Interview with a refugee   Questions for Yaman

Millions of people around the world are on the run. In search of safety, a future and a new home for themselves and their children. There are many hurdles to overcome. In our interview from the summer of 2024, Yaman from Syria talks about his family's flight to Germany in 2015, the bureaucratic hurdles on the ground and arriving in the country.

You came to Germany because of the Syrian civil war. When was that?

I came to Germany on July 26, 2015. The first city I came to was Düsseldorf.

What were your living conditions, social status etc. like in Syria before the war?

I come from a rich family: my father was a businessman and a professor at the university. My mother was a teacher. I graduated from a private school and then went to university to study civil engineering. I met my wife at university. We got engaged in the third semester and wanted to get married after finishing our studies. But then the war came in 2011. At first, there was no violence in Aleppo itself. Because of the war, my parents wanted to leave our home country, so we got married in 2013 before I had even finished my studies. Our first son was born in this situation in 2014.

How did the escape go? Did you arrive alone at first and catch up with your family, or how did that happen?

The war reached Aleppo in 2015: it was suddenly dangerous to get food, there was no electricity, no water, no internet. We saw no possibility of finishing our studies. My wife and I decided to flee to my parents in Turkey. The journey through the night, with snipers lurking everywhere, was very dangerous. My father tried to make contact with the German embassy in Ankara: What is the right way to get to Germany with a regular visa? But the attempt was unsuccessful. My father traveled to Syria again to take care of a few things there. When we didn't hear from him again after six months, we assumed he had died.

An acquaintance of my mother's decided to go to Germany. My sister, who was married in Saudi Arabia, advised me to try to make a fresh start in Germany. My mother gave me money to escape. My wife wanted to return to her parents in Syria (but stayed in Turkey), I should go to Germany first and she could join me later with our son. With a group of eight people, I went to Izmir with the acquaintance, but at first we couldn't find anyone we could trust for the crossing to Greece. It was only after a week that we found someone we trusted and who wanted to take us away on the same day for 1,000 US dollars per person. When he found out that my wife and young son were still in Turkey, he urged me to get them immediately - he knew from his relatives the difficulties of catching up with them. My wife and child arrived immediately by bus to join me in Izmir, and the next day the three of us took the boat to Greece with the others. As soon as we reached European waters, a larger ship picked us up.

“We are refugees from Syria.”

We were photographed and fed in the camp on the island. We bought items for accommodation outside the camp because it had been overcrowded for months. To our surprise, after three days we were given the documents with which we were taken to Athens on a large ship. Our son injured his foot during these days. Without a passport, we stayed in a cheap hotel for two days. Then we took a bus to Macedonia and from there we walked to the border with Serbia. Entering Serbia wasn't easy, to this day I don't know exactly why we didn't have to go back to Greece. In Serbia, I was able to get some money that my sister's husband had sent me. From Serbia we took the bus towards Hungary. We were in the forest, without water, without a GPS signal, we were captured by the Hungarian police along with many other people, interned and photographed. Our son had a severe fever and the Red Cross treated his foot infection. The Algerian translator threatened us with a gun to extort us for fingerprints saying they were needed for Germany. But I claimed that we wanted to go to Sweden and they wouldn't ask for that. We were able to leave the camp after 24 hours and after a few kilometers we caught a cab that took us to Vienna. From here we took the train to Germany. In Düsseldorf, we went to the police: “We are refugees from Syria.” We presented our passports and family book.

We and our injured son were treated very kindly. We were taken by ambulance to the children's hospital in Düsseldorf. Because my wife was also in a very bad way, she was malnourished and weak, we were then taken to another hospital.

From the hospital we were taken back to the police station, where we were given clothes and a train ticket from Düsseldorf to Dortmund because there was a family reception center there. In Dortmund, however, the camp was catastrophic, we met many people who had been there for months without a response or decision. We were physically examined and vaccinated and then taken to another camp in Dortmund. Here our impression was better: there were many families, we had a room with a bathroom and a play corner for children. After 20 days we were transferred to X.

In X, the social welfare office gave us a small apartment, which was later occupied by other people, Serbs. Our room was moldy. I said it couldn't stay like that because of the child. The next day, the social welfare office showed us a completely remote apartment, and after three weeks we found a really good apartment, a bit out of the way, but accessible by bus. We met two people there who became our new family in the nine years that followed. We were given a voluntary language course at the nearby school and the people there helped us as soon as they found out about our needs.

Then we had an interview with the authorities and after two weeks we were told that we could stay in Germany and were entitled to a language course.

Now we were out of the social welfare office and came to the job center. Everything went well here and with other contacts with the authorities, including the immigration office. My wife was pregnant again. There was no language course nearby, it was only an hour away by train. The school was bad: too many teacher changes, no agreements between the teachers, teachers with no expertise in German as a foreign language. The system is also wrong: there should be courses for speaking and courses for writing and reading - the two things don't work in the same way.

With the help of a contact person for refugees, we were able to find our own apartment in a neighboring town. We later moved from here to the larger city. It was difficult to find a language course, to find a pediatrician, to find an apartment and a kindergarten because many housing cooperatives didn't want people from the job center or refugees as tenants. Registering for a kindergarten in Y was also very difficult. I had to go all the way to the mayor to get a kindergarten placement for our two older children. There were always situations like this where I had to work hard.

The children are happy

What is your current status? Are you tolerated or recognized as an asylum seeker?
I am an asylum seeker, tolerated, I could get German citizenship, but I don't have it because I am still at the job center.

What is your current situation (place of residence, family, employment)?

I am happy with where I live in the larger city. I now have three children who are all at elementary school. Admission to the school went well, the contacts there are good, the children feel comfortable. The learning difficulties of the son who was traumatized during his flight have been overcome with individual tutoring in the first school year. The second son had speech difficulties at the beginning of elementary school, and speech therapy helped him. Because my academic achievements were not recognized, I tried to find a new job. I've made several attempts, now my third, and I hope I can finish it. Now that the children are older, my wife has started working as a sales clerk so that we can get out of the job center.

What has helped you and your family with what is called integration?

The best thing in Germany is my new family. Moving was easy. Moving from one job center to another was easy. Other things also went well at times, sometimes there were difficulties that we had to overcome. We probably wouldn't have managed so well without the support of our new friends.

Germany helped us

What is the biggest hurdle for you to feel comfortable and at home in Germany?

The recognition of the study documents [the degree had not been completed]. I studied in Syria and so did my wife. But our study documents were not recognized in Germany. I lost my degree. My studies were my dream, I think that if I don't live this dream one day, then I will remain as a person with a broken back.
Other friends have found the opportunity to live their dreams in Germany, I didn't have that opportunity.

Working and earning money play too big a role in the legal requirements for German citizenship. Learning a profession and learning the language would be more important.

The biggest difficultyin finding a job is the language. Every profession has a new language. That is very difficult. I find it easy to memorize in Syrian, but I find it very difficult to memorize in German.

Do you want to stay in Germany or go back to Syria?

We don't want to go back completely: because of the children. Two were born here, all three went to kindergarten and are now at school. They speak German and are growing up here.

Simply leaving Germany would not be good. Germany has helped us. We have received money for many years now, and we want to give something back in return to protect and help the country.

I'm thinking about finishing my studies in Syria by going there for the exam. There is a new law that cancels my de-registration. I could buy the right to graduate for €300 per semester (my sister in Syria works as a teacher for €20/month). I could also buy the study material and sample exams at the university.

If you stay - what should change?

That I can work in the profession I want to work in. I'm doing my current training because I have no other choice.