Exploring the factors impacting integration and acceptance
A series of interviews with both Syrian refugees ormigrants living in Europe and native residents of refugee host countries, exploring factors that influence peaceful coexistence between people and communities from different counties and cultural backgrounds. Factors considered include education, work, social networks, religion, civil society, and government policy & rhetoric.
Majida is a 52-year old chef in a successful family-run Syrian restaurant that opened two years ago in central Marseille. The family is originally from...
Caroline is a 41-year old from Damascus. Her mother is Armenian and her father is from Hawash. She was imprisoned in Syria for one month...
Abdallah Al-Khateeb is a 30-year old Palestinian Syrian. He was a social and political activist in Syria and remains so in Germany, where he moved...
Dalal Adi from Hama is 23 years old and she fled Syria by land and boat to Turkey and Greece, losing track of the two...
Asbed is 31 years old. He is an Armenian Syrian and arrived in Sweden in 2013. While waiting for his residency, he took Swedish language...
Faten is a widow who lived in Damascus, where her husband died under torture in prison. She said she was told he had died but...
Angelica Jularbo is a 48-year old Swedish nurse. She is a single mother of four children and currently works in palliative care in Stockholm. She...
Mirvat Shikh Shouk lives in Malmö with her husband and three children. They arrived in Sweden four years ago and at first lived in refugee housing....
Amal has been living in Stockholm for 35 years. She previously worked as a translator but has recently retired, and is now an elected member...
Nour Al-Hariri is 25 years old and currently lives outside Berlin with her husband and children. She is originally from Deraa, and arrived in Germany...
Firas Al Younis is an accomplished engineer who lives in Berlin. He is from a family of 10 children, and he and his brother are...
Mikaela is a 48 year-old journalist. She had trouble finding a job and realised she needed a niche. She considered Russian but there were many...
Muna Nashashibi is a Syrian Christian. “I was raised a secular nationalist. Acceptance was a cornerstone of my upbringing. We are believers, but when you’re...
Rehab Jamaledin Maghribi is 63 years old and arrived in London in the UK in 1975. She had recently married and planned to build a...
Adnan Al-Mohamad is 40 years old. He used to travel frequently for his work as "a researcher in the field of Syrian antiquities." He currently...
Omar Alshikh is 32 years old and left his country, Syria, to escape the war and pursue his work as a journalist. He went to...
When he graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in the mid-1980s, Adi Atassi, a 56-year-old Syrian, decided to emigrate from his homeland....
Annetta Benzar is originally from Belarus but emigrated to Cyprus aged 4. She works in an international organisation but feels there is an implicit hierarchy...
Samar is from Syria but emigrated to the United States to continue her studies. During the time she was studying at university, she met her...
Aisha is 25 years old and from Syria. She did not learn the Greek language after her arrival at camp "Kofinou" in the countryside of...
Abdallah was three when his father moved the family from Damascus, Syria to Larnaca, Cyprus. Now 27, he works for his father in his grocery...
Sarah is a young Syrian-American girl who moved from Turkey to Lebanon in early 2016 in order to work in the civilian relief and development...
Amina fled from Syria with her three children and ended up in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut where she had a difficult time because...
Abu Hashim has visited Syria every week since his early childhood days. Therefore, he understands the nature of Syrian society well because of the cultural...
When she arrived in the city of Tripoli in Lebanon in 2010, Shaima’ al-Hazwani began her psychology studies at the Lebanese University. She did not...
Ahmed* was born in 1968 to a Lebanese father and a Syrian mother. He lived for about 20 years in Damascus before returning and settling...
Ma’ruf al-Qallab was born in 1977 in the southern province of Daraa. He studied Law at the University of Damascus and travelled several times to...
Before he came over to Lebanon, Baraa Serajeddi thought that Lebanese people lived the way MTV [a Lebanese TV channel] depicted – everyone was comfortable...
Hani al-Rstum moved into Lebanon in 2008. He studied medicine for three years at the University of Balamand in Tripoli before deciding to change his...
Dia Ghazi (Abu Said) is a 60 year-old Palestinian from Syria and he lived in Damascus the first 17 years of his life. He is...
Juliette Mako Ibrahim is 52-years old. She has been a French citizen for many decades but is originally from Al-Hawash in Syria. At 21 she...
Abu Zuhair is 51 years old and is originally from Syria. He went to France in 1985 to study physics on a university scholarship. After...
Noureddine is a retired French banker, aged 69, with no Syrian, Arab, or non-French family. He is from Rouen, and studied there and in Paris....
Abu Farouq is 29-years old and is from a village near Tartous. He did not finish middle school. He comes from a family of farmers,...
Sally is 24-years old and is from a village near Tartous. Her husband was tortured and imprisoned for a year on two separate occasions in...
Michaal is 41 years old and from Damascus. He has a Master’s degree. While living in Damascus, he often travelled abroad for work, including to...
Mohammad Khader is a 32-year-old father of three. His first child, who is 5 years old, was born in Syria where Mohammad lived until 2014....
Natalie Darwish, 23 years old and a Syrian refugee in Germany, is from Deir Ezzor area in Syria. She believes that the majority of refugees...
A single mother with two nationalities, Ghaid Hashemi defines herself through her religion and education. She says, "I am a woman, I am a Muslim,...
Afraa Batous is 33 years old. She is from Aleppo but lived for a time in Damascus then Beirut before moving to Germany in 2016....
Fiona is 49 years old, English and a naturalized French citizen who has been living in France for many decades. She is a lawyer, currently...
Nadia El-Haj, 55 years old, is originally from Damascus but has lived in Stockholm since 1991. Currently, she does not work but she used to...
Alex is a 38-year old Swedish journalist who studied Arabic and has worked in the Middle East, including in Syria, since 2008. She first travelled...
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