Migration: From Sri Lanka to Germany

For my family and me many things have changed. My parents have risked a lot and in the process have lost much of what they loved, like their family, their friends and their businesses. They spent their childhood in Sri Lanka and lived there until they were 23 and 27 years old respectively. The war started in 1972, and it is still going on today. It was and is a war between the Singhalese and the Tamils. The Singhalese want to rule all of the country; the Tamils try to gain a state for themselves. Basically, the Tamils only want peace.

As my parents lived in Jaffna [a city in Sri Lanka] and the war came there, they fled with my brother and me. We said goodbye to our family. Back then my brother was two years and I was two months old. We considered going to India, but then we came to Germany. Back then, in 1980, the first Tamils came here. Many of those who lived in this city wanted to go to Canada. We considered it for a while, but then we stayed here after all. We got to know friends here. About 60 Tamil families live in this town.

My parents want to go back to Sri Lanka. They miss their family. We, the children, would also like to get to know our family. My little brother, who was born here, and I have never seen our grandparents. Both my grandfathers died when my parents were still young. My father's mother died when she was 78 years old. My older brother had the good luck to get to know Grandmother. We always spoke on the phone. We talked about us going to see her one day, but it is too late now. I have one grandmother left, and we or at least I do not want to make the same mistake. We will visit her before she leaves us. I resolved to do this when my other grandmother died, and I would like to carry it out.

Of course we also have other relatives whom we miss terribly. But my parents do not only miss them but also their hobbies and their jobs, the things they were trained to do. My father studied economics, my mother music. She taught her nieces music. Mother wanted to teach me too but I'm not the type for it.

Of course there are many people who do not like dark-skinned people. When my father still had a permanent job and was on the way to work, they beat him up. He broke a finger. Or a short time ago I was insulted by someone. Sometimes I ignore it, but it is rather bad when someone insults me and I haven't done or said anything wrong.

My parents want me to be good at school. My father says, after my A-levels I can go on studying somewhere else, in Canada or in England. I can imagine this well but first I must pass my A-levels; after that I will consider what I want to do. Until then I have a lot of time. As I have relatives in various countries I can imagine it very well.