By Ana Gomez Salcido
A group of six German journalists learned about San Diego’s immigration situation from community group leaders in a casual setting organized by the San Diego Diplomacy Council on Thursday, September 15.
“We bring in international groups of visitors to San Diego mostly through State Department funded programs,” said San Diego Diplomacy Council program manager Heidi Knuff. “This particular group’s trip is funded by the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.”
The six German journalists write about immigration issues back in their country for different outlets and they came to learn how San Diego handles the integration of immigrants into the community, a hot topic in Europe with the refugee crisis.
“They met with the International Rescue Committee, Survivors of Torture, and they got a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border,” Knuff said. “They are meeting with different NGO leaders that work on immigration issues to learn kind of best practices, challenges that we have locally, and how things work here.”
Some of the NGO leaders talked off the record to the German visitors, but all were able to answer their questions.
Marlon Armin Herrmann , Current Affairs Editor and Reporter of National Public TV Phoenix/ZDF from Germany, said that immigrants in Germany don’t integrate to the community as well as they do in San Diego.
“[Immigrants] keep to themselves in their suburbs, and some don’t even speak the language,” Herrmann said. “Here in San Diego, there is an integration.”
Representatives from La Maestra, a health non-profit based in San Diego, were part of Thursday’s meeting.
“I think this was an important meeting, we came because it was a group of German journalists that are worried about the refugee crisis in Europe,” Legal and Social Department Director and Human Trafficking Program Director of La Maestra, Carmen G. Kcomt said. “They came because they want to learn and better understand how the United States receives the immigrants.”
The six German journalists stayed for three days in San Diego, and then travelled to visit Chicago, and New York, to continue to learn about immigration issues in those cities.
“There are 90 organizations like us throughout the country and we partnered with the organizations that do multi-city programs,” Knuff said. “Our goal is to create mutual understanding between countries, and governments, and individuals with the hope that there will be greater levels of peace, security, and able to tack large issues.”
This group in particular focused on immigration issues, but there are other groups of people with different occupations that visit the city through the San Diego Diplomacy Council including to talk about the environment, STEAM education, and even business.
“What we hope is that pairing people from other countries and comparing systems and best practices that we will elevate the conversation or improve the situation in other countries as well as in the United States,” Knuff said. “We do a lot of this type of short-term programs when they come to San Diego for a few days, and also some monthly ones.”