“But it has got better,” says the man who has in the meantime become a Bonn citizen. Two years ago he fled the dictatorship in his homeland under the worst possible conditions. He speaks the Semitic languages Tigrinya and Arabic fluently, but is illiterate. He still struggles with letters. The young man therefore feels a lot of shame, often anger, when he keeps forgetting how to correctly conjugate verbs in this wretched German.

“The language level is as varied as the people,” says Claudia Rodemann, head of German projects at the Volkshochschule (VHS) (adult education classes) in Bonn. Some have more aptitude than others. But above all, the level of education is naturally a big contributor to success. “Some migrants arrive with a good educational background, speak English and have developed learning techniques, while others must first be taught to read.” Rodemann is sitting in the Haus der Bildung with a B2 language test in front of her. Those wanting to work in Bonn must first pass this test. This generally means at least 2000 hours of lessons – a year and half of cramming. Roubel L. has not got that far – he has just passed the easier B1 test.

For educational providers, immigration has meant a huge logistical effort. At the VHS, for example, 170 entrance tests were carried out in 2015 and a year later the number was 620. In 2015, teachers taught six language and culture integration classes. In 2016, they taught 33 classes – more than five times as many. Last year, according to information from the Federal Office for Immigration and Migrants (Bamf), 2721 eligible participants were registered for integration classes in Bonn.

A visit to Heiderhof shows how varied the challenges are and how different the people are who were stranded in Bonn two or more years ago. Abdulla Wanli came to Bad Godesberg from Damascus, Syria in February 2015. His wife and all four children are also here. The parents are qualified agricultural engineers. Just a year after his arrival, he is teaching migrants their first German words.

The children, twins Rwaim and Tim (10), Bayan (15) and Amr (18) now go to secondary schools. Their mother, Intissar, finds “the language very interesting”. She sees similarities to Arabic grammar, listens to a lot of German radio and regularly meets a neighbour for a chat. She is doing what Rodemann considers necessary to properly master a language: “What a lot of people lack is the exchange, the practical use of the German language.”

Rahim Öztürker agrees. The chairman of the city’s integration council knows what he is talking about. As head of the DAAG-Bildungswerk Bonn, he is in close contact with teachers who teach German to people from eleven countries in literacy and integration courses. “The people who come here don’t only learn the language but also something about their rights, democracy, the cultural life in Germany.” For Öztürker this is an important component for integration.

But it is not always easy when it comes to teaching languages and culture. Angela Büren, who teaches “Everyday German” at the Haus der Bildung, has noticed that, “there must be clear rules in classes.” Unlike Öztürker, those in the VHS have experienced participants who speak the same language often disturbing the class by speaking in their own language. Roubel L. also sought and is still looking for contact to his countrymen. “Those who don’t master the language remain outsiders,” he tells an interpreter in Arabic, as the sentence in German is too hard for him.

The courses are not only about language and culture, but also about picking up on aggression and helping people with difficult living conditions, says Büren from the VHS. The costs, which are reimbursed by the Bamf, are Euro 3.90 per hour and per person. She adds cautiously: “Many are obliged to take part in the integration and language courses and most participants do so. However, a sanction can be a meaningful signal in cases of high absenteeism, for example.”

Natalie Bußenius from the Bamf press office responded when asked, that unemployment benefits could be cut in the first instance by 30 per cent or fines could become payable. Many education providers says such measures are taken much too rarely.

Original text: Philipp Königs. Translated by Kate Carey.