Three Suicides in Germany — Some Honest Words
Three Bangladeshis have died by suicide in Germany within a short span. My student friends in Berlin are struggling. After four years here, I want to say a few things.
Trust me — any option at all is far, far better than suicide. Even if, for whatever reason, you have to go back home, you don’t have to return the experience of having lived abroad. So going home is nothing to be ashamed of; it’s just another fresh start. These words may sound like clichés, but they’re true.
Think about it: even after death, the four lakh taka it takes just to send your body home has to be scraped together at the last minute by posting your photo across Facebook group after Facebook group. If twisted thoughts start to creep in, think the consequences through too.
For students — especially those from non-CS backgrounds — Germany right now is a very hard place. Let me say it straight: if you are the only earning member of your family, if your family depends directly on you, at least for the next three years, then do not come to Germany as someone from a non-CS background.
The truth is, the lifestyle you’ll actually end up with here — you could manage a better one back in Bangladesh, or in some other country.
In Germany, without the German language, landing a job is quite hard even in the big cities. In the smaller ones it’s harder still. Financial struggle is a very bad kind of struggle. It spreads through the rest of your life like cancer. Nothing will feel good.
For some personal reasons, I went through a terrible depression during my own years in Germany. Back then, the people in Germany who had said, reach out if you’re struggling, email us — not one of them replied to my emails. Now I understand: this is just the reality.
Not everyone is mentally strong enough to deal with that reality. Whether you have that strength — you know best. I know, for instance, that I don’t. And it’s precisely because I don’t that I spend six months at home and six months abroad.
If you have any doubt about that strength, and you don’t have the financial backup to cover for that weakness… then, simply, Germany is not a good place for you.