James Hill (Psychology, 2011) started his educational career studying psychology as he was fascinated by people and their stories. Once he had graduated, after a year of travelling to expand his horizons, James used what he had learned during his time in University to pursue a career in television to release his creative potential. He had been interested in the world of filmmaking from a young age and the passion for it only grew as he continued through the university. James started off working on unpaid roles in the industry but through hard work and perseverance, he was eventually promoted to co-executive producer. James has directed and produced many of the shows that are enjoyed by audiences globally, The Masked Singer and America’s Got Talent to name a few. James has managed to reach extraordinary heights in his career and continues to work hard to deliver quality entertainment to people around the world.

Find out more about James below:

Can you tell me about your time at City?

I loved my time at City. I hated school and wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to go to university, however, I was passionate about psychology and was excited at the prospect of studying in London. During my three years at City, I enjoyed education for the first time in my life, started reading extracurricular psychology books suggested by professors who made me excited about learning. I loved being in that area of London and stayed there for years after graduating, which I don’t think I would have had the confidence to do if I hadn’t had the friends and familiarity of the area City University gave me. When I first started getting work-experience I stayed on friends’ couches from City and to this day we remain close.

What happened after you graduated?

After I graduated, I worked and travelled for a few years before starting a number of unpaid jobs in the TV industry. I slowly worked my way up from getting cups of tea and running errands to doing work on productions and eventually was able to start filming which was one of the main reasons I wanted to work in TV. I filmed, produced and directed on many different shows in the UK, Canada and US (America’s got talent, The Masked Singer, Gold Rush and Homestead rescue to name a few) before moving to the US, where I am currently a co-executive producer.

How did your interest for the television industry develop?

While I was growing up I had always messed around with my families old camcorder, making video’s with my friends and editing little movies by playing the camcorder through the TV and quickly pressing record and stop on a VHS player. This carried on and developed through uni and I was amazed and elated to discovered I was able to tell stories, either ones I had come up with, or through questions and a lens. On the rare occasions when I get frustrated at the industry or a particular job, I think what other career path might I have taken. However, I honestly can’t think of another field with the creativity and flexibility I have now that would have worked for me.

What has been the most rewarding experience in your career?

The most rewarding experience has been getting to travel and experience so many different ways of life. I often find myself in the midst of a busy day and taken aback at the ridiculous scenery around me. Just a few months ago I was filming in a helicopter in the Ruby Mountains and had to take a moment to appreciate that this is my job.

What has been the most challenging experience?

The biggest challenge is the combination of how competitive an industry TV is and the freelance nature of it. Right from the beginning, unless you know someone who can get started at an entry-level position, you have to work for free for months, sometimes longer, just to break in (which was my experience). Most jobs don’t last more than a couple weeks so there is no job security and no reason for anyone to promote you or invest time in you unless it directly benefits them in the short time you are with them. This means you are constantly toeing the line of being eager and expressing a willingness to learn, but also careful of not stepping above your station and not doing the job you were hired for.

Do you have any advice for anyone looking to follow in your footsteps?

Make sure you are passionate about a life making TV and movies. If you’re not sure, ask yourself are you willing to work for free at times? Are you willing to work 15hr+ days? To spend weeks, sometimes months, in a hotel or camped in the middle of nowhere? If all of this sounds like a small price to pay for a career out of an office, one that can take you all over the world, where you’re able to be creative from the moment you wake up to when you call it a wrap each day and to see that creativity collected and packaged into a show or film, then the answer is yes.

If that’s the case then my advice is to never stop being hungry, never stop looking for work. TV is a relationship-based industry. If you are good at your job, it is likely the next job will be due to a referral from your employer who recommended you to a friend. If you get lucky you can bounce around the same shows, or even the same show, season after season. However, if you are the type of person excited about a career in TV, then you are also the type of person where this can get boring quickly. It can be detrimental to your career. Start out hungry for work; contacting as many companies as you can and expressing how eager you are to work, then keep this hunger no matter how many years in you are, or what title you have in the credits.

Thank you to James for sharing his story!

You can follow James’s activities and find out more from his website.

Helen Lewis (Newspaper Journalism, 2005) was a part of an exceptionally talented year of graduates from City’s Journalism Department. Helen went on to follow her passion for Journalism immediately after graduating and was successful in securing a trainee position with Daily Mail. Although it was difficult to go through a series of placements around the country Helen’s talent was considerable and soon she found success as a Journalist.

