Germany. Newruz, a refugee from Syria lives with Claudia and Tobias in Berlin. Photo: Aubrey Wade / UNHCR
We are all refugees
At the beginning of their friendship, Newruz (20) couldn’t stay with Claudia and Tobias in Berlin for more than a few days at a time. The Kurdish Syrian from Homs arrived in Germany in July 2015, but was registered and housed in a refugee centre in Meißen in Saxony, Tobias’ hometown.
After news of repeated arson attacks on asylum centres, Claudia and Tobias decided they wanted to do something positive. On their next visit to Tobias’s family home, they organised a guided walk for residents of the local refugee centre, to explore the nature areas in and around Meißen. Newruz joined in and they struck up a friendship.
Claudia and Tobias, who both grew up in former East Germany, escaped to West Berlin in the 1980s, Claudia just two years before the Berlin wall came down. “At the end of the day, we are all refugees,” she says with a smile.
“When we first told my father that Newruz would move in with us,” Tobias says, “he smiled and his eyes sparkled. I wasn’t expecting such a positive reaction. He told us that in 1945 every public building in Meißen housed refugees. And when he was a child, they had a refugee woman from Poland living with them for a while too. The only difference is that today they come from further afield.”
I wasn’t expecting such a positive reaction.
In December, Newruz came to visit them in Berlin and stayed for ten days over Christmas. “So we could get to know each other,” says Claudia.
Finally, after waiting nine months for his papers, Newruz officially moved in with Claudia and Tobias in March 2016. With an agreement from the job centre to cover the rent, Newruz was free to chose where he lives. Claudia says, “this arrangement means we are equals. Sometimes I catch myself mothering him a little, because we have children that are his age, but we are really more like flatmates.”
“Berlin and Homs are very similar,” Says Newruz. “In terms of food, cycling around the streets. Maybe the markets are a bit bigger here… Meißen was very different, but Berlin is like my city and I have a few friends here now.”
Newruz attends a language and integration course for three hours a day and has just completed an internship with the local Montessori school. The experience has been life changing. Having started his training as an electrician in Syria he now wants to change course and study to become a nursery teacher.
Portrait by Aubrey Wade
Assisted by Stjepan Sedlar
Text by Sarah Böttcher
This story is part of the No Stranger Place series, which tells stories of refugees and locals living together in Europe. The project was initiated by Aubrey Wade, Sarah Böttcher and Stjepan Sedlar, and developed in partnership with UNHCR and Nadine Alfa.
