A Syrian family’s life in Germany after fleeing Syria 10 years ago

It’s been a decade since tens of thousands of refugees crossed into Germany in the late summer of 2015 after then Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders.

“We can do this,” the conservative politician told her constituents on August 31, 2015, though few could predict that by the end of 2016 around 1.1 million asylum seekers would have entered the country – many from war-torn Syria.

Rehab Daioub, her husband Walid Aljawabra, and their three children Suhir, Ayman, and Adham, were among those fleeing the Syrian civil war back then.

A dangerous journey over the Mediterranean

Daughter Suhir, 30, and son Ayman, 25, have now lived in Germany for nearly a decade. After a dangerous escape across the Mediterranean, the two reached Germany on December 31, 2015. Two years later, the rest of the family joined them with the help of private sponsorships.

They fled from dictator Bashar al-Assad, who waged a brutal war against his own population, killing and torturing many of his fellow citizens. The possibility of dying during the escape was high, Suhir says. However, the possibility of dying in Syria was just as high.

Number one goal: Safety

“Safety above all else, and then building a future,” says Daioub, 61, adding that this was all that mattered. She sits with her family on a large corner sofa in the living room. Their flat is located in a quiet residential area in the far north of Berlin.

When they arrived eight years ago, only Germans lived there, said son Adham, now 25. Today, the area is more diverse. The living room is modestly furnished, but colourful Christmas baubles still hang from the ceiling in the middle of summer – a leftover from the Advent season. Daioub pours black tea and shows family photos. These are memories of a time before the war broke out – happy moments in their homeland, Syria.

“I can’t imagine living in Syria again because I’ve built a life here and worked long and hard for it,” says Daioub’s daughter Suhir.

Education, Work, Citizenship

Suhir and her brother Ayman completed vocational training in Germany. She is a medical technical assistant in functional diagnostics in a hospital, while Ayman is a media designer at the public broadcaster SWR. Their brother Adham earned his German Abitur, after his final examinations after secondary school. He is studying at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences.

All three have their own flats, speak fluent German, and have obtained German citizenship. Suhir even ends one of her sentences with the Berlin…