First Migra strike in Halle: daily hostility

On Thursday morning, Wael Alomar urgently has to make a few more calls because orders are coming in via his restaurant's website. What those who order don't know: There is no food at Alomar today. He takes part in the first so-called Migra strike in Halle. In addition to Alomar, according to organizers, around 30 other stores are taking part in the strike. Together they want to send a visible signal in the face of increasingly anti-migrant sentiment in the country.

They want to make it clear that Halle would not be the “diverse, beautiful and livable city” that it is without people with a migration background. That's what it says in the call. Alomar can also report on the increasingly negative mood towards people who are perceived as migrant. Members of his family have experienced racist hostility every day since the state elections in September. At school, in the supermarket and even in the marketplace.

He had already experienced discrimination and fascism in his country of origin, Syria - and left it in 2008. He doesn't want to move, says Alomar. But if things continued like this, he would have no choice but to leave Saxony-Anhalt. “We came to Germany because we were looking for protection,” he says: “And if the constitutional state cannot guarantee us this, we cannot stay.”

Almost three weeks ago, the state network of migrant organizations in Saxony-Anhalt (Lamsa) reported at the federal press conference that it had recorded racist attacks on average every day since the state election. It was precisely these attacks that gave rise to the idea for a strike, explains one of the organizers from the “MigraStark” initiative in Halle. For security reasons, his real name will not be published; in this text he is called Beşîr Rojava.

Rojava reports that he spoke to people who had blue deportation tickets in their mailboxes on election night. Family members and friends would notice a significant increase in racist incidents. In discussions with business owners, the suggestion came up to organize a Migra strike in Halle, like the one that took place in Magdeburg before the state elections.

But many business owners were previously afraid of becoming the focus of discrimination, losing customers and suffering financial losses or broken windows, reports Rojava. Almost every day he walked from shop to shop with strike supporters and tried to convince people to join the strike.

As a Kurd, he learned to be resistant when injustice happened with his mother's milk, says Rojava - because “resistance is life”. The strike should encourage people from the migrant community not to stand by in silence while racist attacks increase day by day. “No one will give you your rights,” says Rojava.

At first he was worried that hardly any businesses would take part. Now significantly more people have joined. Some even joined spontaneously in the morning. The strike worked best where the business owners talked to each other, says Rojava. If one store goes on strike, others join in. In the same way, he has observed in some streets that shops that had promised to take part have now opened because their neighboring shops are not closing.

Rojava is also hopeful, given the rally at the Stone Gate with around 200 people, that today is just a beginning and that they can build on the networking and success. “With the strike we are showing what this society is missing if we are gone,” says restaurant owner Alomar.

However, the protection of people should not be linked to their usefulness, says Rojava. The anti-migrant policies and the racist agitation would have consequences for all people in this society. “Exclusion and hostility on the street are not based on employment status, but rather on appearance, language and origin.”