Footprint or common good? Conflict of refugee accommodation at the FU Berlin
Footprint or common good? Conflict of refugee accommodation at the FU Berlin
The project of the Berlin Senate to build a container village for 260 refugees on a fallow unibles on Thielallee 63 in Berlin-Dahlem, encounters resistance, especially from the Free University (FU). The university actually plans to build a building for teaching and research on the premises and feels over the same time. President Günter Ziegler emphasizes that the university management of the measure has not approved and that the area is urgently needed for his own construction work from 2023.
FU Berlin has already provided short -term support in the accommodation of refugees in the past, sometimes by providing an emergency accommodation in the university's sports hall. Although the university is fundamentally willing to support refugee people, it emphasizes the urgent need for her own construction work and the limited available areas on campus.
The Senate decided at the end of March the construction of 16 additional container villages in Berlin in order to counter the acute lack of living space for refugees. The locations for the new container villages are mainly planned in the eastern part of the city, which could further tighten existing imbalances in the distribution of refugees in the districts.
The controversy about the planned refugee accommodation on the university area in Dahlem has led to discussions and ridicule on the net. Critics accuse FU Berlin of neglecting their progressive values on this topic. Some users on social media describe the attitude of the university as contradictory and racist, since they supposedly do not provide a place for refugee accommodation, although they otherwise present themselves as cosmopolitan and tolerant. The debate about refugee accommodation shows how quickly supposedly progressive attitudes can prove to be brittle when it comes to personal concern and concrete measures.