Let’s Integrate: A platform that’s tearing down barriers between Germans and refugees
In the summer of 2015, the influx of refugees in Europe was all over the media. Lasse Landt, who worked at an IT startup in Berlin at the time, would watch the refugee question being discussed by two or three talk shows on television each week.
In April, the tone of the conversations was welcoming. But by July, the refugees kept coming, but the mood and attitude had changed. Wasn’t this stream of foreigners taxing their system? Weren’t they overburdened already? How would they make space for everyone?
Lasse realised that a key issue was not the number of refugees but the kind of people who were coming: young Muslim men.
“By nature, we think that their values are not compatible with our Christian values and democracy.” He says people were worried that they would not be able to adapt to German culture, especially regarding women’s rights and democratic values.
Lasse realised that he had never spoken to or even seen a refugee in his city. He asked around and found that the same was true for everyone he knew. Germany is “not a culture of people talking to each other on the streets”, as he put it. This was surely one of the reasons that there were no social links between the locals and the newcomers.
The refugees were also a frequent topic of discussion at his workplace, and one of his colleagues, an Egyptian, suggested that he visit the ReDi school, where refugees went to learn IT skills. Lasse went over to the school, and there he met Khaled Alaswad, a Syrian refugee who was, in turn, at the school to meet Germans. Before Khaled had fled Damascus due to the civil war, he had been studying renewable energy engineering at university.
They began meeting regularly to understand each other better. “When my friends met Khaled, there was a lot of interest from both sides. When you make a friend across the barrier, you open up a whole world for yourself and for your entire network,” Lasse said.
The biggest revelation for him was that the refugees were so … normal. “They could have been Berliners. It shocked me that this surprised me. I consider myself liberal, open-minded, and I am well-travelled. So [if this was my view] what about the Germans who aren’t?” he remarked.
Lasse, Khaled and four other friends started brainstorming to find something they could do to tackle this. And that’s how Let’s Integrate was created. It works by creating a match between a refugee and a local, and once a pair is created, they head to the location at the appointed time and find each other with the LI sign (for Let’s Integrate), a sort of secret handshake made with the thumb and forefingers.
It took them six months to iron out the details. With Khaled’s input, they were able to create something that would be accessible to everyone, regardless of whether they speak the same language or even have enough money to buy a cup of coffee. That’s why all their meeting places are freely accessible; they don’t want to dissuade people from participating because they don’t have money to spend at a café. “If you have travelled abroad, you know you can communicate with a simple smile; language is not necessary,” he said.
Let’s Integrate is accessible in Arabic, English and German. All you need is Internet access. You sign in either as a refugee or a local in one click, choose from a list of meeting places in another, and that’s it.
You provide an email so you can be notified when there is a match. You don’t know who you’re going to meeting—an intentional feature of the project, according to Lasse. “This is not about finding your best friend or a goalkeeper for your football club. It is about breaking down barriers.”
Since its launch in May 2016, Let’s Integrate has averaged a match per day. The team members all have day jobs and do this on the side, but with their limited time, they are slowly working to take Let’s Integrate to Frankfurt, Hamburg and other German and even other European cities. Lasse said that they would be happy to hear from volunteers who can spare 5–10 hours per week to bring Let’s Integrate to their city.
Let’s Integrate was funded by the team, but they are working on getting grants and other means of generating income to support their operation and expansion. They now have their first corporate sponsor.
To learn more, follow them on Facebook.
Susan Muthalaly