Having written about feminism for nearly a decade, Helen has now addressed it in a more considered and substantial way in her first book Difficult Women: A history of Feminism in 11 Fights, now available for pre-order and releasing fully on Thursday 27th February. In the blog below you can get a glimpse of the difficulties and rewarding moments Helen experienced while writing the book as well as read of her starting years in City.

Can you tell me about your time at City?

It’s probably a bad reflection on my character that my most vivid memory of City is the horror of 9am shorthand classes, and therefore the inevitable rush hour interchange at London Bridge. It was a strong incentive to reach 100 words per minute as quickly as possible. My class included some great journalists, such as Alan White of Buzzfeed, Damon Wake of AFP, Sarah Weaver of the BBC and Devika Bhat, now at the Guardian. It’s weird to see their tweets and articles – Devika wrote an incredibly moving piece about miscarriage recently – and realise I’ve known them for more than a decade.

What happened after you graduated?

I got a place on the Daily Mail’s subbing trainee scheme, alongside another couple of people from the postgraduate course. That was reassuring as our training year involved a series of placements around the country, starting in the small village of Howden in Yorkshire. Going to City definitely helped me get that job – Linda Christmas, who ran the course at the time, was renowned as a talent-spotter, and so you came with a “pre-vetted” stamp – and to be prepared for a year living out of a suitcase.

Tell us about your most recent achievement?

I’ve just published my first book, Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights, with Jonathan Cape. It’s the result of nearly a decade of writing about feminism, and more than a year’s research into the specific women I have written about. After returning repeatedly to the subject in columns and features, it felt good to address it in a more considered, substantial way. The thread through it is the idea of “difficulty” – both the struggle to make social change, and the qualities you need to achieve it. As I write in the book, “most revolutionaries are not . . . nice”. The Suffragettes conducted an arson campaign. The “strikers in saris” of the 1970s picketed factories and were accused of fomenting civil unrest. I finish with the story of three older women in Derry who bought abortion drugs off the internet and essentially dared the government to imprison them. You don’t get change by asking politely.

Through your research for the book, what has been the most rewarding experience?

Meeting and talking to some of the forgotten icons of the Second Wave of feminism, from Erin Pizzey – founder of the first women’s refuge in Britain – to Maureen Colquhoun, the first openly lesbian MP at Westminster. These were tough, complicated women and trying to present their stories in all their complexity was quite an undertaking.

What has been the most challenging experience?

Trying to marshall so much information into a 350-page book was always going to be tricky. I haven’t written anything like a comprehensive history of feminism, and my own biases inevitably show through: it is easier to write about women who left behind memoirs or gave evidence to public inquiries. It’s easier to study the letters of middle and upper-class Suffragettes than someone like Annie Kenney, who left school at 11 to work in a mill. I’ve ended up with a very personal, imperfect, quirky history of feminism, and I hope people embrace that.

Do you have any advice for anyone looking to follow in your footsteps?

Write as much as you can. It’s too easy to get stage fright when writing because every sentence is not coming out like Shakespeare. But the initial draft is just a starting point. Writing a book meant paying much more attention to structure than you would for a column or feature, so I would advise anyone contemplating a book to sketch out the idea thoroughly first. You can stop for digressions along the way, but you need to know what your end-point is, or it risks being a pointless ramble.

Thank you to Helen for sharing her story!

Signed copies of Difficult Women are available from Waterstones!

Zoë Morris (Social Sciences – Psychology, 1998) carved out her career with precision and passion. During her time in City, Zoë maintained a focus on her future, balancing a job next to her studies to get the most out of her time. Understanding the importance of wellbeing, she made sure her schedule included enough activities to de-stress. After graduating, Zoë took up a graduate training programme with a brewery, which was hard work but taught her fantastic life and career skills, working in a male-dominated environment she learned how to make herself noticed and ensured her talents were recognised. Throughout the graduate programme, Zoë learned that her passion lied in working with people.

In 2000, armed with a new goal, a wealth of experience and fantastic skills, Zoë began working at Hays plc, a global recruitment agency, where she worked herself up to a directorial position. Then, harnessing her great potential, she joined Frank Recruitment Group in 2016 as Chief Operations Officer, later becoming President of the company.

Through her career, Zoë didn’t allow complications to deter her from succeeding and achieving her goal. She continued to push forward and remained determined to bring success to both herself and her team.

