#refugee-integration

#refugee-integration

I volunteer with refugees and regularly witness the distress of highly skilled and qualified people failing the test on idiotic questions that most Britons couldn't answer. When simple facts can be found by a quick internet search, what is the point of wasting brain space by trying to memorise them? Much more salient to ask questions like: where can you legally ride an electric scooter? The maximum legal speed for an electric bicycle?

"Food, friendship, music and song are reminders of what Irish people are," she said, adding "that identity is much stronger" when friendship is extended to all newcomers. Mercedes Verona Pereira, from Cuba - one of the event organisers - told the gathering: "You don't need to fear anything, as our mutual responsibility as a community is to take care of you."

It has been ten years since German Chancellor Angela Merkel made her famous "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do this") statement regarding her decision to accept hundreds of thousands of refugees into Germany. In an interview with the public broadcaster ARD that will be featured in a documentary airing Monday, Merkel reflected on her decision, which she said was guided by humanitarian principles and human dignity. "It is a process. But so far, we have achieved a lot," Merkel said. "And what still needs to be done must continue to be done," she added.