In media, policy and scholarship, forced migrants are typically portrayed as either inherently vulnerable and in need of external protection, and/or as naturally violent and threatening and therefore not deserving of care. We know very little, however, about forced migrants as actors and providers of care themselves. Yet, our work with forced migrants in Germany shows that they experience and practice different forms of care, both on the move and upon arrival in Germany. These caring practices have life-sustaining qualities and facilitate forced migrants’ survival while enabling more dignified lives.
How do forced migrants practice and experience care? This question remains largely under-explored in discourses, scholarship and activism on forced displacement. Dominant narratives about displacement typically portray forced migrants either as inherently vulnerable, or as dangerous and threatening, but certainly not as caring or careful actors themselves. This results in one-sided, essentialist and problematic depictions of forced migrants, fueling contemporary racist and anti-migrant discourses and politics.
In a recently published article – and drawing on on-going research with groups of forced migrants living in Germany as well as our decade-long activism to enable more dignified lives for forcibly displaced communities – we have illuminated the manifold ways in which forced migrants themselves practice different forms of care. Importantly, we are not suggesting a ‘turn towards care’, but rather embrace an ethics of alongside-ness, which places these experiences of care alongside persistent suffering, violence and harm.
Making these experiences and narratives visible is important for countering singular and essentialist depictions of the lives of forced migrants. Instead, foregrounding the caring practices of forcibly displaced communities is an ethical imperative and necessity. The reflections offered in this piece correspond with an evolving research agenda of taking love and care seriously in contexts of conflict, violence and displacement. This body of research perceives caring practices as “potential sites of politics that shape how people survive and make sense of violence as well as imagine and enact lives in its wake.”
For this piece, we draw on ethnographic and participatory research conducted with groups of forced migrants in Bremen, collaboratively carried out between January and July 2024 by the authors. Specifically, we have conducted four group-based workshop discussions with 24 young forced migrants from mostly West Africa but also Syria and Afghanistan. In addition, we draw on ethnographic observation of different activities carried out by refugee-led groups in Bremen, such as communal cooking sessions or swimming lessons. These insights were analyzed in an inductive and thematically-coded manner.
Care, Forced Migration and Gender
Throughout media reporting, policy-making and research, forced migrants are portrayed either in terms of their vulnerabilities, or as a danger and threat. These labels and dynamics are, of course, heavily gendered: Women and girls (and increasingly LGBTQI+) forced migrants are typically cast as quintessentially passive, helpless and vulnerable; while refugee men are portrayed as inherently dangerous and violent security threats to the safety of host-communities. These images gained particular traction in the wake of ‘the long summer of migration’ a decade ago. Such construction manifest in assumptions of women and girls as in need of external (white, patriarchal) protection and care, and the exclusion of forced migrant men from official registers of care.
Although the rhetoric and concept of care is increasingly used in refugee activism, the focus mostly rests on simplistic images of vulnerable forced migrants as in need of care, provided by external actors, such as state agencies, NGOs or activists. Additional explorations in the literature focus on friendship ties amongst forced migrants, or on care practiced within (heterosexual) family units. What has received only scant attention so far are forced migrants’ diverse experiences of receiving and, importantly, practicing care, outside formalized humanitarian assistance or welfare and healthcare systems. Put differently, there is plenty of talk about care for refugees but only little acknowledgement of caring practices by, between and amongst forced migrants themselves – with only very few exceptions.
Forced Migrants’ Practices of Care
In our research and work with forcibly displaced communities living in Germany, however, we are regularly confronted with the reality that forced migrants themselves enact and practice different forms of care, both while they are on the move and upon arrival in Germany. This includes, for example, everyday acts of support and solidarity, often by and amongst forced migrants; as well as communality, togetherness and belonging in refugee groups as caring spaces. The examples we present here are only illustrative instances of a broader catalogue of caring practices by and amongst forced migrants.
Various forced migrants whom we work with have examples to share of how they received help and assistance, and how they cared for others, during the course of their migratory journey to Germany. This includes acts of sharing scarce resources such as water, food, or clothing with one another; sharing vital and often life-sustaining information or giving each other company in dire circumstances.
Consider, for instance, the story of Ahmad (all names here are pseudonyms), a young forced migrant from Syria. As part of his journey to Europe, he had to pass through Libya, and stayed in one of the many inhumane detention-like camps for over 40 days. In the camp, he met others in a similar plight, including two young kids, who were on the move together with their uncle. At some point, the smugglers took the uncle away, torturing and beating him, leaving the kids alone, without any food or water. “The kids were so scared and did not know what to do, so I took care of them”, he explained.
After several weeks of staying in the detention camp, characterized by daily struggles for survival, an opportunity arose for them to take a boat to Europe. Instead of entering the boat as a group, however, the three were forcefully separated – and one boy made it over to Italy, while Ahmad and the other boy were taken to Greece. “This was such a dramatic situation, to see the one boy on the boat by himself, and to comfort the brother. They thought they would never see each other again”, Ahmed remembered. Upon arrival in Greece, Ahmad – who initially wanted to proceed directly to Germany – decided to first make the journey to Italy, to reunite the two siblings; and he eventually succeeded. He then took the brothers with him all the way to Germany, where he was able to unite them their family.
