35,000 likes: how a Syrian is shedding light on the German training system
Faisal arrives in Germany in 2014 and doesn’t speak the language. He can’t understand what the people on the street are chatting about, what the woman working on the till at the supermarket is saying to him. But that doesn’t stop him from approaching people. Why a person should fear making contact with others just because they don’t speak a language perfectly is something that the 29-year-old has never understood. After all, there’s often no better way to learn a language than by speaking it. Faisal senses a distance between Germans and migrants. Many migrants don’t dare to speak to Germans and some Germans are fearful of making contact with migrants. So prejudices remain. But Faisal is open-minded.
“People are scared of foreigners. That’s why we need to make sure that the foreigner doesn’t stay foreign.”
An escape from war and a new start in Hamburg
Faisal is also open to a great deal of knowledge. About natural sciences, for example. In his home city of Damascus, Faisal is studying chemistry and is on the brink of graduating from university. Then the war arrives. And with it comes the end of his studies, his home and his relationship with his girlfriend, Rahaf. Whilst Rahaf flees to Saudi Arabia, Faisal arrives in Hamburg following a detour. After first spending two years in Lebanon, his mother’s home country, he becomes part of an EU programme, travels to Germany legally with his mother and his brother, Abdul, and gets the chance of a new start here. That was in 2014.
At the very beginning of his time in Hamburg he attends a “welcome dinner”, getting to know people and finding friends – including Birte Rauf and Nina Briskorn. The two women work at OTTO and tell Faisal about the German training system, explaining what the vocational training scheme is all about, as there isn’t an equivalent in Syria.
The former student attends German course after German course, always with the aim of being able to enter into working life before long. Shortly afterwards, he sends out applications: three for dual studies programmes, nine for vocational training schemes. All in the field of IT. In the end, Faisal is even able to choose between two training schemes and promptly begins his vocational training as an IT specialist at OTTO at the start of the 2016 intake.
“Syrian trainees” sheds light on the German education system in Arabic
At the same time, Faisal wants to share what he’s learnt about the training system. He publishes posts on Facebook, explaining the system and reporting on his own experiences – not in German, but in Arabic. The way that people resonate with these posts is overwhelming for the then 27-year-old. More and more of his compatriots, who have also come to Germany, are writing him messages, asking him questions, wanting to become friends with him on Facebook. Faisal decides to create a group. He calls it, “Syrer Azubis” or “Syrian trainees”. All members of the group can write posts, ask questions, and answer questions posed by others.
Whilst Faisal spends his weeks at the office or at the vocational college, at the weekends he sits at his computer and writes. He writes about his training and other things. Together with his brother, Abdul, who has found a training position as a retail salesman at Edeka, and two other members of the group, he eventually creates the website syrazubis.de. The concept remains the same, but the dimensions become larger. The young men explain more about the different training opportunities in Germany, about vocational fields, perspectives and salaries, about cover letters and application portfolios. They research the information themselves, using their language skills to convey the workings of the system in the language which many of their friends, acquaintances and compatriots find easier to understand when they arrive in Germany for the first time – Arabic.
Since its inception, Faisal has shed light on over 90 different training occupations on his homepage. And in doing this, he’s not only concerned about the information itself. Faisal sees information as the key to integration. That’s why his work is so important to him.
“With my page, I want to contribute to a kind of Syrian model. I don’t want to live in a parallel word, but instead I want to show the Germans that we’re cool people. We want to work and we can do something!”
A marriage against all odds
The website is a success story. Faisal’s mailboxes are full. There are lots of migrants who have questions, who want to apply, want to work. But the time that Faisal can spend on this work must be well organised. If he’s not already in the office or at the college, he’s working at his weekend job. All this, so that his wife can come to Germany – yes, his wife. Because even though the war tears them apart in 2012, Faisal and Rahaf stay in contact. After five years, he visits his sweetheart in Saudi Arabia in 2017 and marries her. Faisal returns to Germany, but he must leave Rahaf behind. The decision on whether she may enter Germany and be with her husband is now fast approaching. The couple are expecting an answer in October. Whenever Faisal talks about this prospect, his eyes light up. An expression that can be understood in any language.
