Enlarge image
Ruaa Abu Rasheed fled Damascus to Germany eight years ago.
Today she lives with her husband in Würzburg
Photo: Maria Feck / Der SPIEGEL
Sometimes, when Ruaa tells Abu Rasheed, it seems as if after eight years in Germany she is still looking for the ticket booth that she has to pass through to get to real Germany.
In Germany, to which she really belongs once she's in there.
If there were such a counter, Abu Rasheed, 27 years old, could pop all the certificates and degrees and certificates that she has earned in Germany, like a bundle of tickets.
The language course B1.
The language course B2.
The nursing internship in Hamburg.
Graduated from the preparatory college in Nordhausen.
The high school graduation made up because hers from Syria was not recognized.
The bachelor's degree in medical technology at the University of Jena.
Soon the master’s degree.
You could bring your driver's license or the rental agreement.
Ground floor apartment in Würzburg, part of the garden, freshly mowed.
Instead, Abu Rasheed is sitting on her sofa, drawing a round curl on her thigh with her finger. She says: “It is as if Germany were a closed circle. I'm trying to get in there. But I'm constantly being pushed away. No, you're not one of them yet. "
830,000. So many women and men from Syria have come to Germany since the civil war broke out there in 2011, which continues to this day. You ended up here and often heard this word: "Integration". And all of Germany at the beginning that: "welcoming culture". In 2014, 2015 and 2016, when a particularly large number of people crossed the borders and sought asylum, the number of attacks on refugee shelters increased by a factor of five compared to previous years. The AfD moved into state parliaments for the first time, Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg, Hamburg, and finally into the Bundestag. Integration policy polarized the political debate in the 2017 federal election.
The questions from back then were: How does it work, start over?
How can strangers become confidants, neighbors, and colleagues?
How will the refugees change Europe, how will Europe change them?
Many of the 830,000 will stay in Germany forever.
Refugee boys and girls have meanwhile become adults in Germany, trainees, students, fathers and mothers.
And now?
How does Germany feel to you?
Did you arrive?
And what does that mean anyway?
DER SPIEGEL asked two, Havin Deniz, 34, and Ruaa Abu Rasheed, 27. Two out of 830,000.
How does your life feel, in Würzburg, in Bad Oldesloe?
One, Deniz, comes from Kobanê in northern Syria. She is a Kurdish mother of two sons, six and 13. In Germany, she separated from her husband. After the divorce, she was threatened by her family, so she wants to remain anonymous here. The other, Abu Rasheed, grew up in Damascus. She is studying for a master's degree in medical technology and has been married for a year. The red helium balloons from the first wedding anniversary are still hanging on the living room wall with the words "Love" on them. Deniz fled when IS came to her homeland, the children often hiding under baggy clothes in pickups on ferries. Turkey, Morocco, the Spanish exclave Melilla. Madrid. Apartment building in Bad Oldesloe. She says there are no direct routes to escape. Abu Rasheed sometimes thinks if she and her husband had not fled independently of each other,they would never have met.
Deniz and Abu Rasheed have been in Germany for six and eight years.
Time to ask a simple question: How are you doing in this country?
You can read what the women have to say in this series of photos:
.
This contribution is part of the Global Society project
Expand areaWhat is the Global Society project?
Reporters from
Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe
report under the title “Global Society”
- on injustices in a globalized world, socio-political challenges and sustainable development.
The reports, analyzes, photo series, videos and podcasts appear in the international section of SPIEGEL.
The project is long-term and will be supported for three years by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
A detailed FAQ with questions and answers about the project can be found here.
AreaWhat does the funding look like in concrete terms?
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is supporting the project for three years with a total of around 2.3 million euros.
Are the journalistic content independent of the foundation?
Yes.
The editorial content is created without the influence of the Gates Foundation.
Do other media have similar projects?
Yes.
Big European media like "The Guardian" and "El País" have set up similar sections on their news sites with "Global Development" and "Planeta Futuro" with the support of the Gates Foundation.
Have there already been similar projects at SPIEGEL?
In the past few years, SPIEGEL has already implemented two projects with the European Journalism Center (EJC) and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: the “Expedition ÜberMorgen” on global sustainability goals and the journalistic refugee project “The New Arrivals” as part of this several award-winning multimedia reports on the topics of migration and flight have been produced.
Where can I find all publications on global society?
The pieces can be found at SPIEGEL on the topic Global Society.