The One Who Fell from the Sky
“Other nationals with residence and residence permit for Germany can also be considered within the limits of capacity”. When Qian Sun read the fourth point in the email of the German consulate general of Bengaluru, India, she had to swallow first. Some uncertainty spread through her and this feeling accompanied her until she fell asleep.
Qian has lived in Germany for almost ten years. She is an award-winning journalist of Chinese origin and finds it difficult to exchange her Chinese citizenship for a German one. “China does not allow dual citizenship, and I would hate to have to apply for a visa every time I return to visit my family,” says the 32-year-old.
Qian came to India for a yoga teacher training course, but postponed it for a month because of the corona outbreak in China and stayed in Delhi. As a freelance journalist, it is not surprising that she took the opportunity to report, and as a Chinese, she was able to obtain more detailed information and act as an expert. Not only did she try to elaborate on the situation in China, but she also drew attention to racist developments and stereotypes that slowly spread in the West during the Covid 19 outbreak. Especially in the early days, there were various reports of Chinese citizens being denied hostel accommodation. Reports and videos suggest how Asian-looking people were accused of things related to the virus they had nothing to do with.
Qian worked for Health Analytics Asia, an online fact-checking platform and data journalism for the public health sector. Her initial idea was to use the time in India and the yoga teacher training to find balance, to calm down her stressful life. The contrary happened, and she had to gear up until the end of February. “It wasn’t until the end of February that I was able to relax a bit, when it was a bit quieter in China and the rest of the world ‘hadn’t caught up yet’,” she recalls.
By mid-March things were getting serious in other parts of the world as well. Qian decided to fly back to Germany. Her flight was scheduled for the 22nd, so she wanted to wait seven more days and then take off, as her decision was made on the 15th. Due to the ongoing outbreak and the declaration of a pandemic, her flight back to Germany on March 22 was cancelled because the Polish government had imposed a landing ban on flights on their soil. Although it would only have been a transit through Warsaw, there was no possibility. She was stuck. Shortly afterwards India banned all commercial flights, including outbound flights, and declared a total curfew on the country, with only four hours notice, on 24 March.
“You are more German than most Germans,” is a sentence that friends of Qian often say to her and which probably many people of other nationalities will hear when they’ve lived in Germany for a longer period of time. Dinner is at 6 pm, lunch is at 12 pm sharp. Qian pays her taxes into the German social system; she loves sausages and all kinds of bread. She even eats sauerkraut, which is more of a stereotype, since many Germans don’t even like it. She has the highest form of a residence permit, besides citizenship and which allows her to stay basically without restrictions. So where do her rights and duties begin and where do they end?
In this exceptional situation she remains Chinese, at least for the German state. The answer to the email feels as if she is being treated a second-class citizen.
The press office of the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany refers to the statement that “the repatriation programme is aimed at Germans and their family members in regions particularly affected by travel restrictions. However, we are making every effort to find solutions within the limits of our capacities also for EU foreigners and holders of a residence permit with permanent residence in Germany”. Nevertheless, effort is not a guarantee.
There is no legal basis for determining how the German government has to act in this exceptional situation when a foreign citizen who has a residence permit for Germany is in trouble in a third country. The press office of the Federal Foreign Office, however, emphasizes that there is “a clear commitment to find solutions for this group of persons as well”. Despite this concession, the Federal Foreign Office points also out that “consular care for Chinese nationals is in principle the responsibility of the People’s Republic of China under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. But how does this help her?
Qian can only shake her head: “I haven’t managed to get in touch with the Chinese government and I don’t believe that there is a repatriation program.” The government took measures in early March to bring Chinese citizens back from Iran. Apart from these measures, the people are left alone. The government of China is even going one step further. Since 28th of March, even foreigners who have a visa or residence permit are no longer allowed to enter the country. Almost all flights from 29 March onwards have been cancelled. There is a flight once a week which costs about ten times the usual ticket price and in order to have the possibility to buy this ticket at all, you have to apply with an important reason.
Qian is stretched in a misery between her home country and her adopted country and she was glad that the German government approached her quite quickly while the Chinese authorities didn’t. Even though it may seem that the German government does not take full responsibility, they are willing to help.
Nonetheless, Qian will return to Germany with a queasy feeling at the end. On the one sideis her home country, which left her standing in the rain, and on the other hand her new home, which supports her, yet makes it clear that she is only adopted. Her flight, which was originally planned for March 28, has been postponed once again, but Qian now knows for sure that she will return to Germany within the next few days.
The Corona virus has caused exceptional situations worldwide, Qian got into one of them and got away with a black eye. Despite countless contacts, she had no influence on the outcome and could only wait. Legally she is in a grey area, humanly in a no man’s land. Many other people will also ask themselves in these times where their rights as a human being begin and end with a residence permit or without, and which government will take care of them in case something extraordinary will happen.
In the last two decades the world population has grown ever closer together and in crises like these the dark sides of globalization and its limitations are even more evident. One would hope that despite those dangers, the population would hold together, but the opposite seems the case. Many people have to respect a curfew during the Covid-19 pandemic and the time they spend with themselves will be used by many people to reflect on what is happening and what the future will bring.
Especially generation X, Y and Z, who are particularly affected by digitalisation and often feel the urge to find work in other countries and have the freedom, have to think about what home really means to them, what rights and duties they want to take on, and what responsibilities, rights and duties they have . Besides these melancholic-emotional questions, there are also those that are asked by authorities and are dealing with borders, the (in) security of the system and globalization.
Once back home, Qian will certainly take the time to reflect on her journey, and also also the question of citizenship will get tangled up in her thoughts a few more times.
