It’s darkly humorous to want to keep only certain types of refugees. The German health care system being reliant on Syrian doctors staying, while pushing legislation to make Syrians leave Germany is reminiscent of my experiences in America. In conservative politics: there are the minorities that are ‘good’ or ‘serve an economic purpose’ and there are those that are demonized. In the New Arab article, I was struck by the descriptions of those who were able to successfully integrate into German society as “cordially welcome” while those who haven’t should be returned to Syria.
The profile on four of the 6,000 Syrian doctors working in Germany was striking in their similarities: those with profound pride in their Syrian identity, making homemade flags and hoping to help rebuild his broken county in the post-Assad era, while continuing to serve the German healthcare system. Still, even in a post-Assad Syria, infrastructure remains bleak. The healthcare system is not as advanced as the German one, incentivizing Syrian doctors to continue to work in Germany, even in its less desirable and rural hospitals.
The German government has been attempting to encourage voluntary return of Syrian asylum seekers and refugees to Syria, though despite Assad’s fall, 91% of a returnees to Syria arrived in community lacking essential services (New Arab). German society allows for this scale of hatred to be stated.
I was struck by the Washington Post’s feature of Rania Kadib Alban, a Syrian ENT who has integrated into German society. She describes that the quality of her German is now strong enough that a patient at her practice thought she was a “native-born local” before going on a rant against foreigners. Alban’s summary of this interaction as “‘funny, sad, racist’’ is accurate but chilling (Washington Post). Growing up in America, I am used to these “funny, sad, racist” interactions, though they are often less overt. I am shocked by the blatancy during in-person conversations in which Germans feel comfortable to voice their prejudices, especially considering their history. I am curious what this comfort stems from, and particularly, if it stems from the differences in German freedom of expression than the American freedom of expression allowances. I find this interesting largely because hate speech and insults are explicitly outlawed in Germany, whereas they are not in the US while German anti-immigrant sentiment appears incredibly vocal during in-person interactions such as this one with Alban.
There is also some level of saviorism amongst Europeans and the US that Mrie explores in Defiance despite those same anti-immigrant sentiments explored. One of those examples is the civil society workshop Mrie attended hosted by an Egyptian activist acting as though the an Alawite and a Kurd would be unable to split an orange equally or create a YouTube account (Mrie). Those moments reminded me of social justice fundraising initiatives that often go not directly to survivors or refugees, but towards broken systems or these sorts of westernizing workshops, in solving problems in ways that feel comfortable. Meanwhile, Syria still doesn’t have the proper infrastructure for refugees to repatriate, despite efforts of nations like Germany and Austria (InfoMigrants).
