Building tomorrow’s tech society with cultural diversity.

My childhood was very difficult. My father died from cancer when I was 4, so I was raised by my mother alone who worked full-time and didn't speak German well.

Therefore she was not able to help me with homework at school or had attention for my emotional needs. I also had a huge cultural gap, as I was raised Muslim in a small-town going to a protestant Kindergarten. I struggled a lot fitting into both Arabic and German culture, as both identities can be very much in conflict.

As a teenager it was hard to feel normal, when I was not allowed to meet in mixed gender groups, wear a bikini, have a boyfriend, drink or be outside the house past 18 o'clock.

I fought hard to gain independence and had big fallouts with most of my family members. My family migrated fleeing the Iraq-Iran war and later more family came after the US invaded Iraq.

My father came to Germany even earlier, because he received a scholarship to study engineering but was then exiled from Iraq for not returning to work there.

Later in life both of my parents became successful entrepreneurs and most of my family members in Germany and Europe went into higher education.

I'm proud for their hard work, resilience and strong family values. I'm also proud of my dual heritage that helps me transcends normative ideas of being.

My parents immigrated from China to Germany in the 1980s because my father received a scholarship by the Chinese government to study in Germany. He later was given the option to stay in Germany for the long term and he decided to do so. My childhood was definitely largely influenced by the fact that I was raised bilingually and with two cultures.

I often faced the challenge of not really knowing where I belonged too and feeling like an outsider. It was later during my time as a university student that I got to know a lot more people who were in the same or similar situation, and I also learned to fully see my multicultural background as an amazing privilege - you literally get to experience the best of both worlds!

“You will have to work twice as hard to get half as far." This is a sentence I grew up with and I know for a fact that I'm not the only child of immigrants that was told this exact sentence. I remember my childhood in a conflicting ways:

Raised by my single Moroccan mom, who left Morocco as a 21 year old young woman, and my older sister, I never really realized that I was different and grew up carefree. That changed when I entered elementary school. I remember so many memories of where my teachers believed I wasn’t “Worthy” enough and shouldn’t visit the Gymnasium although I was best in class.

This judgement went so far that I began hating myself and my heritage when I became a teenager. I refused to speak Arabic and did not want anyone to visit our home, since I lived in a neighbourhood with a high percentage of people with Arab heritage. I was ashamed and wholeheartedly believed I needed to be as “German” as possible to be successful.. back then I didn’t even know how to define what “being German” looks like.

This identity crisis is something you will most likely know as well, because today I know that I’m not alone. Today I do not only accept my heritage but I embrace it simultaneously to what I define as me being German.

I still face challenges today like not being taken seriously, being continuously underestimated just to be told that my German is “amazing” when I participate in panel discussions and finally being told I’m too loud, when demanding change.

These are all challenges most children with a migration history know well, the only addition in my case is that I wasn’t only raised by a single mom but I grew up with an absent Iraqi father, who’s (politically known) last name closed many doors for me (and also for him).

Born in Germany, a child of Turkish parents, I was raised Turkish at home, German at school, globally after my high school graduation. Rather than linguistic and cultural challenges as have been faced by my grandparents or parents, the challenge for me was the question of belonging.

During my childhood, I experienced the rapid raise of China. The first time I was exposed to another culture was the age of 16, when I lived one year in a village of 60 people in former Easter Germany. Naturally, lots of misunderstandings and prejudiced occurred at that little German village. Later, i finished my undergrad in New York and Masters in Munich. I am a first generation immigrant, and obviously, a lot of challenges came with it. In the early years, a lot of it had to do with the clash of cultures, overcoming language barriers and homesickness. During college, it transcended into finding my self-identity and who I am. Right now, during my career, the focus is more about finding my voice, preserving my authenticity.

Metaphorically, I have 3 hearts beating in my body and soul: My mother being Chinese (from Shanghai) and my father being half German, half Syrian. The story behind how they both met is the most intriguing: they were both in Germany learning the language at Goethe Institute - my dad as he was having an identity crisis and wanted to learn German next to Arabic so he could talk to his German side of the family. My mother being a very "unconvential Chinese" for her generation vehemently refusing to marry one of the Chinese men introduced to her by my Grandfather.

