Thread: Homeschooling: Why One Family Got Political Asylum in the US

The title above is the first given by "Time" to this article at the source.

Monday, Mar. 08, 2010

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Homeschool

By Tristana Moore

The Romeikes are not your typical asylum seekers. They did not come to the U.S. to flee war or despotism in their native land. No, these music teachers left Germany because they didn't like what their children were learning in public school — and because homeschooling is illegal there.

"It's our fundamental right to decide how we want to teach our children," says Uwe Romeike, an Evangelical Christian and a concert pianist who sold his treasured Steinway to help pay for the move.

Romeike decided to uproot his family in 2008 after he and his wife had accrued about $10,000 in fines for homeschooling their three oldest children and police had turned up at their doorstep and escorted them to school. "My kids were crying, but nobody seemed to care," Romeike says of the incident. (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)

So why did he seek asylum in the U.S. rather than relocate to nearby Austria or another European country that allows homeschooling? Romeike's wife Hannelore tells TIME the family was contacted by the Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), which suggested they go to the U.S. and settle in Morristown, Tenn. The nonprofit organization, which defends the rights of the U.S. homeschooling community — with its estimated 2 million children, or about 4% of the total school-age population — is expanding its overseas outreach. And on Jan. 26, the HSLDA helped the Romeikes become the first people granted asylum in the U.S. because they were persecuted for homeschooling. (See pictures of East Germany making light of its past.)

The ruling is tricky politically for Washington and its allies in Europe, where several countries — including Spain and the Netherlands — allow homeschooling only under exceptional circumstances, such as when a child is extremely ill. Legal observers say it is likely that the federal government will appeal the Romeike ruling, which was issued by an immigration judge in Memphis, Tenn. His unprecedented decision has raised concerns that the already heavily backlogged immigration courts will be flooded with asylum petitions from homeschoolers in countries typically regarded as having nonrepressive governments.

"It's very unusual for people from Western countries to be granted asylum in the U.S.," says David Piver, an immigration attorney with offices in a Philadelphia suburb and Flagstaff, Ariz. In 2008, the most recent year for which data are available, only five Germans received asylum in the U.S. (The Justice Department declined to comment on specific cases.) "The U.S. government will come under political pressure to appeal the Romeike case so as not to offend a close ally," says Piver, who is not involved in the case. (See the top 10 news stories of 2009.)

Successful asylum petitions typically involve applicants whose situations are more dire, such as women who were forced to undergo abortions or genital mutilation and men whose lives were threatened because they are homosexuals or political dissidents. But Piver believes the Memphis judge was right to grant the Romeikes asylum, since the law covers social groups with "a well-founded fear of persecution" in their home country.

In Germany, mandatory school attendance dates back to 1717, when it was introduced in Prussia, and the policy has traditionally been viewed as a social good. "This law protects children," says Josef Kraus, president of the German Teachers' Association. The European Court of Human Rights agrees with him. In 2006, the court threw out a homeschooling family's case when it deemed Germany's compulsory-schooling law as compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, an international treaty drafted in 1950. Given this backdrop, it's little wonder the Romeikes came up against a wall of opposition when they tried to talk to their school principal about the merits of homeschooling.

One of the Romeikes' concerns was about their kids getting bullied. But their main objection involved what was being taught in the classroom. "The curriculum goes against our Christian values," Uwe says. "German schools use textbooks that force inappropriate subject matter onto young children and tell stories with characters that promote profanity and disrespect."

While there are no official figures, it's estimated that up to 1,000 German families are homeschooling their children. Elisabeth Kuhnle, a spokeswoman for a German advocacy group called the Network for the Freedom of Education, says a recent homeschooling meeting attracted about 50 families in the state of Baden-Württemberg, where the Romeikes used to live. She also reckons many German homeschooling families have relocated to countries like France and Britain, where homeschooling is allowed.

In 2007, Germany's Federal Supreme Court issued a ruling — which did not specifically involve the Romeikes — that parents could lose custody of their children if they continued to homeschool them. "We were under constant pressure, and we were scared the German authorities would take our children away," Romeike says. "So we decided to leave and go to the U.S."

German officials, for their part, note that the Romeikes had other options. "If parents don't want to send their children to a public school, they can send them to alternative private schools," says Thomas Hilsenbeck, a spokesman for the Baden-Württemberg education ministry. Homeschooling advocates counter that there are few private schools in Germany, and they tend to be expensive. But beyond that, many religious parents have problems with sex education and other curricular requirements. "Whether it's a state school or a private school, there's still a curriculum that is forced onto children," says Kuhnle.

