Art, if done well, reflects what is hard to see. The current refugee crisis represents a huge challenge for society, and for this reason, a neocolitous theme for artistic creation. With the help of culture and different forms of cultural expression, migrants have the chance to meet their hosts and vice versa.
How is Europe reporting at the institutional level to the refugee crisis?
“Germany must become a work of art for refugees”, declared almost two years ago in an article for the German newspaper Zeit online , Manfred Schmidt, coordinator of the German Office for Migrants and Refugees. In the eyes of the immigration solicitors london this incident was interpreted differently.
In 2014, when the wave of media coverage of the migration phenomenon in Europe was just beginning, it was hard to predict that this topic would keep its head in the coming years. At that time, depending on the political stakes specific to each country, the theme of migration within the European Union focused on the waves of economic migration from east to west of the continent. Manfred Schmidt stated that in 2013, regarding Romanian and Bulgarian migrants, that 60% of the working population from these 2 countries has a job in Germany. The unemployment rate among them is 7.4%, which is slightly lower than the German average, but much lower than the unemployment rate among German immigrants, taken as a whole.
Since then, the immigration trend has been rising. In 2012, over 370,000 people migrated to Germany. According to the demographic forecasts, Germany is constantly in need of new workforce, in order to counterbalance the aging population and the pressure on the social insurance, pensions and health systems arising from this process. The demographic dynamics of Germany forecast a decrease of 17 million people by the active population until 2050. Of course, the data of this phenomenon have become much more complicated, with the surge of refugees from the Syrian Arab Republic and the other states affected by the wars, since the year 2015 is here.
How, however, is this new reality transposed, analyzed dry by statistical data, in the artistic environment?
Kitchen on the Run is the title of a project to which three young people, students of the architecture faculty in Berlin, decided to give their lives. It’s about a mobile kitchen that will go on a European tour. The message is to encourage the host European communities to cook together with immigrants, with the aim of then having lunch together, sharing different stories. “We want to make available a place where those who meet and those who discover a new realm, have the opportunity to check and reduce their prejudices one of the prerequisites for coexistence and cooperation in Europe,” explains the organizers.
Kitchen on the run: Real Example
In 2002, Jule and Rabea met around a table in a kitchen in Augsburg as they began their studies. They shared an apartment for many years and then beat Europe together long and wide. Experience has shown them that the best conversations happen around the kitchen table. 10 years later, in 2013 they met Andi, also at a kitchen table, in Berlin. “Andi is amazing at listening to people and listening to their stories,” his colleagues describe.