Migration: From Poland to Germany 2

We have always had German citizenship. When I was born in 1985, my parents already knew that we would move to Germany one day.

In 1990 the day had come. We went to Germany because we wanted to lead a better life. In Poland there was little work at that time and we had little money. Another reason for emigrating to Germany was that most of our relatives were here in Germany.

In March 1990 we first moved to Friedland [a camp for immigrants from Poland in Eastern Germany], then we continued to Unna-Massen [another immigrant camp, in the west of Germany]. There we also spent two weeks.

Most of our relatives who moved to Germany live in Bavaria [in the south of the country]. Only a sister of my father's moved to North Rhine-Westphalia [a state in the west]. As my parents did not want to move to Bavaria (I still don't know why) we moved to where my aunt lived.

My father quickly found a steady job and we moved into a nice flat here in this town.

It was terribly difficult for us here in Germany because we didn't speak any German at all. Therefore my parents attended a German language course while we (my younger sister and I) were in kindergarten. My sister and I quickly made friends in kindergarten with whom we talked in German, so that we were able to learn the language quickly. Today my parents only speak Polish to us for the reason that we should not forget the language as we go to Poland regularly. My sister and I, however, hardly ever talk in Polish because we find it difficult these days. I only attended kindergarten in Poland for one year so that I never learned to read and write Polish there. It has become difficult for us to talk to each other in the Polish language, but we understand nearly everything. But the longer we are in Poland on a visit and hear Polish spoken around us, the easier it becomes for us, and we can then express what we really want to say.