Immigrants, Problems and Media

by Habib Ur Rehman, freelance journalist, Rheine (Germany)

Despite the Eid fest and a cool rainy day I arrived in Cologne after a long journey from Rheine to attend a seminar at Media Park. It was also the first seminar that I attended in Germany.

Everybody was new for me whom I met there but the atmosphere was so friendly hence I found myself as I was amongst colleagues. I found the seminar “Migration, Partizipation und Medien” motivating and unique of its kind to those I used to attend in Pakistan.

Being a little bit late I was unable to attend the first session but the later session was so interactive where four projects having different topics were presented.

All the projects were made technically sound and also showed the skills of those who produced them. Participation of people having immigrant background enhanced the ideas of these projects.

After attending the seminar I also came to know what type of problems are being faced by the immigrants and also got firsthand knowledge regarding how such problems are being highlighted and being sorted out through the help of different organization and state as well.

During the seminar I got an opportunity to witness the trailer of a film highlighting the common issues of families. The girl who took part in the film and was available to answer the questions was an excellent and bold example of participation of community to eradicate problems and change the mind set.

It was also a good example to the usage of more talking heads explaining their views by themselves.

In two other projects youths and students were given opportunities to come up with their ideas and skills and were motivated to share their thoughts combating hurdles faced by them now and ahead. This was also a wonderful example to educate youths according to their needs.

I am sure if such types of projects, films and short stories are made public especially to those having decisive powers would be worthwhile to lesser problems faced by immigrants.