport- and foot­ball-clubs wel­co­me refu­gees also!

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The­re are refu­gees play­ing in many Ger­man foot­ball teams. Poto: Tho­mas Mül­ler for FC Lam­pe­du­sa Hamburg.

If fami­ly or fri­ends are still on the way through Euro­pe and in trou­ble: The (very detail­ed) ELE­NA-Index (pdf) of Euro­pean Coun­cil on Refu­gees and Exi­les offer a good over­view about hel­pful cont­acts in dif­fe­rent Euro­pean countries.

In cases of distress at sea on the way through Medi­ter­ra­ne­an Sea, the Watch The Med-Alarm­pho­ne helps. Infor­ma­ti­on is available in dif­fe­rent lan­guages (at the bot­tom of the website).

The Tra­cing Ser­vices of the Natio­nal Red Cross Socie­ties try to help fami­lies who have lost their rela­ti­ves on the run to recon­nect with them.


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