RIAS Berlin Commission fellows from USA study border security, migration in Europe
A group of eight American journalists and law enforcement experts recently completed a busy seven-day RIAS Berlin Commission fellowship to learn more about border security and migration in Germany and the European Union. The “senior editor’s” group that included experts on the subjects and RIAS alumni spent the week in Berlin, Munich, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Zagreb and at border crossings between Croatia and Serbia.
As border security and migration is a pressing issue in both the United States and Germany, the American journalists spent the week talking to high-ranking experts from all sides of the subject in
Germany and Croatia to learn more about the situation in Europe.
Guest speakers included former German Interior Minister Dr. Thomas de Maiziere, Federal Academy for Security Policy President Dr. Karl-Heinz Kamp, European Stability Initiative (ESI) think tank founding chairman Gerald Knaus, AfD deputy parliamentary floor leader Beatrix von Storch, Hungary’s ambassador to Germany Peter Gyökös, leading Bavarian Interior Ministry officials, and Deputy Director of the George C. Marshall Center General Johann Berger. The Americans also had talks with Macedonia’s deputy minister of defence Dr. Bekim Maksuti and Croatia’s deputy interior minister Terezija Gras and Croatia’s head of the border police directorate Vlatko Cvrtila.
The journalists on the fellowship, which was organised with the help of RIAS Berlin Commissioner Dr. Hildegard Boucsein, also spent time with Syrian refugees in Berlin who have started a thriving restaurant in the Neukoelln section of Berlin called “Aldimashqi”as well as visiting migrants from Morocco, Syria and Pakistan who are on a three-year job training program at the Berlin Water Works. One year ago, a group of eight German journalists spent a week in Texas on a similar program learning about border security and migration on the Texas-Mexico border. Other stations visited included the new Berlin offices of the Open Society Foundations and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation think tank in Berlin.
Many of the Americans on the trip to Germany and Croatia this year were working on stories for their TV and radio stations back home in the United States, such as this report from NPR journalist John Burnett that aired on “All Things Considered” on November 30.
The fellows in the group included:
- Lee Anderson, KTVZ, Bend, Oregon
- John Burnett, NPR Southwest, Austin, Texas
- Tom Hawley, KSNV-TV, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Hugo Perez, New Mexico State University Journalism department and Noticias 22
- Adam Reiss, NBC TV, New York
- Yami Virgin, KABB/WOAI, San Antonio, Texas
- Sara Wittmeyer, WFIU/WTIU, Bloomington, Indiana
- Major General Robert Bodisch, Commander Texas State Guard