And then there are the social aspects of going to school. Homeschooling parents tend to want to shield their children from negative influences. But this quest often runs counter to the idea that schools represent society and help promote tolerance. "No parental couple can offer a breadth of education [that can] replace experienced teachers," says Kraus, of the German Teachers' Association. "Kids also lose contact with their peers."

Concerns that homeschooling could lead to insularity — or worse, as Kraus puts it, "could help foster the development of a sect" — are shaping policy debates in European countries. In Britain, for example, Parliament is considering legislation that would create a new monitoring system to ensure that homeschooled kids get a suitable education.

In Sweden, where parents have to apply for permission to teach their children at home, the government is planning to impose even tougher restrictions on homeschoolers. And in Spain, parents are not allowed to educate their children at home. Period. If a child has special needs that prevent him from attending school, a teacher will be sent to his home.

By contrast, homeschooling is legal in all 50 U.S. states, some of which don't require families to notify authorities of their intent to teach their children at home. Tennessee is among the states that require some form of notice as well as periodic assessment tests.

When Uwe and Hannelore heard that the judge had ruled in their favor, they celebrated by taking their five children — who range in age from 4 to 12 — to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. But the next day, they were back to their regular schedule. Lessons start at 9 a.m. and end at around 4 p.m. The school-age kids are learning all the usual subjects — math, science, etc. — with the help of textbooks and other teaching materials, in compliance with state law. The family has also joined a local group that organizes activities and field trips once a week for homeschooled children.

Meanwhile, the HSLDA says it is working to defend a homeschooling family in Sweden and is investigating cases in Brazil, where homeschooling is banned — all good fodder for a comparative-government class, whether it's taught in school or at home.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 99,00.html

I really don't like this decision. I can see it being used as a scam. The US should appeal the rule. I don't think Home schooling or lack thereof is a grounds for asylum in this country.

You wait - there will be hundreds of scammers for this one.

This involves the same home school legal defense organization involved in the German refugee case.

State takes custody of 7-year-old over homeschooling

Now human rights organizations reviewing 'state-napping'

Posted: February 27, 2010
11:05 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Social workers have been visiting a Swedish couple whose son was "abducted" by government agents last year because he was being homeschooled, but that's not necessarily a good sign, and now two major rights organizations are exploring options to reunite the family.

The Home School Legal Defense Association and members of the Alliance Defense Fund have been advising Christer and Annie Johansson on the "state-napping" of their son, Dominic, 7, from an airliner as the family was preparing to move to India last year.

"HSLDA and the Alliance Defense Fund are jointly advising the family and exploring all available avenues to help reunite Dominic with his family," the HSLDA said in a published statement.

"Swedish social workers have recently visited Christer and Annie and inquired about their current ability to take care of Dominic. According to a Swedish lawyer who spoke with HSLDA anonymously, these visits do not necessarily indicate the possible return of Dominic to his parents. Rather, this attorney said, Swedish social services intends to force the parents into 'complete subjugation and compliance with the system.'"

WND reported late last year when the Administrative Court of Stockholm affirmed the state custody of Dominic, who was taken from the airliner by uniformed police officers on the orders of social workers even though there was no allegation of any crime on the part of the family nor was there any warrant.

At the time, Michael Donnelly, director of international affairs for the HSLDA, called the court decision "deeply disturbing."

"The hostility against homeschooling and for parent's rights is contrary to everything expected from a Western nation," he said.

The HSLDA confirms the family's options are being reviewed.

The parents are allowed to see their son for 60 minutes every fifth week.

"At times referred to as a 'social utopia,' Sweden is completely antagonistic toward homeschoolers and, in reality, anyone who deviates from what the Swedish government defines as 'normal.' The government's quest for conformity produces troubling side effects: the criminalization of actions – such as a parent's decision regarding the best form of education for his child – that ought to be the hallmarks of a free, democratic society," the HSLDA said.

"Taking children from their parents over minor differences in approaches to medical care (e.g. choosing not to vaccinate or delaying minor dental treatments) and for homeschooling is completely at odds with the basic human rights which all Western democracies should reflect," the HSLDA said.

The organization is offering a webpage of information on how to support the family and linking to a petition advocating the return of Dominic to his parents.

On the petition's forum page, a Canadian wrote, "I am appalled that this happened in a country as open, modern and inclusive as Sweden! I cannot understand it."

