{"id":522,"date":"2025-11-10T16:14:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T21:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2025\/?p=522"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:43:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T18:43:02","slug":"the-death-of-germanys-welcoming-culture-for-syrians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2025\/the-death-of-germanys-welcoming-culture-for-syrians\/","title":{"rendered":"The Death of Germany\u2019s \u2018Welcoming Culture\u2019 for Syrians"},"content":{"rendered":"

10 years ago, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany\u2019s borders to Syrian refugees, sparking the genesis of the nation\u2019s \u2018Wilkommenskulture\u2019 \u2014 welcoming culture. After Assad\u2019s fall, the rise of the center-right, and escalating anti-immigrant sentiment, Germany\u2019s politicians are increasingly divided on the topic of Syrian repatriation.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Everything happened all at once.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hesham Moamadani\u2019s German passport, freshly minted just a few days prior, was glistening on his desk. Moamadani was anxiously gnawing on his fingernails. Bashar al-Assad, Syria\u2019s dictator, had fallen. Moamadani once believed the day would never arrive. And yet it did, the news landing ever so mundanely on his screen as if making a mockery out of the beads of sweat dripping from his forehead, never mind Berlin\u2019s subzero December freeze.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moamadani was one of nearly <\/span>300,000 people<\/span><\/a> who were granted German citizenship in 2024, a record for the nation. A large number of Syrian refugees who arrived during former German Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s border openings in 2015-2016 became eligible for naturalization that year; Moamadani was one of them. What most didn\u2019t anticipate was that the dreaded Assad regime would collapse abruptly, mobilizing a stream of disputes within the German government on whether or not to repatriate Syrian nationals back to their home country. Particularly inflamed by the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment throughout the West, German politicians remain divided. And Syrians, many of whom have lived in Germany for years but are yet to receive their citizenship, remain in judicial limbo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHardly anyone can live here with dignity,\u201d Germany\u2019s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> in a statement to German news network Deutsche Welle after a visit to Damascus, Syria, earlier this month. During a meeting in parliament, Wadephul allegedly made a remark that said today\u2019s \u201cSyria looked worse than postwar Germany.\u201d A member of Germany\u2019s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Wadephul\u2019s statements drew the attention of high-ranking German politicians and drew scrutiny from more conservative party counterparts. Germany\u2019s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose pointed remarks appeared to indirectly address Wadephul, noted that \u201cthere is no longer any reason for [Syrian] asylum in Germany, and therefore, [Germany] can begin repatriations.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The rightward shift in mainstream German politics reflects a larger wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that has taken hold of the country in recent years. While for now, voluntary repatriation and deportations of Syrians with criminal records remain at the forefront of the CDU\u2019s policies, only 0.1% of Germany\u2019s Syrians have voluntarily returned to their homeland a year after Assad\u2019s fall. Those like Moamadani know that they are lucky. But for the hundreds of thousands of Syrians in more precarious circumstances \u2014 such as those with temporary residence permits or a subsidiary protection status \u2014 small political shifts can feel life-altering.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 years ago, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany\u2019s borders to Syrian refugees, sparking the genesis of the nation\u2019s \u2018Wilkommenskulture\u2019 \u2014 welcoming culture. After Assad\u2019s fall, the rise of the center-right, and escalating anti-immigrant sentiment, Germany\u2019s politicians are increasingly divided on the topic of Syrian repatriation. Everything happened all at once.\u00a0 Hesham Moamadani\u2019s German<\/p>\n

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