Christiane Soler is a former volunteer refugee-helper in Germany. When she volunteered to work with the migrants, she whole-heartedly embraced the “Welcoming Culture”. But the reality of the ungrateful, misogynous, violent “refugees” changed her mind. And unlike most Germans, she was willing to violate the consensus and publicly describe what she experienced.

Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:01 Christiane Soler, former refugee volunteer

00:08 by Grassroots Initiative

00:15 Video by Rebecca Sommer

00:21 Former Grassroots Initiative refugee volunteer Christiane Soler

00:24 So, I am a former refugee volunteer. For two years, I worked with refugees.

00:28 I helped in literacy training, so they could take the German language courses A1/A2.

00:36 I accompanied them to the immigration agency, found them jobs and helped them create

00:45 application dossiers. Just about everything you could think of.

00:50 I showed them around the city and the surrounding areas.

00:53 I explained to them what makes Germans tick. What you can do and can’t do here.

00:59 The whole package. I never worked for an organisation, and did everything on my own, and

01:07 financed it all as well. My husband helped very often to care for the male refugees or migrants.

01:22 So, as to why I quit? Because I was sick of the ingratitude.

01:33 I was permanently lied to and treated very disrespectfully.

01:39 What really got on my nerves was that because I was a woman, I was disrespected,

01:45 and that’s not something I am used to from my husband.

01:52 And the ingratitude which was especially shocking, because I invested so much effort.

01:57 I worked more or less two years full-time helping new arrivals to get a good start in Germany.

02:06 That must be said.

02:10 I noticed that the Muslim refugees that I cared for had no sense of gratitude.

02:22 They even yelled at me because the government hadn’t yet given them this or that.

02:29 They believed they were entitled to it. So one day, I just said the government doesn’t owe you

02:38 anything. It is a gesture of kindness to take you in, helps you, and we owe you nothing.

02:45 We do this out of friendship, but it is reciprocal. We expect to be treated with friendship by you,

02:52 and there needs to be a signal from you that we can create something together.

02:56 I told them, the manner in which you speak to me, is unacceptable and I will not allow you

03:01 to speak to me in such a disrespectful manner. I explained in Germany, women are equal to men.

03:10 I told them that I wouldn’t put up with being spoken to in that manner and if they continued

03:17 then I would dump them. So, that’s what I did.

03:24 I think the worst part of it all was that I was used and lied to. I really believed in the beginning

03:36 the lies that came from the politicians. The lies the media presented to us on a daily basis,

03:42 that these were all needy refugees. Since I come from a refugee family myself, I ran to help

03:51 because I felt I needed to help. If they really needed help, I wanted to help. Those two years

03:57 I could have earned money doing this, but instead I did for free. I donated my own money,

04:04 paid for everything. I discovered that they weren’t refugees. In fact, many of them had

04:14 enormous sums of money in their home country. They lived here in Germany, collecting welfare

04:22 without any form of guilt. Even though they had money at home, they wanted to save it until

04:28 they were able to open their own business in Germany. They needed to wait until they received

04:33 a permanent residence permit. That’s just not right. I was used by Mrs. (you-know-who)

04:38 and our politicians. I suppose they just didn’t have enough governmental employees,

04:44 paid employees, and so they took advantage of the good will and charity of the population.

04:53 I resent them for this very much and won’t forget it.

04:58 There was one young man that I closely assisted. He was 19 years old at the time and

05:04 he told me in the beginning that he came here to live and work. He also told me he had relatives

05:12 in Munich and in Vienna. Oddly enough they didn’t offer him any help or a place to live.

05:19 It was exclusively Germans that helped him.

05:24 On one occasion I accompanied him to the immigration agency (BAMF); he told a completely

05:31 different story to the interviewer. Suddenly I heard about how he was captured by the Taliban

05:36 and who were trying to extort his property. He said that he was held prisoner for five days.

05:44 After that I spoke with his roommate Achmed. He asked me why I thought he was lying.

05:54 I told him the whole story with the Taliban kidnapping, him being held prisoner and

05:59 being robbed. From what I understood, he told me that there’s a rule about needing four witnesses

06:09 to transfer land and property. He started laughing and said that he invented the story,

06:15 but thanked me for informing him about the mistake because he hadn’t thought of that.

06:20 So on another occasion, another one of the Afghani boys had an BAMF interview.

06:27 So he went to Achmed, because he invented all the stories for fleeing Afghanistan for everyone

06:33 in his group of compatriots. So that’s the reason I can hardly believe anything anymore.

06:41 Especially the tear-jerking accounts. Anyway, it became more and more evident

06:49 that we aren’t dealing with refugees.

06:53 In the group we cared for there were very many Pakistani migrants and many Afghanis.

