POINT OF INTEREST

AWO Integrationscenter

Schloßstraße 4, 24939 Flensburg

At the end of 2015, nearly 20,000 people with a migration background from over 130 nations, including some 700 asylum-seekers and about 170 unaccompanied underage refugees, lived in Flensburg.[1] The AWO Integration Center is one of the institutions that supports all these (new) citizens of Flensburg.

From the 1960s, Greek, Yugoslav and Turkish workers in particular came to Flensburg and later arranged for their families to follow. Following the recruitment stop in 1973, many so-called “guest workers” settled in the city permanently and the need to support these new citizens was recognised.[2] In 1987, the Workers’ Welfare Association (AWO) founded the Service for Migration and Integration. The community center and social services department for migrants has been at Schlosstrasse 4 since 1994. Besides German-language courses, the AWO Integration Center offers rooms for national and multicultural meetings and arranges discussion groups as well as information and discussion events. It houses associations of the Tunisian, Turkish, Greek and Pakistani communities. Since the arrival of thousands of refugees from 2015 onwards, the AWO Integration Center has faced new challenges. Among other things, videos have been produced with the Open Channel, vocational colleges and the advisory center against right-wing extremism in German, Arabic, Tigrinya, Persian, Pashtu and Somali to inform refugees about institutions in Flensburg that offer assistance[3]. The “Round Table for Integration”, which was established in 2010, provides support with its experience. The Round Table, in which AWO and up to 25 further institutions are represented, is open to everyone in Flensburg. Integration-related topics are discussed and solutions developed in working groups. The City of Flensburg’s coordination center offers a newsletter for refugees in Flensburg.