Find out more about Zoë and how her hard work allowed her to establish a successful career below:

Can you tell me about your time at City?
The most important lesson I learnt at City was the value of hard work and the importance of balance. Managing my studies with a 25-plus hour-a-week job taught me how to get the most out of life mixing studies, work, and relaxation, and also of course how to live independently, prioritise, and manage my finances.

Sometimes university can seem stressful so having the right balance in your life is important. For me, the joy of living in the heart of the capital city, combined with the sense of achievement from my studies, letting off steam at the gym alongside the support of the reliable network of my life-long friends that I made at City made it a memorable period of my life.

What happened after you graduated?
After graduating from City in 1998, I was hired for a two-year graduate training programme at the Belgian brewery company, Interbrew, later bought by the British multinational company Whitbread.

Most of my time was spent on the road meeting eight clients a day and left little time for mentoring and coaching. It was hard work and through this experience, I gained a confidence that enabled me to persevere in a predominantly male-dominated environment and successfully negotiate on behalf of the company.
The time alone on the road at Interbrew made me realise that what I really wanted from life was to work with people, and hence I left to pursue a career in recruitment. When I began working for Hays plc, I found working closely with people to find their dream job was so much more rewarding than working alone to sell a product.

Can you tell us more about how you established your career?
I began my career at Hays plc, starting out as a junior recruitment consultant and eventually worked my way up to the position of Director of the company’s flagship office in London. I was with Hays plc for the first 15 years of my career, and in 2016 I was given the opportunity to join Frank Recruitment Group as the Chief Operations Officer. Since then, I’ve become the company’s President. Today I oversee the organisation’s ongoing business and sales operations, which includes everything from exploring whitespace sales markets and territories to being actively involved in the direction of our employee training.

When I took my first few steps into the world of recruitment, I realised that a great deal of psychology applies not just to sales, but leadership in general. As a psychology graduate, it felt like a very natural fit for me from day one – I just fell in love with the industry. Finding and landing your dream job is a special achievement, so helping driven, talented people build and shape their careers and having a front-row seat to that experience is one of the most satisfying parts of my job.

What has been the most rewarding experience?
I think a lot of people believe that because recruitment is a very sales-driven industry, people who choose this line of work do it because they love the thrill of a deal. But for me, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing a candidate land their dream job and knowing that myself and my team were a part of that process – it’s that element that makes my job that little bit more special to me.

What has been the biggest challenge with regards to your career?
Working in recruitment, you come across challenges daily, as the industry operates entirely on short-term targets that can change suddenly without much warning. One of the biggest challenges both my team and I have faced was navigating the 2008 global financial crisis while attempting simultaneously to break into the highly competitive tech market. We not only survived the financial crisis but we came out stronger on the other side, entering the European market in 2009.

Do you have any advice for anyone looking to follow in your footsteps?

You need to get out there and forge your own opportunities instead of waiting for them to fall into your lap. You miss out on so much by waiting for the ‘right’ opportunity to come along – many of my achievements have come from creating my own opportunities. I would recommend carving out your own space in the world and mapping your own path to success, rather than following the paths of others.

I think that when you are just starting out, it is natural to want to get your bearings before committing to a long-term plan. Throughout your time at university and early on in your professional life, I would recommend focusing more on short-term goals and achievements rather than long-term planning. As you build up more experience, it will become easier for you to make long-term plans and set more ambitious career goals to keep you motivated.

Follow Zoë’s activities on her LinkedIn profile.

City alumni Adele Cutting née Kellett (Music, 1995) started her student career in a music course with the dream of being in sound post-production. At the time City offered one of the most advanced music courses in the country allowing Adele an opportunity to work in a recording studio and do technical modules which interested her the most. In addition to technical skills, Adele’s dedication allowed her to learn skills that would become hugely successful in her later career. From City, Adele moved on to the National Film and Television School. The connections and recommendations she acquired there scored her a job at EA (Electronic Arts), one of the largest games companies in the world, to work on cutscenes for one of their games. Through perseverance and hard work, Adele managed to go from having a temporary role at EA to becoming a Senior Audio Director and working on the Harry Potter franchise.

In 2011 EA Brightlight closed its doors, as part of a company-wide restructure. For Adele, this end of a chapter opened up a new opportunity – she started her own company Soundcuts Ltd to provide across a wide range of industries. In nine years she has been able to introduce junior talent into her team and offer a platform for young sound specialists to put their talents to use in incredible projects for TV, games and installations which have won her company several awards.

