Recent state elections in Germany have shown a rise in popularity of Germany’s AfD, a far-right party who push for mass deportations and a firmer emphasis on the nuclear family model. The AfD have had their success in the eastern side of Saxony-Anhalt, which according to a recent CNN article, is the closest a far-right party has been to gaining power in the German state since World War II. They may have fallen short of the majority this time, but AfD’s anti-immigrant sentiments are being echoed in schools across the country. Germany has been accommodating for Ukrainians, but many wonder how much longer this will last.
Kamila Isaieva, 21, fled Ukraine in 2022 as Russian forces began to seize eastern areas of the country. The swimming pools had closed down, and seeking elsewhere to train, Isaieva fled with the National Swim Team who moved from Hungary to Italy, Romania to Germany and Germany to Scandinavia. The team saw European countries and hosts welcome them and unwelcome them for around a year – then Isaieva secured a visa to study at Princeton and moved to the U.S. Now, with the rise of the far-right across the globe, and graduation drawing near, she grows uncertain about what home will look like next year.
Isaieva, a senior in Princeton’s politics department, regularly communicates with her mother and younger sister, who have taken residence in Lower Saxony, Germany, under the Temporary Protection Status. Isaieva’s sister, Dana, has increasingly experienced bullying in school by German students.
“I cannot believe the way she’s treated in school. They are saying things like you f*ing dirty Ukrainian girl, go back home, go back to war in your country,” Isaieva said. According to Isaieva, the rise of Germany’s AfD has worsened Dana’s experience in school. “If they’re saying something in school, it means that it has been discussed in the family,” she added.
Joseph Vogl, a Professor at Princeton’s German department since 1996 is reassured about the safety of Ukrainians in Germany because of their importance for the economy. “I think at the moment, Ukrainians are not endangered. They work in a lot of professions which are important in the country, and they have a strong community.” Vogl, 68, is more concerned about Afghans and Syrians who are “the most endangered group.”
“The question for the AfD is how to Germanize culture,” Vogl said, when discussing a cultural battle which places art, museums, monuments and theaters at risk of indoctrination. Vogl said that the AfD wants to privatise public schools, making them more religious and reinforcing family structures. Vogl also spoke about the misconceptions surrounding the AfD, “Most people have the impression that the AfD are protestors against the elites, against a certain mainstream politics. I have the impression that people know what they are voting for, and that is racist politics.”
Oksana Nesterenko, a Ukrainian public policy analyst, and anti-corruption activist who works in Princeton’s SPIA (School of Public and International Affairs) department, also fears the consequences if the AfD were to win the majority vote. “The consequences would be more serious than the deportation of all Ukrainians back to Ukraine,” Nesterenko said.
Nesterenko, who packed up her entire life, and fled with her six year old son from Kharkiv to Western Ukraine after missiles were being dropped near her home, believes that “Ukrainians are very practical and pragmatic people, they used to travel around Europe a lot even before the war, so they are flexible when migrating now.”
Nesterenko foresees the worst case scenario with the AfD, “They could stop providing military support to Ukraine, Germany could leave the EU and there would be a big war in Europe,” Nesterenko said.
With the future being uncertain, Isaieva considers life post-graduation, although she’d like to continue living in the U.S. she is afraid her major would not be specific enough to facilitate a visa. “I would love to stay in America for at least a year, which is impossible. I’m not a STEM major,” she said. However, finding a place to live elsewhere is too – complicated. “I cannot work in Europe because I don’t have an EU citizenship, and I don’t want to go back to Ukraine,” she said. Isaieva is looking into Graduate schools as an option, potentially London, and endeavours to make plans soon.
