We will keep going!

In a year marked by violence, injustice, and a lack of solidarity and humanity, we feel compelled to speak about the struggles we have waged in 2023 and must continue in the coming year.

We’ve pushed past our limitations and moved forward with a new organizational and operational model that includes two new positions. Among other things, we have managed to expand our range of empowerment workshops for women, and we have made progress in our efforts to bring important discussions, such as racism and discrimination by the Youth Welfare Office, into the public sphere. Issues that affect migrant mothers and families, particularly women of color who are at risk of losing their children or whose children have already been taken away from them.

Although we have made progress, we have witnessed and confirmed the inequalities and barriers that continue to affect migrants. These barriers and inequalities are the result of a racist, discriminatory, and patriarchal system designed to undermine migrants’ opportunities for advancement and a life of dignity in Germany.

We are concerned about the regressive nature of the new GEAS migration law, as it results in the loss of rights for asylum seekers. GEAS is an inhumane agreement based on judging people according to a capitalist logic that has nothing to do with humanity! We truly call for an end to borders and the patriarchal concept of the nation!

We are concerned about women living in refugee camps, especially in so-called initial reception centers. These are places where people still have no rights, such as the right to specialized medical care for serious illnesses. We are concerned that women do not know what rights they have. We are concerned about the pressure and the agony of waiting for a response, which can take more than 12 months. In the meantime, they cannot open a bank account, they have no address, they cannot work, and they have no healthcare system beyond the basic care they receive at the shelter. They have no right to leave the state where the shelters are located, which are generally in remote areas, further exacerbating their sense of isolation.

As migrants, it concerns us that, even though we have been living in Germany for many years, we do not have the right to vote, even though many of the laws being voted on directly affect us.

We are concerned about the budget cuts and the lack of transparency in the 2024 budget, which is creating a sense of uncertainty for feminist projects in Berlin. To this day, we still don’t know how we will continue our work, or if we’ll be able to at all.

Many of these inequalities are what drive us to keep working. We have a clear goal: to empower ourselves as migrant women and to continue fighting against a system that increasingly seeks to dehumanize us, render us invisible, and strip us of our decision-making power. That is why we will always keep going.