CCB Magazine

Diar Khal (photo) and his brothers Al and Joudi Khal had an idea: they launched the NewStarters platform to facilitate the integration of refugees in Germany - and were awarded the 2024 Culture and Creativity Pilot Prize for their efforts. How does the platform work? 
 

INTERVIEW  Boris Messing

CCB Magazin:Hello Diar and Al, together with your brother Joudi, you launched the NewStarters platform to facilitate the long-term integration of refugees in Germany. You have now been awarded the Kreativpilotenpreis 2024 for your efforts. What has changed for you as a result.

Diar Khal: It was a big step for us to have been affected by displacement ourselves and now have the opportunity to help others and pave the rocky road to integration. We have received very good feedback for our idea and now see it as our responsibility to expand our services to other migrant groups, i.e. beyond the Kurdish, Syrian or Arabic community. For example, we have received many inquiries from Ukraine - we also want to help them integrate better. 

Al Khal:We only recently received the award, so the attention is still limited. But our network has expanded considerably. We met potential partners at the award ceremony in December and held talks with local politicians who are interested in our platform. 

Our platform is a navigator that creates an individual roadmap on how to deal with the authorities, language courses and job applications

CCB Magazin:Flight is always associated with hardship. What are the most pressing problems that people face after arriving in Germany? What can you help them with and where are the limits of what is possible?

Al Khal: With our idea for the NewStarters platform, we have been working intensively on this topic for three years and have identified the following core problems after talking to hundreds of people: Disinformation and ignorance of the German system, information overload and language barriers. Disinformation in particular is a major problem. For example, we looked after a woman who said she had been waiting two years for her training to be recognized. But when she found a job, her employer told her that she didn't need recognition at all and could have started working straight away. So she had wasted two years on misinformation. We want to tackle problems like this. We can help 80 percent of refugees. But unfortunately, we can't help people who are traumatized or have serious physical injuries, that's where we reach our limits.

CCB Magazin:On your platform, you offer support for the central pillars of modern life: Finding a job, insurance, dealing with authorities, educational opportunities, etc. How does your platform work in detail? 

Diar Khal: First of all, I have to say that the NewsStarters platform as it exists now will be replaced by a different, improved model in the future. Initially, our idea was to map the different phases of the integration process. That's why we divided the platform into the current three areas 'Offer and Search', 'Social' and 'Make it in Germany'. Each of these areas reflects a part of the integration process. 

Al Khal: For the past eight months, we have been developing software where we want to accompany people even more directly from the first point of integration to the end. We call this software solution Navigator or guided integration. Using a form - available in several languages - the refugees are asked questions and their answers are used to determine their goals and needs. For example: What do I want to do in Germany - study, complete an apprenticeship, find a job? The navigator uses the answers to draw up an individual roadmap of how to get to where you want to go, what it will take and approximately how much time it will take. This includes visits to the authorities, language courses, job applications, etc. We want to design the survey using a chatbot or avatar, for which we will also use machine learning to some extent. You can then have several conversations with the avatar and explain your problems and goals to it. The avatar learns from the data and improves its answers. 

CCB Magazin:So that means that NewStarters acts as an intermediary between authorities, employers and language course providers?

Diar Khal: Exactly. The Navigator will be connected to the authorities, such as the employment agency or job center, via an interface. This will enable the authorities to process requests more quickly and directly. The same applies to finding jobs or language courses.

CCB Magazin:Do you have figures on how many people you have already helped through your platform?

Al Khal:So far, we have reached almost a thousand people with the old, current platform and the newly developed Navigator, which is currently in the beta phase. Unfortunately, our Navigator is still prone to bugs, which is why only test users are currently using it. Once the bugs have been fixed, we will launch the new platform. 

CCB Magazin:Integrating people is a complex task that largely takes place in the municipalities. Do you already work with them? Wouldn't they be natural allies for you?

Al Khal: In theory, yes. I was recently invited by the Chancellery to a two-day meeting in Schwerin to discuss the digitalization of local government. However, it was almost exclusively about promoting digital networking within administrations, but not about finding digital solutions from administrations to people. This is exactly what we offer. However, local authorities do not yet dare to try out such solutions. 

CCB Magazin:NewStarters is financed by the placement of skilled workers, for which the beneficiary companies pay a fee. You would think that this would be a no-brainer in view of the shortage of skilled workers. Is that the case?

Al Khal: Many refugees come to Germany with training or a degree, and many are even overqualified for the jobs they are offered. Unfortunately, however, many companies are too demanding and not open to new cultures. Refugees are often treated as second-class citizens. 

Diar Khal: There is always talk of clever minds and helping hands that are needed, but the people, the refugees, are often not understood. And as long as they are not understood, they don't feel comfortable. No matter how great the need for labor or skilled workers is, you have to understand these people and approach them. But companies don't do that. They have prejudices and are not prepared to make any concessions. 

CCB Magazin:According to UNHCR's Mid-Year Trend Report, 122.6 million people worldwide were displaced in June 2024. In Germany alone, there were 2.7 million refugees and asylum seekers in the same year. You yourself fled to Germany ten years ago. How did you experience this time?

Al Khal:We are Kurds from the north of Syria. When the civil war was raging, we were without electricity and water for a week. That shaped our lives and we had to learn to fight for it. It was very hard for us to have to leave the country. My father was a doctor, so we had a good standard of living, even though we suffered a lot of discrimination as Kurds. Until the fall of the Assad regime, I never really saw myself as Syrian, but now I feel Syrian for the first time. We first fled to Turkey and then two years later to Germany, where I continued and completed my business studies.

Diar Khal: I was thirteen when we came to Turkey and then to Stuttgart in 2014. I had to repeat my secondary school leaving certificate for the third time and later did my vocational diploma so that I could train as an IT specialist and study computer science.

CCB Magazin:What demands do you have for politicians? What needs to change in terms of better integration?

Al Khal: We don't want money, but we demand more courage. The reality and the regulations in terms of integration often don't match up. We are often asked why we founded our company in the form of a business company and not as a non-profit limited company. Quite simply, if you are a non-profit organization, you are often funded by grants or tenders. But we don't want to be part of the system, we want to change the system. Impact is more important to us than money.

CCB Magazin:You won the Kreativpilotenpreis. But what does your work actually have to do with the creative industries?

Al Khal: The core problems that I mentioned above and that we have identified in practice as central to helping people integrate - solving them and bringing them together in one platform requires creativity. With our digital solution, local authorities will be able to do away with many advice centers. Our solution is faster and more efficient than the previous, overly regulated approach. 

Diar Khal: Our approach to creativity is that we as a team are radical new thinkers. We want to create a solution that is economically profitable and socially sustainable.

CCB Magazin:What are your long-term plans with NewStarters? 

Al Khal:We want to put the Navigator at the center of our service, which would make the current platform obsolete. But as long as our product is not yet ready, the old platform will remain and you can continue to use it. Everything will then be implemented in the Navigator. In the long term, we would like to build a complete ecosystem for all questions and problems relating to sustainable integration. There is still a long way to go until then.