From the DW:
“Coronavirus: Foreign students
on online courses are denied visas to Germany”
Foreign students coming to
Germany this semester whose courses are online only will not be eligible for
visas because of the pandemic, the government has confirmed. But there is no
cause for alarm for most students. More than 80,000 foreign students in Germany
had left the country by April, with lecture halls and libraries closed because
of the coronavirus lockdown. As travel restrictions and domestic rules were
slowly eased, many hoped things would return to normal after the summer. But an
announcement from the German government has cast fresh doubt on students' visa
status. Students from outside the
European Union are now required to receive a "certificate of
presence" from their German university to be able to apply for a visa. But
the pandemic means that some courses are moving their studies entirely online. "Foreign students who can prove that
their studies cannot be carried out entirely from abroad, for example, due to
compulsory attendance, can enter the country to begin their studies," a
statement from Education Minister Anja Karliczek reads. "But the entry for
online or distance learners will not be allowed." The announcement comes around two months
before the start of so-called winter semesters in Germany.
Echoing Trump The announcement drew comparisons to US
President Donald Trump's short-lived plan to do the same for online learners in
the US. Trump's government made a speedy U-turn in July after the plan was met
by widespread outrage. When Trump
backtracked, Germany's Education Minister Karliczek greeted the decision
warmly. "Education and research
survive because of exchange, especially international exchanges. That is also
true in times of a pandemic," she said in July. Critics say Karliczek is now denying foreign
students in Germany this opportunity to experience an exchange. "If you
are admitted to a college in Germany, they should give you a visa," said
Kumar Ashish of the Federal Union of International Students in Germany.
"It is the same in the US — it is the right of the student, if they have
received their visa, that no-one can deny it to them." He explained that a
visa should still be possible even under further coronavirus travel
restrictions.
'A bureaucratic hurdle' "This is another bureaucratic hurdle
[for foreign students]," said Greens member of the German parliament Kai
Gehring, at whose request the information was shared. "It has not been taken into account that
a student exchange is more than going to lectures and seminars," Gehring
said. "It is also about campus life and learning about Germany's culture
and society." Yann Werner Prell,
who works with South Korean students in Germany, pointed out other failings of
the decision. "Because of big
time-differences, taking part in online lessons from abroad is difficult, as is
working together with other students," he wrote on Twitter. "Students
also work with literature from libraries that can't lend out books
abroad." Difficulties would also be
experienced by teaching staff. Maha El Hissy, a teacher of German as a foreign
language at a Munich university, wrote on Twitter: "When foreign students
come to Germany, it is also about the face-to-face exchange and dialogue in
both directions. What a shame, Germany, that your doors will remain
locked."
No cause for alarm The number of people affected by the rules
remains unclear, partly because of the unknown development of the pandemic. But
as things stand, the number of face-to-face courses which have become
only-online courses is very small, according to Michael Flacke of the German
Academic Exchange Service. "For
the winter semester, German universities are planning a mix of online and
physical classes, and for this 'mix' foreign students from outside the EU are
allowed to come to Germany," Flacke explained. Most courses are not planning to move entirely
online, Flacke said. Attendees of courses that were always entirely online from
outside the EU were never eligible for student visas. "Of course you can already study in a
German university or college online from abroad — that works really well in
Germany — but at the moment for a purely online course in Germany, no visa is
normally provided," he pointed out. For those students currently enrolled in a
course which is a mix of online and physical events, Flacke advises making sure
you are in possession of a "certificate of attendance" as soon as
possible. But with fresh lockdowns and
travel restrictions still a very real threat on the horizon, Flacke is among
those who advise caution for international students planning to come to Germany
this October.
^ When Trump started expanding
the barrier wall on the US-Mexico border in 2017 (the first barrier wall was
built between 1909-1911 by Taft expanded in the early 1940s by FDR, expanded by
George H. W. Bush in the early 1990s, expanded by Clinton in 1996 and expanded
under George W. Bush in 2006) there was already 644 miles of barrier wall
(including vehicle and pedestrian barriers.) The European Union went crazy in
condemning the barrier wall between the US and Mexico. That is despite the fact
that many EU countries already had barrier walls on their borders which still
exist today. Six of those barrier walls are internal borders between one EU
country and another EU country (that would be like New York State building a
barrier wall with New Jersey.)
Here are the current barrier
walls between EU and EU countries and EU and non-EU countries:
Austria (EU) – Italy (EU) since
2015
Austria (EU) – Slovenia (EU)
since 2015
Bulgaria (EU) – Turkey since 2014
Ceuta, Spain (EU) – Morocco since
2001
Cyprus (EU) – Turkish Northern Cyprus
(technically considered EU) since 1964
Denmark (EU) – Germany (EU) since
2019 (called a boar fence)
Estonia (EU) – Russia since 2015
Greece (EU) – Turkey since 2012
Greece (EU) – North Macedonia
since 2015
Melilla, Spain (EU) – Morocco since
1998
Hungary (EU) – Serbia since 2015
Hungary (EU) – Croatia (EU) since
2015
Slovenia (EU) – Croatia (EU) since
2015
Then when Trump said he would
deny Student Visas to Foreigners whose University or College in the US was only
taught online the European Union went crazy again. Trump has since gone back on
that threat, but it seems the EU (which Germany is not only a part of, but the leader
of and whatever they say and do the other countries follow) is now going to do
the exact same thing. So I guess when people say the US should follow the EU’s
or Germany’s example in how to do things they shouldn’t then complain about
barrier walls or denied Visas. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with the
barrier wall or the possibility of denying Student Visas - I'm showing the
hypocritical stance of others. ^
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