A Cosmopolitan for the “Children at the Palace”

Nada Iraki
Daycare center assistant at One World Kinder

Despite speaking three languages and holding a degree in business management, Nada Iraki received no response to her numerous applications. She can’t quite explain the fact to this day, but she is glad that an SGE position finally brought this situation to an end.

In Nada Iraki’s family, having a cosmopolitan attitude and an international perspective is basically inevitable. Iraki was born in the United Arabian Emirates in 1992, in Dubai, where she was also raised. However, for her Palestinian parents, Dubai was just one stop among many. Her mother came to Germany from Lebanon and grew up here; like Iraki herself, she has a German passport and is a “German with a migrant background.” She moved to Dubai when she married Iraki’s father, who had previously studied and worked in the USA. “My mother originally wanted to study in Germany,” Iraki tells us. “But because she didn’t have a passport at the time, she wasn’t allowed to, nor was she allowed to work.”

Iraki attended an English-language school in Dubai, after which she studied business management. While she was at university, she did casual work, got a job after obtaining her degree, and worked for half a year. Then, in her early twenties, she traveled to Germany. “A cousin of mine was getting married,” says Iraki. “I had originally planned on staying for six months to learn German and then return home. But shortly after the wedding, my parents decided to emigrate to Germany, as they thought the perspectives and living conditions were better here. So I stayed for good.”

Iraki ging in Dubai auf eine englischsprachige Schule und studierte anschließend Business-Management. Sie jobbte schon während des Studiums, bekam nach dem erfolgreichen Abschluss eine Stelle und arbeitete ein halbes Jahr lang. Dann ging es mit Anfang zwanzig auf Deutschlandreise. »Anlass war die Hochzeit eines Cousins«, sagt Iraki. »Ursprünglich wollte ich sechs Monate bleiben, um Deutsch zu lernen, und dann nach Hause zurückkehren. Meine Eltern entschieden sich kurz nach der Hochzeit jedoch, ganz nach Deutschland auszuwandern. Sie sahen hier bessere Perspektiven und Lebensbedingungen für unsere Familie. Ich blieb also dauerhaft.«

“I studied business management and submitted more than a hundred applications in Germany – but I never got a job.”

Nada Iraki

That was in the summer of 2015. Iraki is now 29 years old, and despite having submitted around one hundred applications, she has never been offered a decent job. “For three years, I worked on improving my German, applying everywhere I could at the same time, but I couldn’t find a job,” she tells us. All she was offered were internships: Once at a daycare center for three months, another time at a health care supply store for two months. Even when she applied as an office assistant, for which she is technically overqualified, she only received rejections.

It’s unusual for someone with Iraki’s education to not find a job. She has a degree and speaks three languages: Arabic, English and German. At home, a four-bedroom apartment she shares with her parents and four younger siblings, the family speaks a mixture of all three languages. The family loves their close-knit family life, and often cooks meals together.

“I can do any type of administrative work,” says Iraki, “at an office, at the airport, at a hospital. I can work in organization management and even in accounting. I may not have studied bookkeeping explicitly, but I did take some corresponding courses. I like anything that has to do with logistics – I love organizing things, getting things done. At the same time, I don’t want to be stuck at my desk all day. To me, working with customers is important. I need the exchange with people.”

Iraki would have loved to continue working at the health care supply store where she completed one of her internships, but they didn’t want to give her an adequate contract. Instead, the job center, which pays benefits to and finds jobs for long-term unemployed persons, recommended the positions created as part of the Solidary Basic Income (“Solidarisches Grundeinkommen,” SGE) project. “The job center probably saw how many applications I’d submitted and wanted to acknowledge my commitment,” Iraki says. “In any case, I suddenly got a call from a placement officer who asked me if I might be interested in working within the SGE program – with a contract and a permanent position for five years. She told me all about the SGE project, and I thought, it sounds great, why not!”

This is where her internship at the daycare center paid off. The job center knew that Iraki had already gathered experience at a daycare center – and offered her the position of daycare center assistant. This SGE field was created to relieve and support educators during everyday life at daycare centers. Daycare center assistants perform a range of duties, including monitoring cleanliness; helping with housekeeping activities and educational offers; distributing food; and preparing crafting projects.

“I was sent a couple of vacancies to look at, and I selected four,” says Iraki. “One was at a refugee accommodation center which had a small daycare center and was one and a half hours away from my home. I worked there for one day on a trial basis, but I didn’t feel comfortable. It was very strenuous. I realized I would choose one of the other positions.” She launched her second attempt at a daycare center in Steglitz, this time just a few minutes away from her apartment. But after another one-day trial run, she realized: The chemistry was off.

As we all know, the third time’s a charm, and she clicked with the third center. “I worked there for two days on a trial basis,” Iraki says. “It was perfect. The educator was really friendly, the head of the center was really friendly, and I had a good feeling about it. That was where I wanted to work.” She has since worked there for one year and is very happy. She enjoys the work with the children and the exchange with the parents. “Some parents are dears,” Iraki tells us. “Last Christmas, they gave us a huge Advent calendar. I was over the moon, even though I don’t celebrate Christmas, it was just a really nice thing to do.”

Iraki’s employer is One World Kinder, a free agency that runs three daycare centers in different districts. One of them is the “Children at the Palace” (“Kinder am Schloss”) daycare center where Iraki now works, located right next to Charlottenburg Palace. At the facility, children from numerous nations meet, speaking a range of languages besides German, including Arabic, Albanian, Turkish, French, Russian, Polish, English, Ukrainian, Serbian, Thai, and Vietnamese. This mixture of languages and the atmosphere are right up Iraki’s alley, and Gabi Höner, the head of the day care center, was in turn immediately convinced of the young woman’s abilities. “Like everywhere else in Berlin, we lack skilled labor, but that doesn’t mean we give just anybody a job. Applicants need to be a good fit, otherwise they don’t last very long anyway.”

At One World Kinder, children are looked after according to the Pyramid Model, a holistic, progressive education program that originated in the Netherlands.

Iraki has already taken part in one Pyramid workshop and has meanwhile internalized a lot of details of early childhood development. “It’s surprising how differently they can develop despite being the same age, that was something I really had to learn at first,” she says. “My first kids have already moved on to the next group, they’ve really grown.” Iraki is currently assigned to pre-K and looks after the youngest of the center’s members. “Some days are obviously really hectic, but for the most part, I cope extremely well. At the moment, we have two children who are still in the acclimatization period, they are really lovable and enjoy playing together. Not all kids do, some of them scream for their mom and dad. The ‘corona kids’ in particular didn’t get out much, and some of them visibly have larger problems.”

“At first, I wasn’t sure whether I would be assigned a job coach. It’s a great service.”

Nada Iraki

The fact that the SGE position meant a five-year contract with guaranteed further employment alone gave Iraki grounds for joy. She is happy with her gross wage of €1,900 and was also pleasantly surprised by the unexpected extras that come with the job. “I even get a Christmas bonus, despite the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, we don’t celebrate Christmas,” she tells us. But she truly hadn’t expected to be supported by a job coach. Every month, she meets up with her mentor, who checks how things are going and gives her valuable tips. “She’s a really big help,” Iraki says. Her mentor, for example, pointed out that Iraki could start a recognized apprenticeship as an educator alongside her SGE position.

This would be a step towards entering the educator profession for the time after the SGE project. In light of her educational background, Iraki would like a bit more time to think before she takes that step. “After all, I did study something different,” she says. She does not want to rule out the possibility of her returning to her profession in the medium term.

Copy: Katrin Rohnstock / Rohnstock Biografien