An interview with Ellada Martirosyan, a student living in Germany
– When and how did you leave for Germany?
– After graduating from the university, I was offered an opportunity to go there for one year to learn the language. I didn’t intend to settle down in Germany at first, but after spending one year there, I understood that there were good opportunities and prospects for young specialists, which, unfortunately, are not available in Armenia. For example, few of my friends in Armenia are employed today and many of them do not work in their profession. Certainly, everything is not very easy here either. I combine my education with work and I usually come home late in the evening exhausted, by saying home I mean my room in the dormitory. I am convinced that I will get a respectable job after graduating.
– Do you think you are completely integrated into the German society today?
– Insofar as a foreigner can be integrated into a strange society. There are representatives of many nations in Germany and it seems being non-German unites people of many cultures – Serbs, Greeks, Armenians and Turks.
– Are there clashes between Armenians and Turks?
– Never, as I have already said, we are all foreigners here and that feeling unites people more, than intergovernmental relations can confront.
– What are your impressions of the German-Armenian community?
– The oldest and largest Armenian community is in Frankfurt, in Hamburg – the city where I live – there is an Armenian community too, but it is not that big. Usually I celebrate festivals like Easter and New Year with the community.
– How do Armenians live in Germany today?
– I can talk only about Hamburg Armenians, but I don’t think that the situation is different in other cities. People are different, a part of Armenians really earn their living honestly and there are smart and educated Armenian students in German colleges. Unfortunately, I must admit that there is a layer of Armenians who earn their living dishonestly, to be more exact, they make their living by stealing. Armenians, like representatives of some other nations, have earned a bad reputation these days and it surely cannot help but concern.
– Don’t those people have other ways of earning their living?
– The majority of those people are so-called refugees who, living in special camps, have no right to work. Although the German government takes care of their food and other essential needs, but they are not satisfied by that.
I cannot say exactly how many Armenians live in the camps; I know that a big outflow of Armenians to Spain, France and Belgium has taken place in recent years caused by strict immigration laws.
– Can those people integrate into the German society sometime in the future?
– It is a complex issue. Many people, living here for many years, don’t speak the language yet, but if you live in a camp, it means that not only can’t you leave the given city or work, but also your children will have no right to study in college. If I lived here illegally, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second and would return to Armenia. I think before leaving the motherland to yield to a camp in a foreign country, it is worth to think whether that step is justified.
STELLA TERTERYAN