In 1988 and 1989 there were already open... well you couldn’t call them ‘discussions’,
but I could sense that our German colleagues, who also realized that
their jobs were threatened, they were already starting to say:
“What are you still doing here? Soon we will have a united Germany
“so you can go back home now.”
At the time I realized that we were simply fair game for abuse.
In public I was ashamed of being Vietnamese.
And then I also noticed the difficulties and tough conditions
that my fellow countrymen were suffering.
Suddenly you’re no longer welcome
and you’re somehow dirty and a blight in the eyes of the citizens.
You are no longer welcome, should leave, disappear.
They came into our workplace and said:
“Look here you pig, go back to Mozambique.
“You don’t belong here.”
Lots of them came up to us at the firm: “You don’t belong here.
“The GDR is over, now things are different, you have to leave.
“We don’t want foreigners here.”
I think no one knew what options we had.
The GDR was finished, we had no more work
and if you wanted to stay, you had to fend for yourself.