There is a side to the Ausländerbeirat that, until now, has not been mentioned much on this site.

I have written about the committee meetings often enough, but someone who has hardly been mentioned in those articles is Peter Gröbler, the “Geschäftsführer” of the Ausländerbeirat.  He is the person who works in the town hall and looks after the day-to-day business as opposed to the elected members who meet every few weeks to discuss things like integration.

Peter Gröbler is the person that foreigners in the town can go to when they need help when they have problem making their way through the bureaucracy of the German state, if they have a problem getting a residence permit, or a work permit, need help applying for benefits, or – worst case – are being threatened with expulsion from the country. [Read more…]