A new home abroad: Berlin's growing Indian community

The Indian community in Germany is growing fast, especially in Berlin. How difficult is it to make a new home in a foreign country? Germany, infamous for its bureaucracy, remains a popular destination for many skilled workers. However, it isn't just a good job in the IT sector that can make a strange land home. Young Indian couple, Amit Kamlapure and Yogita, find that it takes a village: a community of close friends, familiar foods, traditions, and festival celebrations with a flavor of their home country of India.

Flights to the Indian city of Pune, their hometown, are expensive; it's not a trip the young couple, who moved to Berlin in June 2022, can make often. We follow Amit in his quest to make Berlin home: setting up his house, commemorating rituals he grew up with in Pune, preparing meals with his wife that remind him of India, and celebrating major festivals like Diwali, the festival of lights, with other Indian Berliners, a growing and thriving community.

There are new joys in Berlin too. Setting up an independent house for the first time, has brought the couple closer to each other. Learning the local language to make Germany their own as well, and adapting to a slower, more thoughtful pace of life has also worked to strengthen their bond. We meet Amit just before his first trip home and hear why such a long time away from home has not been as hard as he had expected, after all.