An Australian called it "an abuse of power at the expense of a child."

From Florida came the comment, "This is frightening!!!! … Please reverse this tragedy."

The attack on homeschoolers appears to be part of a trend in some Western nations, including Germany. WND reported only a few weeks ago when a German family was granted asylum in the United States because of the persecution members would face if returned to their home country.

The case in Sweden developed when the boy, from Gotland, was forcibly taken into custody minutes before he and his parents were due to take off to start a new life in India, Annie's home country.

In an online statement at the time, Johannson said, "While we may do things differently than most Swedes, we have not broken any laws and we have not harmed our son. We decided as a family that we wanted to move to India where we could be near my wife's family. But the government has taken over my family, and now we are living in a nightmare. I fear for the life of my wife under this torture and for the well-being of my son who has only been allowed to see his parents for a few hours since he was taken. The government is alienating my son from me, and I am powerless to do anything."

"What you have here is a socialist country trying to create a cookie cutter kid," said Roger Kiska, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney based in Europe. "This kind of thing happens too often where social workers take a child and then just keep him."

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125602

Links within the original are available by clicking on the source link above.

I really don't care what the state does in Sweden - that should not be a grounds for asylum in the US. This group in the US that is getting these people to make asylum claims should be investigated.

I don't think this is a legitimate grounds for asylum and besides there are other counties in the EU they could go to - why does it have to be the US.

This needs to end - pretty soon you will see Jihadist claiming asylum for this along with other Latinos from other counties.

This will turn out to be a scam.

Judge Grants Asylum to German Homeschoolers

Hannelore and Uwe Romeike and their children at home in Morristown, Tenn.
Mike Belleme for The New York Times

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published: February 28, 2010

MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — On a quiet street in this little town in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains lives a family of refugees who were granted asylum in the United States because they feared persecution in their home country.

The family came to the United States in 2008 from Germany, where children are required to attend an officially recognized school, be it public, private or religious.

The reason for that fear has rarely, if ever, been the basis of an asylum case. The parents, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, want to home-school their five children, ranging in age from 2 to 12, a practice illegal in their native land, Germany.

Among European countries, Germany is nearly alone in requiring, and enforcing, attendance of children at an officially recognized school. The school can be private or religious, but it must be a school. Exceptions can be made for health reasons but not for principled objections.

But the Romeikes, who are devout Christians, said they wanted their children to learn in a different environment. Mr. Romeike (pronounced ro-MY-kuh), 38, a soft-spoken piano teacher whose young children greet strangers at the front door with a startlingly grown-up politeness, said the unruly behavior of students that was allowed by many teachers had kept his children from learning. The stories in German readers, in which devils, witches and disobedient children are often portrayed as heroes, set bad examples, he said.

“I don’t expect the school to teach about the Bible,â€

Homeschooling Asylum
By Mark Krikorian, March 1, 2010

The New York Times writes about a family from Germany which has received asylum in the U.S. because homeschooling is prohibited in their country. This is yet another example of misuse of asylum, as we see our domestic culture wars bleed over into asylum policy; first it was feminists and homosexual-rights campaigners, then disabilities-rights activists, and now homeschoolers.

What we're not doing well is drawing the distinction between governmental or social practices that we disapprove of, on the one hand, and conduct so abhorrent that it creates special immigration rights for people who have no other options. Germany's ban on homeschooling is indeed stupid, but there are two factors weighing on the other side: First, Germany's a democracy and if the stupid laws of every democracy are a cause for asylum, then we're in trouble. In France, after all, you can't (or couldn't) work more than 35 hours a week — are we going to grant asylum to Frenchmen seeking overtime? Or how about the English butcher who couldn't sell his meat in pounds rather than kilos?

Second, Germany is a member of the EU and of Schengen, and as such, its citizens have the right to travel and live in a wide variety of countries, almost all of which permit homeschooling. A specific and immediate reform that would help a lot would be to draw up a list of "safe" countries, like the EU, Canada, and Japan, from which we simply won't entertain asylum requests at all, eliminating the opportunity for protracted litigation and judicial activism. We already have something like this for third-country nationals passing through Canada, and that should be extended to the EU and Japan as well, so that no one arriving at our airports, having passed through those countries, should be permitted to apply for asylum, since they should have done so in the first safe country they entered.

http://www.cis.org/krikorian/homeschooling-asylum

I am glad the government is appealing and I hope they win the appeal and these people are denies asylum. We don't need to create a new asylum class - we have too many already.