Day 10, In an airport

We as humans are a migratory species. We leave our sleeping spots to go to work and we usually do not eat where we wash our bodies. We all travel daily: to school, to work, or to meet our friends. Even when we do not transcend national borders, we move around. Luckily, every journey concludes at some point. We reach our final stop, we arrive.

In 2016, we spoke with Mustafa K. Isik in Munich. He is the head designer of the app ‘Ankommen’, which is the German word for ‘arriving’. With his team at the Bavarian Rundfunk, Mustafa gathered valuable information about life in Germany and designed in into an easy-to-use interface.

The app now provides information about the legal asylum process, job procedures, and traditions and customs in German society from a neutral point of view. Questions such as “What happens if my asylum request is denied?”, how to navigate the recycling system of trash and what standards form the base of our ‘Rechtsstaat’, are all answered in five different languages. It also links online courses that teach basic German.

Access to information is key to the success of every journey. Apps like this one help refugees and aid workers alike to ease the struggle of arriving in a new and unknown place for everyone involved. It serves as a valuable stock of answers to questions we all encounter when moving to a new country, and the app provides those answers at the touch of your fingertip.

Today, the app was downloaded over 200.000 times. It was co-initiated and financed by the Goethe Institut, the German Ministry of Migration and Refugees, and the Bundesagentur für Arbeit.

Take a peek yourself, it is available on the Play and the App Store.

https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/ankommen/id1066804488

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.br.ankommen