Documentary about refugee integration in Germany
In 2015, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel uttered three words that made history: “Wir schaffen das!”. “We can do this”, she said when questioned on whether Germany should take in thousands of Syrians fleeing from the brutal civil war in their homeland.
Now, ten years on, where does the country and the refugees that arrived there stand? What came of Merkel’s promise?
That’s the question Nicole and her colleagues at ZDF asked themselves in the run-up to the anniversary if Merkel’s statement. The result is the documentary series “Was haben wir geschafft?” (“What have we achieved?”)
Nicole accompanied Entisar Karkokli, a Syrian teacher who fled the civil war in her homeland in 2015 and came to Germany. When she arrived in Brandenburg, she had one goal: to work again as a primary school teacher. “Forget it,” she was told back then at the employment office — a sentence that to this day motivates her to never give up.
Her story, and that of her allies, are at the heart of episode 5 of the series. Together with Roman Leskovar, Nicole looks at integration in German classrooms — both in front of and behind the teacher’s desk.
The film aired on August 22nd, 2025 on ZDF