Yes, people can be horrible irrespective of nationality, ethnicity etc. Wow, what an enlightening conclusion. You have earned yourself a sticker. Bravo. Really worth the novel you just wrote.
I couldn't give a monkeys if you want to read my experiences or not. I think everyone is past the point where they know that bad people are everywhere. Your sweet little examples is just meant to show us how very open minded and tolerant you are. What a role model! You really earned the likes!
I spent the first part of my Civil Service with a foundation, who's goal is to properly integrate refugees. This includes teaching them the local languages, showing them our culture (also rights and obligations), evaluating their skills to help them find a potential job (which will increase their chances of getting their application for asylum accepted).
In my country we get a lot of refugees from Somalia and Eritrea, some from Syria and Bangladesh and a few from west african countries.
I worked there for 2 months. The first 2 weeks I arrived highly motivated. Working overtime at minimum wage, I would go out of my way to help some very polite, respectful people. I used personal connections to get 2 guys (1 Eritrean, 1 Guinean) job offers at a Restaurant, which would drasticly increase their chances of being allowed to stay. This was not my job, but I did it anyway because I could see that they were really trying. Sometimes they even brought me job descriptions they printed out in an Internet Café. They tried to speak German to me when possible and talked to other locals in the coffee breaks. This is what we're looking for.
Obviously, there were other, les ambitious "participants" aswell. I have never seen people this lazy. As soon as I left the room, they didn't work for a second. I remembered which language.exercises they were doing when I left. On my return, an hour later, they still had the same exercises on their desks. Untouched. I would hear "You don't give us enough money!" ; "We thought, that we're welcome here." and "At home they said we would get a house and live a nice life here. Where is all of it? Where?" (Thank you to all of you who posted "Refugees Welcome" to show the internet how compassionate you are. Where are you guys now? Art class ? Gender studies? Well, you're not doing anything to help here in the real world you *****!)
Knowing (and seeing in my course) what status women have in the middle east, I had to explain equality. After explaining that woman are equal and not here to serve us, they would act as if they understand. Yet after this explanation, the women were still always getting them drinks from the cantine and clearing up at the end of the day whilst the men tried to hide outside.
Not that the women were better. They would show no shame at all in asking me to do the simplest of tasks for them (although they would never dare ask their compatriots for the same favors). They tried to use me because they were too lazy to work themselves and believed that I was naive (which I was).
Another example: "Hey dude, I might have a job offer for you. Please bring your documents with you tomorrow, so we can see if you would do ok there." Of course he "forgot" his documents at home the next day. He just didn't want to find a job, because the state gives him money for free.
My motivation level started to sink because I realised that many of these people don't want to be helped. They want to be mothered and want other people to provide for them. My effort wasn't worth it.
These people, mostly young and fit, are theoretically fully capable of making changes in their own countries. They have a different ideology which is deeply manifested in their heads. We cannot hope for all these people to adapt to our culture.
Unlike Chindie, I will not end this post without a relevant conclusion (yours was really cute though). So here it is:
You can offer all the tolerance and help you want. Some people don't want to/cannot be helped. We can deal with a few who are resistant to change, but the number of people entering Europe at the moment will shake the foundations of our cultures and countries.
