Maintal- a multicultural city !?
Comenius Seneca -- Similarities & Differences - Multicultural Societies & National Identity - Integration & Assimilation --
Integration & Assimilation
Maintal- a multicultural city !? Students from Albert-Einstein-School Wednesday 23rd March 2005
Comenius Seneca
Page 1/2
Maintal- a multicultural city !?
We are students of Albert-Einstein-School in Maintal, which is really a multicultural city. At our school there are students of about 35 different nationalities from all over the world. To be together with students of so many different cultural backgrounds is very interesting and enriching, we make friends and we learn a lot. Of course, there are problems, too. Our class has done some research about the situation of people from foreign countries and the problem they (and we!) are faced with here in Maintal. We read the report of the French students about people from different countries living together. We ask ourselves if there are really no problems at your French school and if everything is easy and alright. For us it sounds a bit strange. Here is what we found out: In Maintal 17 % of the population are from different ethnic minorities. Foreigners usually do not have the same opportunities as Germans to lead a good life and get a good education because many of them are unemployed, have badly-paid jobs or live in poor conditions. A very big problem is that many do not learn German so well. In Maintal- Bischofsheim there is a street called Kreuzstein which is a kind of border , because on one side many foreigners live, often in blocks of flats, and on the other side there are mostly traditional houses of Maintalers. In another part of Maintal, Dörnigheim, there is a similar structure. We were told by a Maintal authority that foreign youngsters commit most criminal acts like drug offences, theft, vandalism or physical injury. There is a supermarket here which does not allow young people to enter the shop in the morning and only with an adult person in the afternoon, because there was much theft and insult of customers. We are very annoyed at this ban because we cannot go there either, although we did not do anything bad. One reason for these problems is that there is hardly anything to do in our free time for young people. Schools are usually open only in the morning and so young people have not much to do in the afternoon and evening. Then there are many problems in the families, like violence and alienation of children from their parents. There are too secondary schools in Maintal-Bischofsheim: our school, the Albert-Einstein-School , and the Erich-Kästner-School just opposite. At this school there are many problems with the students because many of them will not take a good exam and probably be unemployed. The students at our school take their Abitur-exam ( A-level or Bac) , it is a grammar school. So some students from the Erich-Kästner-School turn their discontent and their aggressions on us and there are quarrels between the students of the two schools very often. So there are many problems, but here are institutions to help, too. We visited one: it is called Die Welle: Kinder-, Jugend- und Familienhilfsstelle and it offers help and support to the young people and their families. And of course not only to families from ethnic minorities, since there are many German families that need help, too. Kirsten Hilger (16), Sven Hunkel (16), Dominika Zybura (17), class 11, Albert-Einstein-School
Comenius Seneca
Page 2/2