07:01 There was one from Iraq, but he didn’t want anything to do with me because I was a woman.

07:06 We had Mexicans in our neighbourhood and in the next village there were Africans, Somalis etc.

07:16 For the most part the migrants I was helping in my village were Pakistani and Afghani.

07:23 The Pakistanis came to us from Greece where they had been working for ten years already.

07:30 They learned German quick as lightning and disappeared into restaurants.

07:34 Sometimes I saw them when I went out to dinner with my husband.

07:38 They had a comfortable life. Here all their needs are supplied. We pay for a place to sleep,

07:44 medical insurance, and they receive spending money. They were very proud to tell us that

07:50 they earned €800 to €1100 working illegally. They are doing very well. They brazenly laughed

07:59 in my face while saying, “You can’t get rid of us, we don’t have any documentation and Pakistan

08:05 won’t take us back. We can stay here forever.” That should be interesting to see if those

08:12 containers they live in last forever. With the Afghanis it was a bit different, but first of all,

08:21 I have to say that Afghanis don’t like Pakistanis. They also don’t like Iranians. In the refugee cafe,

08:32 the Syrians would never sit next to Afghanis. There was non-stop manoeuvring.

08:40 Our neighbour has an organic farm and wanted to offer some of them opportunities.

08:47 There was a young man from Ivory Coast and another African, but I don’t remember

08:57 at the moment from where. So she wanted to hire someone else and she asked them

09:02 which country they could come from. They said under no circumstance could it be an

09:09 Arab. “No one coming from North Africa works, they just give orders the whole day. Don’t

09:17 do that, please.” They were willing to work with another African or a European.

09:25 So that’s what she did, she hired someone from Romania and it worked out well.

09:30 Africans won’t work with North Africans. In the neighbouring village, African migrants lived

09:40 in containers. There’s a refugee camp there, run by an Afghani and he earns a lot of money

09:52 with that. There he has several Somalis. I remember one that lived there seven years and never

10:06 worked. He hardly could speak German, but could never be deported. He went through the

10:12 entire court procedures. So one day his parents from Somalia call him to say that they’re old now

10:19 and that they needed his help and that he should come home. Within one week he sold

10:25 the entire contents of his apartment, cashed in on the return-home bonus payment from the

10:32 German authorities and bought his airline ticket. And poof, he was gone. Suddenly he received

10:39 documentation from the Somali consulate in no time, lickety-split.

10:43 I though to myself what’s been going on the last seven years? If HE wants it, there’s no problem,

10:50 but if Germany asks? No, no. Then you play ring-around-the-rosey seven years long.

10:57 After you go through all these experiences, you lose faith and realise that

11:05 it is all total nonsense, what’s going on here.

11:11 The constant problem with the Afghanis was that the Pashtuns believed they were

11:17 the “master race” and that the Hazara, who also lived in the containers, were the subhumans.

11:23 They were constantly giving them orders, and categorised them. At some point I said to them,

11:30 you can’t do that here. This is Germany. For us, Hazara are worth just as much as Pashtuns,

11:39 which caused an them to react with indignation. I told them that they didn’t treat the Hazara right

11:47 in Afghanistan, we knew that, but for us they are just as valuable as you are. They are equal.

11:57 I read that the Hazara are descendants of the Mongolians. They immigrated to Afghanistan

12:05 at some point. Many, many years ago. A very long time ago. They are the underdogs

12:14 in Afghanistan and do the dirty work. Besides that they are Shi’ites. The Pashtuns are Sunni.

12:24 Even if the Hazara immigrate to Iran, a Shi’ite country, even there they are treated like

12:34 underdogs and are only allowed to do the dirty work. They don’t receive medical insurance and

12:39 up until recently their children weren’t allowed to attend school. I often had conversations with

12:44 the Pashtuns about the lack of respect they showed me. They disagreed. They believe

12:51 they treat women with immense respect. I told them that it would drive me crazy if I was unable

12:59 to be employed, not to have an education, not able to read, and was never allowed to go outside.

13:05 They told me their woman are very happy about that and that is exactly the kind of life

13:13 that their woman desire. Obviously, I couldn’t imagine that. Something else that occurred

13:19 quite often was that anything I said caused a huge discussion. If my husband said something,

13:25 it was like golden letters chiseled in marble. He was right and everything he said was correct.

13:33 He was never contradicted. He was the big boss. When I said something, a discussion erupted.

13:41 It was a recurring theme, and I just became fed up. My husband doesn’t treat me that way.

