D-A-S-H

Access: Internet for everyone?

Asylum seekers in the federal state of Brandenburg and net activists from Berlin demand internet access for refugees.

»Internet for everyone« – There is probably no other political demand which would find as many supporters as the slogan with which German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in Autumn 1999 announced the introduction of measures to »overcome the digital divide in society«. On September 20th, 2001 in Berlin, representatives of the economy and the government, of universities and charitable institutions met to take stock of the situation at a congress called »Equal Opportunities on the Net«. In his opening address, the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Werner Müller, bemoaned the fact that »the aged, people with low incomes and foreign citizens« are increasingly being deprived of »opportunities for social and political participation«. The minister warned the participants of the congress: »If we don’t take decisive action against this soon, new information technology will act as a catalyst and accelerator in widening social gaps.«

»Access to the net means access to information. The right to information is a human right,«,said one of the speakers on the panel called »access for all!«. The speaker was not the Minister of Economic Affairs, Müller, but the journalist Julien M., spokesman for a refugee initiative in Rathenow, Brandenburg, summarising the demand for free access to the internet. Invited to speak on the »digital divide«, the activist also participated in a festival for left-wing net activists called »Make World« on October 17th in Munich. The situation described by the Rathenow refugee made the egalitarian charm and refreshing flair of the federal government’s campaign to get all its citizens online seem almost obscene.

A source of the problem: the immigration legislation

Während, wie Werner Müller hervorhob, immerhin 27 Millionen Deutsche inzwischen am NetWhile the number of Germans online has reached 27 million, Minister Müller explained, 8667 registered asylum seekers in 42 refugee homes in Brandenburg have to make do with a couple of television sets and one or two shared telephones per home. And this is not an exception unique to Brandenburg, but more or less the standard for the 400,000 asylum seekers in Germany. In other words, an entire section of the population is living with communication standards that are even worse than in the poorest developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa – and this does not even include the much larger number of illegal immigrants.
The office of the Brandenburg Commissioner for Foreigners is aware of the problem. »We often hear complaints about phone calls being too expensive and there are supposed to be long lines, especially on the weekends,« says Harald Klier, head of the Anti-discrimination Office. As a result, many asylum seekers use mobile phones, which they can’t really afford, to keep in contact with the world outside the home. Since the Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz, apart of the immigration legislation, was changed in July 1999, asylum seekers have received a monthly cash allowance of DM 80. To underscore the temporary nature of the services and financial aid given to asylum seekers, this law stopped asylum seekers being provided for under the Federal Welfare Act. This change has been criticised as a racist cost-cutting policy introduced at the expense of the weakest and most needy. As opposed to German welfare recipients, asylum seekers, who generally are not issued work permits and are thus forced to live on welfare, are given vouchers in the form of smart cards. These cards can only be used to buy a very limited number of goods in a few specified shops. For some unexplained reason, the purchase of electronic equipment is generally not allowed.

No Information, No Thought, No Issue

In tone of surprise, the person in charge of foreign citizens’ needs at the Ministry of Labor in Potsdam exclaimed, »Internet access for asylum seekers? That’s not an issue here!« Their reaction is not surprising: not at the co-ordination office, »Tolerantes Brandenburg« (Tolerant Brandenburg), nor at the »Regionale Arbeitsstelle für Ausländerfragen« (Regional Branch for Foreigner-Related Issues), nor at the »Aktionsbündnis gegen Gewalt, Rechtsextremismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit« (Active Association Against Violence, Right-wing Extremism and Xenophobia), nor also at the »Büro der Ausländerbeauftragten« (Office for Foreigner Affairs) has anyone ever thought about these questions.

Nor are the pioneers of the information society any different. The first locational factor listed as a reason for IT companies to settle in Berlin/ Brandenburg on the agenda of the project »Brandenburger InformationsStrategie 2006« (Brandenburg Information Strategy 2006) may be that Berlin/Brandenburg is »a multicultural region« with »a variety of cultural activities«. Not a single mention is made of multicultural participation in the local information society, however. »Internet für alle« (Internet for everyone), an initiative of the federal government, has special programs for children, the handicapped, the unemployed, youths, and the aged – but not for refugees. Initiative 21, an association of 226 companies, has only this to say in their report, »Digital Divide in Germany«: »no significant data with specific regard to the internet behaviour of the foreign populations in Germany« are available. In summary: while the networked world has long since moved on to the discussion of virtual information management, alone access to information media remains an unattainable luxury for asylum seekers.

Initiatives against »hot-seat policies«

The refugee initiative in Rathenow is no longer prepared to accept this. They have received support from net activists from Berlin. The association »absent friends« offers internet workshops for refugees. At workshops in Brandenburg, activists want to talk to the asylum seekers so that they can better understand the situation in the homes and create teaching material specifically for use there. »It doesn’t make sense to know how to write emails and how to use search engines if you don’t actually have the possibility to do it,« says Christoph Kuchenbuch, a member of »absent friends«. »In order to give a larger number of refugees access to communication and information, we first need political commitment to integration and a rejection of the previous ’hot-seat policy’ intended to never let the refugees forget that they should leave today and not tomorrow.« The association therefore wants to propose to refugees and antiracist groups a campaign to raise funds for computers and internet access. They want to take the government at its word: »If the responsible people in politics and in industry keep on using the slogan ’internet for everyone’, we’ll offer them the opportunity to show that they don’t just mean ’internet for all Germans’«, says the politically engaged programmer.

http://ckubu.so36.net/access/