Find out more about Adele and how her hard work allowed her to create a successful and innovative business below:

Can you tell me about your time in City?

When I started at City, University of London, I knew I wanted to be in sound post-production. The University landscape was quite different then and there wasn’t a wide variety of courses available specifically to study that area as there are today. City was the best course for me, primarily because it had a recording studio and the recording tutors were employees of the BBC. The course also had other technical modules that really interested me but was balanced with the more traditional music subjects. I also really wanted to be in London, so my choice of City, was perfect for me.

I really enjoyed my time at City, I loved being in London, enjoyed the music course and liked mixing with people from other courses, one of my best friends today is a girl I met from the nursing course. The performance aspect – something I was anxious about – helped me in my current job with presentations and speaking at events. I loved being in the orchestras and ensembles, but I didn’t want to be the ‘soloist’, I much preferred to blend into the background.

You’re very busy, when you’re on the Music course, as not only have your academic work, but you also have to be involved in lots of instrumental groups and performances. I was also fortunate through an academic to find great work experience which ultimately enabled me to start working in an industry I love.

What happened after you graduated?

After graduation I decided to apply for a position in the National Film and Television School, they required letters confirming my work experience. So the experience I gained at City was invaluable, plus lots of other work experience I applied for myself during my university holidays.

As part of my course at the NFTS I started a work placement at Reelsound, a post-pro company based in Pinewood, and before even finishing my course the company offered me a contract – It was a great opportunity, so I managed to negotiate working to finish the course and start my first professional job.

Whilst at Reelsound, Electronic Arts (EA), contacted the film school to ask if anyone was interested in working on their cutscenes for one of their games, and the head of audio contacted me. I thought it was an interesting proposition, as I didn’t – at that time – know much about computer games, and once I’d visited the studio I thought it was a creative opportunity. So I accepted a short contract, then returned to films before EA offered me a full-time role. This was a pivotal time for games development. The PlayStation 1 was new, and new audio technology was being created to playback audio assets in-game. So being able to help shape this technology was incredibly exciting.

Every time a new project started a huge leap forward in technology was made. I started at EA as a Junior Sound Designer and worked my way up the ranks – eventually becoming Senior Audio Director working on the Harry Potter franchise. I really enjoyed my time at EA, it was a fabulous audio team and we won 2 BAFTA’s during this time.

How did your business come about?

The EA Brightlight studio finally closed its doors in 2011, after several waves of redundancies. I had always considered opening my own company but I had previously had a great position with job security. I understood audio but had a big learning curve ahead on what goes into managing your own business. I decided that this was the perfect time to give it a go.

In 2011 my company Soundcuts Ltd became official. It started off as just me, but as I gained more and more work I started growing the team, many of which were my colleagues during my time at EA. Although, as we’ve grown we’ve introduced new junior talent to the team. The team consists of less than 20 people but we have worked on some amazing projects like voice direction for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (UK/Athens), the music for a Netflix show Pinky Malinky and sound design and music editing for a James Bond cinematic installation in the Alps, plus involvement in various other games such as Quantum Break, The Room Franchise, Planet Zoo and some fabulous Indie titles.

One of the huge bonuses of owning my own business is that I get to build a team of people who are super talented and respect each other and create the companies identity. We’re a close-knit team, yet we also get to experience so many different companies and see different office cultures. Working across a variety of different formats (TV/Games/Installations) keeps the work fresh and brings the challenge of learning new pipelines and technology as each project is different. Plus, currently, we work remotely which is good for a work-life balance and was one of the key factors when starting the company with two small children.

What has been the most rewarding experience for you?

Everything has been so incredible to be honest, we’ve worked on some amazing projects and I have been able to meet fantastic people.

In 2017 we won the Develop Award for Audio Creative Outsourcing and have since won another two awards (Develop and a TIGA), which has given us some great validation for the work we are doing, all of which I’m incredibly proud of, it means so much when it’s a company you’ve started from scratch. Another was being named in the GIBiz ‘Top 100 Influential Women In Games’, which was a massive surprise.

