Vienna, is a city in solidarity with the UN refugees agency’s (UNHCR) Cities#WithRefugees campaign and has various municipal programmes to support refugees. UNHCR said the city has organised housing, medical care, language classes and education programmes for refugees.
Vienna has a long post-war record of accommodating refugees, today the city, which has grown largely because of internal and EU migration, has a population of over 1.8 million. The arrival of thousands of refugees in 2015 was a huge challenge but there was never a question of whether the city should welcome them, but how.
Widad’s family is among thousands of refugees making Vienna their home, and the city is helping to welcome them.
Despite some recent cuts at national level, the city continues to support refugees from its own budget and EU funds. It also supports NGOs and refugee groups seeking to help themselves.
In the 15th district, the CORE Centre provides rooms and facilities for refugees who come with their own initiatives for activities. The CORE programmes involve civil society and making refugees equal partners. For example, CORE has provided Widad, who taught Arabic and religion in Damascus, with an opportunity to get back into teaching with her own classes in Arabic for refugee children.
Widad, her husband and three of her children arrived in Austria after the oldest boy in the family, Obaida, now 20, made the journey alone. Widad said she quickly understood she could not sit at home all day but wanted an active life in Vienna.
She came up with the idea of teaching Arabic to children and asked for a room from CORE. Now I she is teaching four groups of 20 children each. Widad recognized that many refugee children were unable to read and write in their own language.
CORE and the refugees believe learning Arabic will help the children learn German too.
It is also important that youngsters, who are picking up German quickly, also know their own culture. If they are well educated, they will be good members of the Austrian community.
The extent to which Widad Alghamian and thousands of refugees like her have settled in Vienna is testament to the policy of the city, which has welcomed the new arrivals and worked to integrate them ‘from day one’.
Vienna has not only coped with the refugee influx but made it an opportunity for multiculturalism~ UNHCR