Months later, upon hearing what happened, the mother of the two young boys – who stayed behind in Syria – made the effort to find Ahmed’s parents in Syria, to express her gratitude for what their son had done for her family. “She was so appreciative. They knew that me taking care of their kids is the only reason why they survived, and why they now get to live with their family in Germany”, he fondly remembers.
More than anything, this extraordinary example illuminates the care-taking practices of forced migrants themselves and illustrates how these diverse acts of care for and amongst people on the move are crucial facilitators of survival, shaped by the absence of other avenues of protection, support and care. It also illustrates the incredible dedication and resilience of forced migrants like Ahmed, able to practice such fundamental care under such challenging living conditions.
Solidarity and Community upon Arrival in Germany
Upon arrival in Germany as well, forced migrants also practice and experience different acts of care, including for other people on the move. One particular space in which these caring relations unfold are caring communities amongst forced migrants themselves, such as informal groups, networks or associations. The three of us have all worked, in different capacities, with such groups: Seedy Saidykhan is the founder and organizer of the Buddies of Bremen group, while Sunny Omwenyeke founded the Bremen Solidarity Centre (BreSoC), both of which serve as safe spaces for and by refugees and forced migrants in Bremen.
For several years, Sunny Omwenyeke has brought together forced migrants in small groups for swimming lessons, outdoor activities and empowerment workshops. This not only equips forced migrants with an essential, often life-sustaining new skill, but also builds their confidence, empowers them, and fosters community and togetherness. For Sunny, “our group activities, such as going for swimming together, are also a form of love and care.” This sentiment is certainly shared by members of the groups themselves, who explained that “I feel accepted and feel loved and cared for in these spaces. I feel really respected here.”
In particular, the groups serve as important avenues to foster community, feelings of togetherness and communality, and tackling loneliness or isolation. Perhaps more importantly, the groups offer them the safe and secure space where they share and process their migration experiences. As expressed by one of the members,
“when going for swimming, in the group from Sunny, I met people in a similar situation and I learned something new – to swim. It was so nice to do this together with people who are also with a background and experiences similar to you; not to feel like you are alone or in isolation.”
For forced migrants who seek to re-build their lives in a new environment in exile, these elements of connectedness are particularly salient, as many of them travelled and arrived here by themselves, having to start a new life in isolation. Building new relationships and connections, therefore, often is an inescapable reality for forcefully displaced people. To this end, “these groups are really important. When we spend time with others in the same circumstances, it feels like we are not alone, but together with other people, and this is so important”, another participant agreed. These dynamics are reciprocal, whereby forced migrants support one another: “We feel like someone is there for you, and you are there for someone. You get help from others and can also help others out”, one participant shared. Even if the official intention to meet may be to learn how to swim, the dynamics and effects of these encounters extend way beyond this. “Through these meetings, we talk and laugh, and we have found new communities and new friends, who can support one another”, one participant explained.
These dynamics are also at play in the other support group that we work with, and that Seedy Saidykhan coordinates: The Buddies of Bremen. This group, supported by the NGO Fluchtraum Bremen, serves as a meeting place for young people with refugee experience who get together once a month to cook together, talk, experience joy or organize recreational activities. For the members, this group is a space of community, comfort, safety, security, joy, care and love. Especially the acts of cooking for one another and sharing a meal carry inherently caring connotations. As one member explained, “the stuff that we do here, cooking for others so they can enjoy a meal and do not have to live on an empty stomach and with hunger, that to me is such a profound act of care!” At the same time, for many forcibly displaced members, the group was often the first space in which they met new people with a shared reality made new friends, where they felt that they could talk about their experiences but also challenges, yet without having to, as expected by humanitarian or state agencies, and where they experienced community and solidarity.
Through these social, affective and emotive practices of communal care, forced migrants are thus able to counter elements of displacement-induced abandonment, loneliness and isolation. These dynamics of building and finding community or finding “a new family” also travel to related aspects of facilitating integration and home-making practices. “If you have people here, and community, it can be a home”; and “through these groups, I feel like I belong somewhere, I have found a home”, members of the group shared.
Concluding Thoughts
In light of these dynamics, it becomes clear that forced migrants are not only passive recipients of care, but that they themselves also actively enact and practice different forms of care, for other people on the move and amongst themselves. These reflections shed light on the complex experiences of forcibly displaced people, moving away from sensationalist stereotypical portrayals of refugees as either passively vulnerable or as naturally dangerous and violent, to foreground instead their lived realities through the registers of care. Especially in a context and at a moment in time where racist, discriminatory and anti-migrant rhetoric and politics are dominating socio-political discourses and decision-making, it is imperative to foreground these realities.
It therefore seems only appropriate to conclude our reflections through the words of one of our research participants, who emphasized: “It is true; nobody wants to realize that we also […] care ourselves. But we do! Changing this is important to restore our humanity”.
Suggested citation:
Omwenyeke, Sunny; Saidykhan, Seedy; Schulz, Philipp. Who Cares? The Caring Practices of Forced Migrants in Germany. FluchtforschungsBlog, 03.06.2025, https://fluchtforschung.net/who-cares-the-caring-practices-of-forced-migrants-in-germany/, DOI: 10.59350/fluchtforschung.14922.