Another brilliant experience was when Austin Wintory, an accomplished composer, had a ‘BAFTA – Conversations with Screen Composers’ event at the Royal Albert Hall and wished to do an interview with someone who understood interactive music. I was called and asked if I could host the interview. I was terrified and honoured at the same time. It was a completely new experience for me, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

What has been the most challenging experience for you?

Being a working Mum can be challenging! I’m very lucky to have a super supportive husband! When I started Soundcuts both my parents were seriously ill in hospital, my youngest had just started nursery (and was NOT enjoying it), and my eldest had just started primary school…So this was a very emotional time for me.

Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Work Experience – Make sure to get plenty of work experience as early as possible, that’s one of the main ones!

Network – Networking is not about thrusting your business card or showreel upon someone you’ve never met before. Actually, try to get to know the person and their work and show genuine interest in them and learn something from them.

No Ego – Teamwork is very important to me. We quite often work to tight deadlines and stress levels can be high. So it’s important that you’re working with people who you like and are professional and personable, no egos allowed!

Lastly, a lot of CVs look exactly the same, you should be determined to be different, go the extra mile.

To view further work Adele’s company has done check out their Souncuts Portfolio.

You will be able to contact and follow Adele on Twitter!

City’s alumni Volker Heinz (Law, 1988) joined the University in the late 80s, leaving Germany to pursue a law qualification in the UK, unperturbed by the fact that to pass a Law degree you must have an excellent understanding of the English language, Volker rose to the challenge and excelled. Volker has recalled his time in the UK with fond memories, having made life long friends with a few of his peers. After getting called to the bar, Volker remained in the UK for work for a few years before returning to Germany in light of its unification.

In 1965 Berlin, Volker met someone who helped people escape East-Berlin by digging tunnels under the Berlin Wall. Without hesitation, he offered his help and was eventually recruited to the operation. His autobiographical book The Price of Freedom details the events that led Volker help some sixty people escape East-Berlin and earned him the Federal Cross for Merit. Volker’s book is published in both German and English, the purchase list for the latter is available at the end of this blog.

Can you tell me a little about your education?

My father was an international engineer and was eager for me to follow in his footsteps. He had understood that English was the language of the future so, in 1962 when I was 18, he decided to send me to the UK to gain some practical experience from one of the largest engineering companies at the time, Babcock & Wilcox. He had managed to get this opportunity for me through his connections in the company.

I first went to Glasgow, Scotland where the company had one of its factories. It was my first trip to Great Britain and I loved it. I had never met so many different people from different corners of the world. It opened my eyes to a different world outside of what I had known.

After three months I moved on to Birmingham for a month and from there for another two months to London to finish gaining experience in the company’s headquarters.

After returning to Germany I studied mechanical engineering for a year but then decided that engineering was not something I was very keen on, so I decided to study Law instead. I worked as a Solicitor and Notary Public in Germany, having completed law school there. From my travels to England, however, I had become very interested in the English Legal System as it was so different from Germany’s.

In 1986 I decided to pursue a law qualification in the UK so I joined City University in autumn 1987. I had considered my English passable after the 6 months I had spent in the UK in my youth. Although having been warned that the language skills required for practising Law in Great Britain as a barrister are considerable, I chose to become a barrister since I had considerable litigation experience in Germany. I was called to the bar in November of 1989 after which I joined an American law firm in London for a few years.

What happened after you graduated?

I very much enjoyed my time working in London but decided, in view of Germany’s unification, to return to Germany in 1992, before eventually moving to Australia, following my wife, an Australian violinist.

I wasn’t entirely keen on the idea as I wasn’t sure what a German solicitor could do in Australia. Nevertheless, shortly after we moved to Germany I started to look into what type of work I’d be able to find in the island country. Originally I was told that with my German qualifications I’d have to go through the entire studying process so as to be admitted to practice law in Australia. All in all, it would’ve taken me 6 years before I could practice.

I did, however, discover that when you are a UK barrister or solicitor you will be able to start working immediately. While I was preparing my move to Australia, I discovered, to my great surprise, that Australia had recently removed the UK privilege. In order to avoid further examinations, I decided to stay in Berlin, while at the same time servicing English clients.

Tell me about your time in City.

I loved my time studying at the university. I had thought before that my language skills were enough to get by quite easily but as it happened it was very difficult. I was fine with conversational English but when it came to legal terms and professional talk it was certainly hard work.

