At home in several cultures
The writer Lena Gorelik came as a child from Russia to Germany, where she and her family were “quota refugees”.
Lena Gorelik
The generation between the generations.
It was a few years before Lena Gorelik was ready to take Russian potato salad with her to parties. “I didn’t invite friends home because my parents spoke with an accent. Nor did I read Russian books on the train. But at some point I realised that I can be at home in several cultures at the same time, and that was a moment of integration,” says the journalist and writer.
Lena Gorelik calls herself a “one-and-a-half”, meaning that she does not feel she is part of the first generation of immigrants. They – like her parents – would not question the meaning of flight and tended to have a negative view of their homeland. Their children however, the second generation, seriously questioned both their parents’ decision and the concept of homeland. Lena Gorelik hovers somewhere between the two. She was a child when her Jewish family fled with her to Germany in the face of growing anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union. The new arrivals were called “quota refugees”, although there was no maximum limit set to their influx.
In her new homeland Gorelik clearly had an urge to make herself heard: attending the German School of Journalism in Munich and doing Eastern European Studies at university. Meantime many of her works have been inspired by the sheer expanse of Russia and by the feeling of disjointedness. In her book, Sie können aber gut Deutsch! (But your German is very good!) she explains why Germany will benefit from allowing people with a migration background to feel that they belong and are part of the community. People like her. ▪
