Initial reception facilities in Germany

Initial reception facilities are the first stop for refugees in Germany and therefore also the first stop in the onboarding process. The location therefore plays a decisive role in the arrival process.

In the following, I will take a closer look at different aspects of initial reception facilities and examine their influence on the living situation and onboarding of refugees. I will examine which factors are important for the onboarding process in initial reception facilities and which obstacles can be identified. The aim of this article is not to examine the extent to which initial reception facilities are generally a suitable or unsuitable place for onboarding. This is also not possible because initial reception facilities vary greatly from location to location. Rather, the aim of this article is to highlight and identify the individual factors that are crucial for the onboarding process in initial reception facilities. In the future, these identified factors could be used to examine individual locations using these categories.

Initial reception facilities in Germany

After arriving in Germany, refugees are initially accommodated in an initial reception centre. They may be required to live there for up to 18 months (Section 47 (1) of the Asylum Act) and, if they violate their obligation to cooperate, their residence requirement may be extended beyond 18 months (Section 47 of the Asylum Act).

The initial reception centre is therefore the first place of residence for people newly arriving in Germany for a long period of time and the place where the initial onboarding takes place. The federal states themselves are responsible for the initial reception centres, which means that they must provide the necessary accommodation facilities for refugees.

Due to the long period of time that refugees are obliged to live in initial reception facilities in Germany, the way in which these facilities are structured, the services they offer and the staff working there have a major impact on the lives and arrival of the refugees living there.

The initial reception centre is therefore more than just a place of residence for refugees; it influences their living situation and arrival on several levels.

Structure of the initial reception centre: size, layout, location

The size, structure and location of initial reception facilities can vary greatly and are an important factor influencing the living situation of the residents (Dilger/Mashimi 2016: 33).

The size of the initial reception facility also determines the number of residents, which in turn influences the size of the rooms and the privacy of the individual residents.

The structure of the initial reception centre influences the daily routes and access that residents have in their everyday lives.

And the location and infrastructure around the initial reception centre, such as connections to public transport, play a decisive role in people's mobility (Dilger/ Mashimi 2016: 45).

Accordingly, the size, structure and location of the initial reception facility are important factors that influence the living situation and arrival of refugees.

Access to information

Refugees arriving in Germany often lose some of their self-determination and control over their lives (Schiefer 2018: 6). This is because they often have little knowledge of the procedures in the host country and are therefore unable to understand certain contexts and regulations (Schiefer 2018: 6). This can lead to a feeling of loss of control, which in turn makes people feel helpless and at the mercy of the situation (Schiefer 2018: 6).

To prevent this, refugees must find their way around the asylum and reception system in order to regain self-determination and control over their actions (Schiefer 2018: 6). It can therefore be assumed that if refugees are informed about their rights and obligations, they will not only feel less helpless, but the asylum procedure will also run more smoothly.

Since the German asylum system consists of a multitude of administrative, political, activist, voluntary, legal, economic and social actors, it is a confusing and complex system that affects almost all areas of our society (Dilger/ Mashimi 2016: 37). It is therefore almost impossible to fully understand every aspect of the system, making it all the more crucial that refugees in initial reception centres have access to information so that they can acquire the necessary knowledge (Grotheer/Schroeder 2018: 88).

Access to information is therefore an important factor in the lives of residents of initial reception centres, as it influences their feelings, the asylum procedure and their general self-determination.

Access to medical care

Medical care in initial reception centres is another decisive factor for the living conditions of refugees in initial reception centres. According to Section 62 (1) of the Asylum Act, initial reception centres are obliged to have a medical examination carried out to check for communicable diseases, including an X-ray of the respiratory organs. The responsibility for the initial examination lies with the relevant authorities in the federal states of reception. Since the highest state health authority determines both the responsibility and the scope of the examination, the examinations can vary in terms of their thoroughness and scope from one federal state to another. If additional examinations or medical treatment are necessary, the initial reception centre remains responsible for organising these (Romano 2018: 26). One potential problem here is that although further services are available, this is always decided on a case-by-case basis and therefore depends on the individual case worker (Köbsell 2018: 68). If treatment outside the initial reception facility is necessary and permitted, the location and transport links of the initial reception facility once again play a role in the lives of refugees. In addition, language barriers make communication even more difficult and refugees are confronted with the problem of not being able to articulate their own medical concerns (Dilger/Mashimi 2016: 54).

The high degree of legalisation therefore makes it difficult to provide basic medical care in line with needs and depends heavily on the assessment and categorisation of individual cases. Connectivity and language mediation are further factors that make access to medical care difficult.

As shown, the factors of the structure of the initial reception facility, access to information and medical care play an important role in the living situation and onboarding of refugees in initial reception facilities. However, they should not be considered in isolation, but may well overlap.

List of sources:

Dilger, Hansjörg/ Mashimi, Kristina (2016): Living in Refugee Camps in Berlin: Women's Perspectives and Experiences, Berlin: Weißensee Verlag.

Grotheer, Angela / Schroeder, Joachim (2018): Accommodation for refugees with disabilities. An outline of the problem using the example of Hamburg, in: Gudrun Wansing/ Manuela Westphal (eds.): Migration, Flight and Disability, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 81-102.

Köbsell, Swantje (2018): ‘Disabled asylum seekers? ... They don't really exist.’ On the invisibility of disabled refugees in the support system and in disability policy discourse, in: Gudrun Wansing/ Manuela Westphal (eds.): Migration, Flight and Disability, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 63- 81.

Romano, Jessica (2018): Gesundheitliche Versorgung von Geflüchteten. Ein Handbuch für hauptamtliche Fachkräfte. Available online at: https://aktion-neue-nachbarn.de/export/sites/aktion-neue-nachbarn/.content/.galleries/downloads/gesundheitliche_versorgung_von_gefluechteten_handbuch_caritas_wuppertal.pdf, (11.09.2022).

Schiefer, David (2017): What Really Matters to Refugees: Insights Into the Living Situation of Refugees. Available online at: https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en/publication/what-really-matters-refugees-insights-living-situation-refugees, (11.09.2022)