In his picture, no other man of another nation shall have the hand of his first daughter. The pressure was so strong, my Mum decided to run away and met and fell in love with my father in Germany.

I grew up going to the Mosque with my father and family members of his family, to the Church with family members of my Mum (excluding my Grandfather as he never accepted me). Though born in Germany, I was raised in Hong Kong, but came to Germany with my Mum without being able to speak German - I first had to learn the language and the culture, fueling my identity crisis even more - at first never mentioning my family background, being afraid of exclusion.

Now, at 30 years of age, I happily tell everyone my story and stand to my multiple cultural background with all it's beauties and difficulties.

Two hearts: I call myself Germoraqui because there are three hearts beating inside of me. I was born and raised in Germany (Germ :de:) My mom is Moroccan (mor :flagge-ma:) and my baba is Iraqi (aqui :flagge-iq:). You can imagine the kind of identity crisis I’ve had to deal with as a youngster.

I was raised as the oldest daughter of Turkish immigrants. Even though my parents have been living in Germany since their youth, they never had the chance to go and graduate from a German school. Their job was to earn money to enable their children to do what they never could. Being the first one, my father always dreamed of his little girl graduating from college someday. He couldn’t help me with my homework but he was supporting me mentally every day in my life. He knew nothing about the periodic table but worked overtime shifts to afford toys for me and my 3 siblings.

Growing up I’ve never realized how much my parents did for us. But on the contrary: I was mad at them for raising me in Germany. The cultural differences started to gnaw on my self esteem. I gave my best to make my parents proud, to make myself proud but I would never fit into the picture. I would never think or behave as the others, I would never be like the others. I used to live in a small town where not many migrants lived so I always felt different. I tried to assimilate. But it wouldn’t work. I was always torn between two cultures, identified myself as a broken, hybrid character. Only as I began to study and matured I could finally find my true identity and accept myself as a person with two backgrounds. Now I am able to see the bigger picture and how precious and valuable my cultural diversity, my 2 hearts are. And thus I thank my parents every day for what they have done for me.

The first language I learnt to speak & read was Russian, only when I started to go to the Kinder garden I came in contact with the German language. I was always told off when I would be speaking Russian to my friend Viktor. Nowadays it's the other way around, my mum is always telling me off for not speaking Russian to her, but rather German. It felt like, when growing up, you had to hide that something was different. Hide the accent, hide the language, hide the culture.. but there was no way of hiding the name. Today I can accept that there are two cultures combined in me. But every now and then there are awkward questions after hearing the name: "And where are you really from?", "Your German is really good", etc.

During my childhood I experienced everyday-racism. My classmates made fun of me, the teachers didn't intervene and I grew with the perception that I will always be different. At first it was about my appearance. They called me "chinky eyes". Later they confronted me with "eating cats and dogs" and political issues, where they gave me no room to speak up my mind. One of the biggest challenges I faced was when I realized how my surroundings made me lose my voice. I was disinterested in politics and history, I felt misunderstood. I had identity issues - I didn't know where I belonged. My parents were the first ones and they had the opportunity to go abroad for economical reasons.

I was born in Iran and came to Germany together with my parents and two older sisters when I was 5 years old. We came to Germany as refugees so when thinking about my childhood I mainly think about the pain that my parents went through and the hard times we as a whole family went through.

Most of the struggles we faced were financial matters, the feeling of not belonging and being different as well as insecurities about whether we can stay in Germany. For 10 years our family didn’t have a German nor an Iranian passport so we always had to stay in that small village the authorities had placed us. For me the hardest challenge was however to see how my parents would be treated. I remember at some point the government didn’t give us financial aid in terms of cash but they gave us a piece of paper saying „this is for socially disadvantaged people. You are only allowed to buy groceries.“ I always caught how my father would feel ashamed to go to the grocery market because he felt like his identity was taken away.

Watching things like this in my childhood gave me the fearless energy to work hard for the future of my parents and my family.

Always seeking to belong somewhere.” Due to the civil war in Albania, we were forced to leave everything my family had built to seek safety. I was 6 at the time and had to be separated from my parents to reach EU, as we could not get visas as a whole family.