13:49 I’m accustomed to my Spanish husband listening to me, showing me respect and treating me as

13:56 an equal. I just couldn’t stand it anymore, it was exhausting. Like walking through thick mud and

14:11 your feet become heavier and heavier. It just became too difficult. No advice was received

14:17 and everything I said was incorrect. I just didn’t want to do it anymore. There’s another story

14:24 about Dowoot. I accompanied him to the immigration agency. Other German teachers

14:36 told me he never showed up for his German lessons. He was asked in the interview why his

14:42 his German was so bad after living here for two years. He said he never went to his language

14:57 course because it was taught by old German women. In his opinion, the German course was

15:05 worthless because it was for free. What I have learned is that you should only look for those

15:13 who are willing to fit in. Very often I detected that there was no desire to learn German.

15:21 Learning anything was tortuously slow. Another thing that was unbearable was that

15:29 there was zero willingness to work. I was told very often, “No, if I earn money, the Job Center

15:38 won’t pay everything for me and I don’t want that.” I was also told that we are their

15:44 stupid German working robots and they had no desire to live life the way we do. I have to say,

15:55 that really turned me off. That made me ask myself, why in the world am I doing this?

16:02 Why did I help them prepare their application dossiers? Why did I take them to

16:06 a photographer to get pictures for job applications? Why did I buy them new clothes

16:11 for their interviews? Why did I call their employers when they didn’t get up to go to work?

16:22 One day I just said to myself there is no point to this. I quit. So now the politicians

16:31 can try to get the job done with paid employees. There won’t be a change in direction until

16:42 the whole thing starts to fold in on itself. Up until now very many volunteers have buffered them

16:53 from a disaster happening. One-third of my entire county volunteered to help with refugees.

17:05 A third. It wasn’t just because we wanted to make them feel at home. Many people helped

17:15 in order to protect our young women. We occupied these men with three German courses

17:22 per day, football training twice a week, and they made field trips. They were busy

17:29 all day and all night. They even had a café of their own that was supervised.

17:34 They always had something to do. When that disappears, I think, there will be some problems.

17:43 Yes, I’m pretty sure. What these young men really wanted, what almost all of them wanted,

17:51 was to bring their wives, and their whole clan to Germany eventually. One of the boys I cared for

17:58 told me he wanted to bring his epileptic sister to Germany so that the government would care for her

18:03 and give her treatment. He said his mother needed a new knee and wanted Germany to pay

18:09 for her operation. His father was old and needed nursing assistance, so he should come

18:15 to Germany too. That’s why he wanted to get a German passport, so he can bring them all here.

18:23 I thought, “Holy cow, that will be expensive, how’s that going to work?” This young man was

18:32 19 years old when he arrived in Germany, and because of the intermarriage of cousins in his

18:38 family, he didn’t have a normally formed mouth and jaw. He didn’t have normal gums or teeth.

18:47 So right after he received his refugee status, he demand surgery and got it.

18:55 It probably cost thousands. I was really amazed, because for Germans that’s not possible.

19:00 They told us what we needed to do for them and what we need to pay for them.

19:08 When I thought about it, these people never paid a dime into our welfare system and

19:16 they never did a thing for this country either. They take and take and take without giving

19:21 anything in return. That’s unacceptable. As soon as they received a residence permit,

19:33 the big goal was to marry a German woman. Or even to get the residence permit, the goal was

19:38 to marry a young German woman. Some of them said that they would put a headscarf on her,

19:46 have children with her and make her go work so they could stay at home. I said that I thought that

19:59 was strange and asked who would care for the children? They told me they would manage,

20:08 but the German women would go to work for them. I asked them why they thought German

20:19 women would want to marry them? If they didn’t contribute anything to the family, can’t speak

20:26 German, didn’t work, didn’t want an education, how did they expect that to work? Why would a

20:33 German woman be interested in that? What kind of family life is that? I told them if they had

20:41 two children, they would be like a third child on the couch. Their response was that German women

20:48 would do this gladly. I said it wouldn’t work. I explained that for every German girl,

21:00 there’s a German boy. Since so many migrants are here now, for every German girl,

21:06 there’s a German man and a migrant. I asked them how’s that supposed to work? Should she

21:12 marry two? A German man and a migrant? How’s that going to work? I said, “It can’t.”

21:18 They looked confused, as if it never occurred to them. Yes, It was a serious test of faith for me.

21:29 Another migrant from Afghanistan left his wife and 2-year-old daughter behind. He told me

21:40 he had a manly need and asked if he could ask a German woman on the street to service him.

21:56 I told him, “NO! You can’t do that! You can’t just ask women in public to offer you sexual services.

