Last weekend I had the idea to make an interview about migration. I wanted to focus on the younger part of the population and not only Germans but from all over the world. So, I made the following poll and released it on a social media platform:  

1. Where do you come from?

2. Are you a girl or a boy?

3. How old are you?

4. To how many different countries have you been to?

5. And to how many different continents?

6. Do you have contact to people from other countries?

7. What do you think of migrants in your country?

The last question is the most important one.

But I thought the others would be interesting as well to have an idea of whom I was talking to.

If you put questions like this on social media it happens often that nobody answers. To some, these questions might feel too personal even though I never asked for a name. So, I was very happy and surprised to see that some people actually answered me. I got nine answers in total and nothing negative about immigrants at all. While reading, it is important to keep in mind that this doesn’t represent the whole younger generation, I didn’t get enough answers to make a statistic!

But let’s just look at the answers I got.

1. Where do you come from? For me this was an interesting question, because I didn’t know them beforehand. People answered from Spain, Ukraine, USA, Mexico and Canada. Two answers from the Philippines were a real surprise for me, because at the time they answered, it was almost 2 am in their country. Finally, also two Germans stated their opinion, resulting in nine answers. To round up the picture, I added myself as well.

2. Are you are girl or a boy? That one is really clear: Only girls wrote, I don’t know why, but I’m happy that these nine girls were so kind to respond.

3. How old are you? I already told you, that I asked the young generation, but the specific ages varied a bit. The youngest was 12 years old, but most were 16 or 17 like me, the two oldest were 19 years old.

4. How many countries have you been to? The answers where very different. One only visited 3 different countries and one up to 20.  I took the average of all these numbers - the result was 8 countries, because I don’t see the point in telling you 10 different numbers you will forget in the next minute.  

5. And to how many different continents? Mostly one or two (myself included with two), but one girl had been to 4 different continents.

6. Do you have contact to people from other countries? I gave three options for this one: No contact, only contact on the internet, personal contact as well (because if you have personal contact you normally stay in touch through the internet). The results: One person without any contacts, one person with internet contacts, one person with only personal contacts (against my theory of having always internet connections, when having personal connections) and the rest (seven people, me included) have internet and personal contacts with people from different countries.

7. What do you think of migrants in your country? That question is the most important one for my survey. I’m happy that I only received positive comments on that one, because I know some immigrants myself and think that immigration is a very important and good thing. Of course, everybody is allowed to say his/her opinion on that. But I would not have been sure how to react if some comments had been a hate speech against immigrants.  

Let’s now take a look at the comments those girls sent me:

The first one told me she was a migrant herself. Another one wrote: “I don’t know any migrants, I feel overwhelmed that they choose to stay in our country, though.” And the third said something I agree to as well: “I don’t mind them but they should be respectful to the society they are new to. (For example, not doing anything illegal)”.

I can’t just summarize all these opinions in one single sentence, so let us continue to look on the single answers.

“I don’t personally know any migrants, but I completely agree and understand if someone wants to immigrate”. The fifth girl just said she is not sure what she thinks about immigrants. She was one of the younger ones, is probably in the process of building her opinion, and helps therefore nicely to gain a variety of the answers. The next comment:” I have nothing against immigration.” Two told me that they’re welcome and should get the opportunity to integrate. Finally, the ninth - and one of the older - girls wrote: “They are fun people to hang out with. I can learn stuff from them.”

As I already mentioned, I myself am convinced that immigration is very important and a benefit to our society.

I’m really happy that so many girls from all over the world answered me. It was surprising that everyone was so open minded on the topic of immigration. Naturally this poll doesn’t represent the whole population, but I think that if more people were open minded about other cultures and immigration, it would be greatly beneficial to every society.

Isabel Deville