The United States grants Asylum to German Home Schooling Family

Country: Germany

Date of incident: January 28, 2010


“Because of a substantiated fear of persecution”, an American judge on immigration matters argued, the United States is granting political Asylum to a German couple and their children, who are fleeing from compulsory education in Germany.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, convinced evangelical Christians, asked for political Asylum in the United States, as they don’t agree with the German curriculum which violates Christian values, and wish to home school their five children, which is not possible in Germany.

In 2006 the couple decided to take three of their children out of primary school to protect them from “unchristian tendencies.” Legally, this is a violation against compulsory education in Germany. Although home schooling is allowed to families for professional reasons (artists or musicians), it is forbidden on grounds of conscience. In a worst case scenario, they can be deprived of parental authority.

The competent judge in the United States, Lawrence Burman, confirmed in his court order that they may stay in Tennessee, where the family has been living since 2008.  The application made by the Romeikes family passed for reasons of possible persecution in their home country. 

The American „Home School Legal Defense Association“ (HSLDA) quoted passages from the juridical decision of Judge Lawrence Burman after the hearing,  “ People who want to practice home schooling represent a social group in Germany that is particularly oppressed by the government. This family has a justified fear of persecution. (…) I see there is a violation of a fundamental Human Right, to which no nation in the world has a right. The German government marginalizes home-schoolers as if they were members of a parallel society and attempts to eradicate them.”

Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ):

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/familie/homeschooler-amerika-gewaehrt-deutscher-familie-asyl-1608670.html