We did find safety, but we were not welcome. Got placed in immigrant neighborhoods, not allowed to work. Then came the constant terrifying fear of being sent back. Asylum got rejected, moved to Norway. Same experience, different country. Outsider. Immigrant. Norway did not keep us either. Got sent back again with 0 money in our bank accounts. Expected to feel welcome in Albania, but I was no longer really much of an Albanian. I had spent 15 years on a foreign country and now I had to catch up on 15 years of school material to be able to get educated.

But we stuck together as a family. Crazy corruption, toxic mentality against girls, poverty did not stop me from studying. Eventually I applied to come to Germany. Tried every program until I found the way. Worked as a waitress, tutor, call center agent. Got bullied for my bad German in university. Yet that didn’t stop me from daring to speak german. I got so good that even my German neighbors were complimenting me on my German, until I realized that it is not much of a compliment. I quit my job, started my own thing with incredible people, yet many people still try to intimidate me by telling me that it is hard to get successful since I do not have connections or anything else. I am here to prove that you can have had a crazy childhood, be poor, risk your life, barely make it to study, come to a country completely alone with no help and still make it.

My grandfather (paternal) was the typical guest worker from Turkey and thus the first ever of our family to travel outside Turkey. His goal was actually only a small time to earn money in Germany and then return back to Turkey. But it came differently and has recognized that he can offer a quite better future, education and security to his children in Germany, than in central Turkey. So he packed up his wife and children (my father and 3 aunts) and emigrated to Germany. My father completed his education here and met my mother in Turkey and decided with her that they wanted to start their family in Germany. The rest of the family (grandparents and aunts) immigrated back to Turkey. My childhood and especially my school years were always marked by the sentence of my parents: "You always have to be better, faster and more diligent than the others (Germans), because you are a foreigner."

This sentence was burned into my brain and I drew my motivation from it even in the worst times. I am proud to say that I am the first in our family to graduate from high school with a bachelor's degree and soon to graduate with a master's degree. I feel torn between two worlds - Turkish background and life in Germany. My mother doesn't really speak German and my Turkish is unfortunately disappearing more and more. I dream of a world where we compete on who helps and supports society the most and everyone has equal opportunities and open doors in front of them.

I grew up in Hamburg as the youngest son of three children. My father did hard physical work in a factory and my mother worked as a cleaner. My father was the first in our family to come to Germany as a guest worker at the age of 25 and worked in the same factory until he retired. 10 years later my mother moved in.

Childhood was marked by financial insecurity. We couldn't afford many leisure activities, not to mention homework help. There was also a lack of strong role models in my life. I didn't know what I wanted to do for a job until I graduated from high school. I couldn't really talk to anyone about it either. My brothers didn't study at a university, and my parents only attended secondary school. I couldn't talk to anyone about my plans to study.

I was always diligent in school and had good grades, but never worked towards a concrete goal, for example to study medicine. I just liked the school and the environment. Soon I started to give free tutoring to my friends, because I saw that they lived in similar family and financial conditions. It was difficult for me in high school to be the only migrant with a strange sounding name in the class. That was when I realized the most that I was different. It was very difficult for me to be seen as a German in Tunisia and as a Tunisian in Germany.The lack of a sense of belonging also led to a lack of self-confidence in my own performanc

Unfortunately, my childhood was full of obstacles. Besides having a recommendation for the Gymnasium (German Highschool) my teachers always told me to better change to a Real- or Hauptschule. During my school time I changed schools three times. At least once it was because of clear indications against my immigration background. Fortunately, the school's liaison teacher drew our attention to this fact, besides other comments from teachers towards me like “what is it with this little Turkish kid?”. My parents being from Iran, this comment showed us that everyone was clearly just “the same” in their eyes.

I was mostly one of the few school kids with an immigration background - especially from the Middle East. Thanks to my parents and their immense efforts of talking with the school directors and always teaching me that I am not “different” than others, I gained enough confidence during my last years of school to successfully complete my degree and start studying. My parents themselves are from Iran. They grew up in Tehran and Mashad. During the 1979 islamic revolution in Iran my parents stayed in Germany (bc of political reasons) and thus enabled me and my brother the life we have now (with all the possibilities and obstacles).

