Karlsruhe Dialogues 2009

Ibraimo Alberto

Speaker 

 

Ibraimo Alberto was born in 1963 in Chimoio/Mozambique but by now obtained the German citizenship. In the year 1981 he was sent to East Berlin by an intergovernmental agreement to study sports. His plan was to return to his homeland afterwards. But finally he did not have the opportunity to study at University, instead, he first did an apprenticeship as a butcher in the German Democratic Republic (DDR). He had worked in his trained profession for a few years and then acted as a translator and group leader for trainees from Mozambique at the VEB Glaswerk Stralau in Berlin.

After the German reunification, Alberto did an apprenticeship to be a social worker and since then has been occupied as such in different institutions. In the year 1994, Alberto joined the working team of the commissioners for migration in the administrative district Uckermark in the northeast of Germany.

Since 2006, he is honorary commissioner for foreign people at the town Schwedt and since November 2007 he leads the Project “Rassismus im öffentlichen Raum. Historische Ursachen und die Entwicklung von Gegenstrategien” (Racism in the Public. Historical Reasons and the Development of Strategies Against It).

Alberto works vehemently against racism and in doing so he has suffered from right-wing extremist hostilities several times. As commissioner for foreign people he is concerned with the interests of immigrants and represents them in the local authority. Furthermore, he participates in networks against right-wing extremism and xenophobia. His great hobby is boxing, which he is addicted to since 1981. His successes in boxing and his social work have made him very famous in Schwedt over the past years. In the year 2008 he received the prize “Botschafter für Demokratie und Toleranz” (Ambassador for Democracy and Tolerance) by the Minister of the Interior Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble and the Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries. This prize is an award of the Bündnis für Demokratie und Toleranz – gegen Extresmismus und Gewalt (Confederation for Democracy and Tolerance – Against Extremism and Violence), founded by the Federal Government in 2000.

ZAK asked Mr. Ibraimo Alberto to answer the following question:

What Can Citizens do Against Right-Wing Extremism? 

"The citizens of our democratic country can be very proud to live in a state that has put human dignity first in its Basic Law. In order to make the dignity of man be felt in everyday life, everybody is obligated to live in accordance with this humanistic maxim and to strengthen the democratic core values every day. What is more, everyone should actively stand up against any form of right-wing extremism, xenophobia, ignorance, and exaggerated nationalism."