"For me personally it was – well, apart from the challenges at the time – the turnaround was generally positive."
Hiền Phan arrived in East Berlin in 1988 to work for the GDR under a temporary, two-year contract. She worked in the VEB Narva lightbulb factory, not far from today’s East Side Gallery. When Germany was unified, she was laid off. She decided to stay in Germany, nonetheless. A bureaucratic struggle to gain a residence permit began. Issued a series of short-term residence permits, valid for only one to three months, finding work and a home was a major challenge. Yet despite the struggles and the hard work, Hiền Phan regards the transition period 30 years ago as positive – it was when she laid the foundations for her life in Berlin with her family. Today she runs a restaurant.
Additional information:
The online exhibition "Minds of their own. Migrants in the GDR" presents contemporary witnesses as well as materials and information about the life of "contract workers" in the GDR: https://bruderland.de/episodes/werktaetige/