I was born in 1989 in Dresden. My Syrian father was a doctoral candidate, who was given the chance to study abroad in the former GDR. He met my mother, who is the daughter of a Greek refugee, during their studies. Together they decided to leave the GDR and emigrate to Syria right after I was born. The next 4 years we spent in Damaskus and I didn’t know anything about my German roots. But when the Berlin Wall came down, my father was approached to move back to Germany and help to build up the economy. So, me, my two siblings and my parents became Germans the second time. I spend most of my life in Dresden and my holidays in Syria. Only a few times we visited our family in Greece.

I felt like a German, but due to the fact that Eastern Germany had never experienced migration politics, I was always „the foreigner“. I remember that there were only a few Volga Germans in my grade level in school - although we were around 180 kids. I wouldn't say that I had disadvantages because of my background, but I was definitely treated differently. I experienced a lot of xenophobia and racism and at the same time solidarity and integration. Being "different" spurred me on to get involved everywhere and build relationships. I am very proud of what I achieved at a young age. And I am grateful for the experience that I was able to make precisely because of my background.

My parents flew from Gaza (Palestine) at the age of 18 and 22 to Stuttgart (Germany) in order to create a better life with more opportunities for their family, me and my 3 younger siblings. My mother was 19 years old when I was born in Stuttgart and my father was working hard next to his studies to build up something. I was one of the only kids in school with a migration background. Due to the fact my mother could and did only speak arabic at home, I had difficulties later learning German in kindergarden and school. Hard lessons in life as a German with a migration background taught me to always work harder than the others to get the same results. Moreover, I haven't always had the same opportunities as other friends or kids in school, because we haven't had enough money or connections to do the same. However in general I am really grateful that my parents came to Germany and gave us the opportunities to get proper education and teach us that nothing in life is for granted.

My heritage is much connected to colonialism and ww2. my grandma (100% indonesian) was left pregnant cause of racist parents reason from my real granddad. my mum then was raised in holland by her "dad" which she only found out early 20ties that he is not. my fathers side is 50% slesia farm people fleeing and on the move meeting a berlin grandfather and then the whole family coming to munich. as child it was quite weird being in germany since my mum always was quite anti-german (all nazis etc.) and my granddad was a real nazi (young, scientist for the nazis). so at the age of 8 i wanted to visit the KZ in dachau and i always understood that i am different. i was "lucky" though that i didn't look different and if kids heard indonesia they didn't make jokes since they just didn't know what it is. out of all this melange my family was always active in the protestant church, amnesty international and on own initiative (i basically grew up in the 80ties meeting lots of asylum seekers, guarding the kids etc). both my parents have a lifelong history of helping other (my dad is dead now but my mum still teaches languages incl. migrant kids and mums etc. from troubled families. so i still sometimes struggle with my identity, my cultural heritage and to see esp. white, male privilege happening every day.

In the 1970's, my parents emigrated from former Yugoslavia to Germany in order to escape poverty. They have worked their whole life in production, often in three shifts. My parents were not able to help me in school or give advice for the academic path I was striving for as they didn't have access to higher education. It was rather the other way round: Being not even a juvenile yet, I helped my parents fill out forms for authorities, such as the tax office.

I faced challenges because I have always been considered a foreigner, even though I was born in Germany. This label has always been linked to the assumption that I'm probably also not well-educated. I faced challenges because I had no academics in my family telling me to quit that job as a waiter during university and to get a working student job instead because it will be important for the entry into professional life.

My immigration background was characterized by being stuck between two cultures: the german (outside of my home) and turkish / muslim (inside my home). For me it was challenging to cope with both the german language and traditions (to understand as a kid why christmas, pork or alcohol is not allowed for me) ans the turkish / muslim language and traditions such as going to the koran school for 5 years and learning about my religion (on the weekends) while being in a predominantly christ background (in the week). The first one migrating was my grandfather back in the late 60s to the city of rüsselsheim in hessen because at that time the car manufacturer opel offered assembly line jobs to the migrants, which came from asia to europe at that time. One story which he told me was because his place where he lived (with several other man) was 40 mins away from the opel factory and he was afraid that the would be late to his first shifts, which would get him fired, he slept on a bench in the nearby woods for 2 weeks and showered at a nearby asylum home and only ate at the factory, which at that time they offered free lunch for all the workers in the in-house canteen. From him I learned attributes like endurance, discipline, persistence and motivation in general to focus on your dreams and just work towards your goals.