22:09 That’s not right. These women aren’t prostitutes walking around; they are normal woman with

22:14 honor and their own free will. They won’t do something like that so easily.” I asked him several

22:23 times what would happen to his wife and child. He didn’t seem to care much about his wife,

22:30 but did appear to have feelings for his child. However, he made no effort to learn German or

22:40 to find work. Never. In Afghanistan he had studied and could speak fluent English. He thought that

22:53 was enough. He wanted to continue his studies, but Germany had to provide him with a place at

23:01 a English-speaking university. That was his goal, he could speak English, he had studied in

23:09 Afghanistan, he knew that there were English universities in Germany, and he thought he was

23:15 entitled to be sent to one. It was clear to me that most of them were not refugees. They came

23:21 because they heard that this is the land of milk and honey. They wanted their piece of the pie.

23:30 In my opinion, there should be some contribution on their part. I continually told them,

23:36 it needs to have a benefit for the Germans. I always believed in a win-win situation.

23:43 I always imagined both side receiving advantages, for Germany and for them.

23:48 Honestly, I wouldn’t have even cared if they were real refugees or not. If living together made us

23:54 all prosper, it would have been worth it, but it had to be reciprocal. The willingness to fit in, to work

24:03 and to contribute to the social welfare system. I really do think that’s important.

24:08 Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of that. It’s really too bad, I wish it had been different.

24:17 It just wasn’t meant to be. Yes, we had a few Afghani drug dealers staying in our containers.

24:29 They were really dangerous. It was three drug-addicted men. They sold drugs and were violent.

24:40 They went looting everyday in Hamburg; they would steal in shops and then run out.

24:52 Our social worker had stacks of letters from the police, from the prosecutor’s office, but

24:59 nothing ever happened. There were never any consequences. Our janitor was terrified

25:07 of those three. I have to say, when you stood in front of them, your blood would freeze, really.

25:14 They looked half insane and so… you could just feel the aggression coming out of their pores.

25:25 It came out of their eyes, from everywhere. It was unbearable. They influenced everyone else.

25:32 Even the other residents in the containers said that they had to go. No, they weren’t deported.

25:41 They were just sent to a neighboring village and found housing for them there. In exchange,

25:49 we received another refugee that also became violent. I brought up the situation at a meeting

25:59 for refugee helpers for both villages. A politician from the Green Party responded by saying,

26:11 “Oh, that’s a great solution, they just exchanged them.” I didn’t think so. Consider all the

26:19 businesses that had something stolen, everyone they beat up, and they are a danger to children

26:28 to whom they might sell drugs. I didn’t think it was a good solution at all. Oh well, what can you do?

26:33 That’s how it was explained and apparently nothing else can be done. I became less willing

26:39 to help and began to develop a deep compassion for my fellow countrymen, because

26:46 they are being plundered by people who have absolutely no right to do so.

26:52 That won’t last forever. There needs to be a win-win situation. The way it is now won’t work.

26:59 I can no longer do this with good conscience or against the responsibility I have for my

27:05 fellow countrymen. One day, in our group, I brought up the fact that we’re achieving nothing.

27:16 For example, a doctor who was also in our group said he saw no improvement and

27:25 it doesn’t matter if we help or not because nothing changes. Another woman from Iran that

27:35 helped, suddenly said, “Do you feel the same way?” I said, “Yes, we aren’t changing anything.

27:44 There have been no improvements. It’s useless.” Up until that point they seemed to accept it,

27:52 but what they couldn’t accept was that I went public with my experience. That was a “No-go”.

28:02 I posted something at Facebook. The first threat came from someone in the Green Party.

28:13 She tried to find out who my employer was, who my pastor was, and she tried to denounce me

28:25 To my refugee group. I told her, “Go ahead, I’m being transparent. It doesn’t matter me if you or

28:34 someone from the refugee group knows. I’ll say what I think and what I believe is important.”

28:41 Later I noticed many people were trying to find out who I am and who they could contact in order

28:55 to denounce me. It’s an unacceptable and disturbing development, when you’re stigmatised

29:05 in Germany for daring to drift away from the “refugee sect”. I came across the

29:16 Grassroots Initiative, and I really think quite a lot needs to change. More regulations need to be

29:26 prescribed. Conditions need to changed. The Grassroots Initiative is correct; something needs

29:34 to be done. I am in total agreement, and think for the moment I will invest my time with them

29:44 in order to change conditions here in Germany. The moment I went public, I started receiving

29:50 posts from those in the Green Party saying I was miserable person, that I was breaking my oath

30:04 of silence and if I had worked with refugees, I was required to remain silent about all my

30:10 experiences and not speak. I see it differently and in fact, I feel a responsibility toward

30:18 my own countrymen. We are the ones working together to keep this system functioning.

30:24 We pay taxes, we pay our social security fees and we keep this country functioning.

30:32 It is unreasonable to expect me not to warn my own countrymen about this danger.

30:37 That’s not right and I’m not going to allow anyone to silence me or let threats dishearten me.

30:51 The statements of the interviewee represent exclusively the opinion of the interviewee.