Graefewirtschaft e.V. is a social enterprise creating jobs for migrants and refugees in the borough of Berlin-Kreuzberg. Graefewirtschaft runs different businesses:

• a restaurant, “die Weltküche”
•  a catering service
• kitchens  catering for schools, kindergartens and daycare centres
• a canteen kitchen in the Berlin district of Marienfelde
• household services and und care for the elderly

The different businesses employ 50 people and produce 90% of Graefewirtschaft’s income. The remaining 10% come from public funding as currently for the project SoJung in the framework of ESF.

Graefewirtschaft  was founded in 2009 by long-term unemployed migrants and Germans. Migrants and asylum seekers are often denied access to the German labour market because of difficulties with the recognition of qualifications acquired abroad or an unclear residence status. This is the gap where Graefewirtschaft comes in, empowering migrants and refugees through secure jobs, in which they can bring in and develop their competences. At the same time, services are created that reflect the culturally diverse district with the different businesses having been developed based on local needs in the neighborhood and the skills and capacities of the migrants.

Heike Birkhölzer is Chairperson of Technologie-Netzwerk Berlin e.V.; Director of Graefewirtschaft e.V.

http://www.graefewirtschaft.org/