"We want a good life! "Guest workers" between work, love and poetry"

Mai-Phuong Kollath was born in 1963 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Mai-Phuong Kollath came to Rostock as a contract worker at the age of eighteen. She experienced the precarious and regimented living and working conditions of the workers. In 1992, the dormitory in Rostock-Lichtenhagen, where Kollath lived for a long time, burned down. Since then, she has been involved with the association "Diên Hông - Together under One Roof" to campaign against racism and for an affected-centered memory in Rostock. Kollath now lives and works as a coach, intercultural consultant and performer in Berlin.

Veronica Oommen came to Germany from India at the age of 18 and has stayed until today. Among hundreds of applicants, the archbishop of her hometown chose her and five other girls.

She got permission from her parents because Germany is a Christian country. She worked as a nurse, among other things. She is now employed as a social worker in the diocese of Cologne, where she advises migrants.

Asimina Paradissa was born in Vrasta, Chalkidiki, Greece. Her parents worked seasonally as farmers or charcoal burners. As a girl she embroidered for money, 1000 stitches gave three drachmas. Later she worked in road construction and in a quarry. When she came to Germany, she did not find the work difficult. She made typewriters at the Olympia company in Wilhelmshaven. She bought herself one with a Greek keyboard and began to write poetry. She composed her poems in her head while working on the assembly line and later wrote them down.

Rosa Spitaleri came to Cologne from Sicily at the end of the 1960s as an eight-year-old. Her parents had gone ahead in 1964, leaving Rosa and her brother Vincenzo with relatives. After all, they only wanted to stay in Germany for a few years, earn money and then return to Sicily. But they stayed, and Rosa and Vincenzo completed their studies in Germany. Today she works as a social worker for Caritas, enjoys reading and writing poetry.