My father is an African-American ex-military man who met my mother in Germany. I was born in the US, but grew up in a small town in Germany. Fitting in, or rather finding myself with all the foreign imagery projected on me without a peer-group was complicated and is an ongoing project. It has been trying at times, but also enriching. I also think this 2-heartedness makes you open and helps you see life from different perspectives and have an authentic understanding of the different foundations on which people live their lives.

My parents, my brother and I were one of the first from our family to immigrate. We came to Germany as so-called "Kontingenzflüchtlinge" for economic reasons. This is because then, Jewish people had the chance to move to Germany. Language was less of a problem for me as it was for my parents and I adapted it quickly. The toughest challenge for me was, and still is, the problem of personal identity and belonging.

My parents came to Germany during the war in former Jugoslawia. Even though being born and raised here, I soon realized that I was born between two countries and ultimately two mentalities. For me this means the urge to integrate into German society without neglecting my parents cultural background. A challenge I have not figured out yet and assume that will accompany me my whole life.

When I was little, my parents left everything behind and moved from Ukraine to Germany. Growing up in refugee housing and seeing my parents start from scratch. These experiences are my anchor and inner drive.

It took me some time to realize how blessed I’m to have 2hearts. Many of you probably know this feeling... whenever I visited Ukraine I was “the German kid” but over here I was the “Ausländer” from Ukraine. Ironically, I had to leave Germany and live 6 years in Philadelphia to learn to be proud of my 2 hearts.

Both of my parents were born and raised in Afghanistan. They had to leave their home country due the still ongoing civil war. In the 1990s, they immigrated to Germany where my sister and I were born (Berlin/Hamburg). I had a great childhood, my parents were able to offer me most of the opportunities and privileges that German children enjoyed. The main challenge of my childhood consisted in a lack of identification/cultural belonging. It took me many years to realize that my cultural background/duality is a great gift and strength, which is also the reason why I am highly motivated to join your initiative.

(...) I think my challenges were to accept that I am different and to be very proud of that, I see it as a total enrichment, I am as German as I am Japanese. Finding your identity is a struggle in every person’s life but finding your identity within several cultures and being accepted is challenging in a different way. And I am glad that growing up like that taught me to be very open and curious with other cultures and mixed backgrounds.

My mother came to Germany with my father when I was born. I grew up between two very different cultures trying to grasp why I was different from other kids in my childhood in Germany. When I moved to Spain at the age of 10 I had to completely rewire my cultural understanding from a German to a Spanish perspective. This has helped me to be open towards and curious about new cultures and has probably also influenced why I have lived in 6 different countries by the age of 24.

(...) So, I dropped out of my studies in Egypt, moved to Germany, learnt German and then joined a Germany university. Honestly, my main challenge here as a first generation immigrant was getting used to what is known here as „Sozialkälte“. I still remember trying to get along with other students during the orientation week and being surprised by some of the reactions. Also, getting used to the fact that many things that could be considered „rude“ in other cultures are seen differently here.

However, after 6 years here now I think I managed to adjust myself to the new culture, formed what I hope would be life long friendships and unexpectedly while writing these words I just noticed that I actually do not know how „adult life“ is except here in Germany. Here is the place where I signed my first contracts, got my first job, became independent, all things which I have never done back home :‘) so in a sense life here made me who I am.

I grew up in a loving single mother household with two incredible siblings in a very frustrating and depressing German suburb with nor relatable role models of color and couldn't wait to leave this city. My mother is German, my dad is from Tschad, he studied in Belgium and achieved his PhD in Germany where my parents met at the university.

My parents migrated to Germany in the end-60s, mostly for economic reasons and to escape their conservative and abusive families. I was raised as “Gastarbeiterkind” in a small Germany city during the late 70 and 80s. I grew up in a challenging environment with parents who were hard-working but were not very educated and didn’t speak the local language very well. I had to balance the cultural clashes at home with the clashes of the outside world, and grew up with a confused and diffuse set of values and beliefs. In addition there was a strong pressure to integrate into the German society and to outperform everyone and everything in order to prove the notions people had about my background (and gender) wrong.