I met a lot of people in City. There are four people who became close friends of mine and with whom I am still to this day in regular contact. For thirty years now we and our families have met regularly to catch up on each other’s lives. Especially our children very much enjoyed visiting each other, mainly in Berlin, London and the Oxfordshire countryside.

What gave you the motivation to have your story published on paper?

In 2011, 50 years after the Berlin Wall was built, there was a remembrance event to commemorate the time when Berlin was split into two. I was invited to the event by someone who knew of my involvement with helping to smuggle people from East Berlin to the West in the mid-1960s. At the event, I was asked to tell my story and I did. Without me being aware of it, the organiser of the event suggested to the office of the German Federal President that I receive an award for my actions. A few months after the remembrance event I received the Federal Cross of Merit for my courage and involvement in helping some 60 people get out of East Berlin.

My four children, being very proud of me, insisted that I write my story down. I hadn’t had much of a reason to speak of the events that occurred many decades ago, mainly because as long as Communist Russia controlled East Germany you simply couldn’t talk about these things without pulling unwanted attention to yourself.

After the wall fell, however, I at first didn’t have access to many of the East- and West German Government files that held info on my activities. It was only some 7 or 8 years ago that I was able to purchase a book, prepared by government-appointed historians, that showed many documents connected with my activities as an escape helper.

Can you give us a little summary of what your book and story entails?

The events in the book The Price of Freedom – Courage in the Shadow of the Berlin Wall took place when I was a law student in Berlin. I happened to meet someone who had dug tunnels under the wall from East Berlin to the West. At first he, understandably, denied any involvement, but I managed to squeeze the truth out of him. I was very impressed with the work and courage of these people so offered them my help. 6 months went by before I was contacted by a person who was also involved with the famous tunnel 57. He asked me to help with smuggling East Berlin citizens to the West. The time of tunnels had come to an end quickly: the Communists had developed seismographic technological devices that essentially heard us digging before we had finished the tunnel. Other methods were using large American limousines, falsifying passports or trying to break through barriers with lorries.

We realised that to move people unnoticed, we needed someone who could continuously move between the East and the West of Berlin without going through checks. We tried to contact allied soldiers but that didn’t work out. Finally, we found a diplomat from Syria who agreed to help us. With his assistance we managed to get some 60 people out from East Berlin – I, among others, and the diplomat were eventually caught and arrested.

I was extensively questioned, then sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. Around a year later the West German government swapped me for two soviet spies and a whole lot of money – I was free again. The diplomat had managed to escape to West-Germany but was later sentenced to death in absentia by his home court in Damascus.

What has been the most rewarding experience for you while writing down your story?

A lot of people contacted me after I published the book in German and it became more widely known what happened to me in the 60s. People didn’t understand why I hadn’t talked bout this before. They saw me as a hero

But for me, this wasn’t about receiving praise and awards – I did it for humanitarian reasons, following my deeply held belief that people in serious need of help ought to be helped by those who can provide it. These people entrusted me with their lives, with their liberty.

Many of the letters I received I found very moving. The most special of them was from one of “my” refugees who had tried for fifty years to establish my identity.

Did you experience any significant difficulties when writing?

When discussions for a book started, I told the publisher that I am a very busy man and needed some support.

They understood that I couldn’t possibly just take 6 months away from my professional responsibilities to start writing the story, so they sent a lady who over a number of days recorded my answers to her questions. The recording was then transcribed into a raw text. Once I saw the transcript, I organised it into chapters and turned it into a proper narrative, assisted by one of the publisher’s editors. She re-checked and edited everything I had already written. She also gave me a lot of advice that turned my script into a captivating story.

For the English version, I paid a translator. The final touches were applied by my wife and myself.

Volker, what advice would you give to others who are looking to help like you did?

When it comes to escaping dreadful conditions, the world is not that different now – there are still people trying to find safety and generally a better life in Europe, away from their war-torn countries.

What is different, however, is that in my day, when illegal intra-German migration happened and people moved from East Berlin to the West, they immediately had rights, unlike now where people are considered asylum seekers and have to apply to be allowed to stay.

I have enormous respect for those who help refugees and have absolutely no understanding for those who make money out the blight of others, by charging the refugees a fortune for a promise – often broken – of guiding them into another country. People’s health and security should be everybody’s main priority.

We need, more than ever, people with truly humanitarian ideals, not profiteers of people trafficking.

Purchase the book below –

Amazon
Amberley

Purchase in German –
Amazon
Rowohlt (Also Ebook)