Syrians in Germany refers to
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
n immigrants in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, or Germans with Syrian ancestry. The number of Syrians in Germany was estimated at around 800,000 people in March 2021, making it the third largest community of foreign nationals (after
Turks
Turk or Turks may refer to:
Communities and ethnic groups
* Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages
* Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
* Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...
and
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...
). The population consists mainly of
refugees of the Syrian Civil War, which began in the 2010s.
According to the 2020 German microcensus, the total number of people in Germany with Syrian roots (including non-Syrian nationals) was just over 1 million.
Between 2008 and 2015, the number of migrant employees in German companies grew by 50%.
Some other sources claim an estimated 200,000 Syrian citizens reside within Germany as of September 2015.
Among German districts,
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
and
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
had the highest shares of Syrian migrants in 2011, according to German Census data. In 2018, Germany granted 72% of Syrian refugees protection for the right to work without any setbacks or restrictions.
Migration history
During the
European migrant crisis
The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the continent to reques ...
of 2014-2015, hundreds of thousands of
Syrian refugees of the Syrian Civil War entered Germany to seek refugee status. The European migrant crisis was eased on September 4, 2015, by Chancellor
Werner Faymann
Werner Faymann (; born 4 May 1960) is an Austrian former politician who was Chancellor of Austria and chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) from 2008 to 2016. On 9 May 2016, he resigned from both positions amid widening critic ...
of Austria and Chancellor
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
of Germany. They announced that migrants would be allowed to cross the border from Hungary into Austria and onward to Germany. On the morning of September 5, 2015, buses with migrants began crossing the Austro-Hungarian border.
As of December 31, 2014, the Federal Statistical Office of Germany estimated that there were 118,196 people with Syrian citizenship in Germany.
According to the German Interior Ministry, between January 2015 and October 2015, there were 243,721 Syrian citizens who entered Germany to seek asylum.
Therefore, there were more than 360,000 Syrian citizens residing in Germany as of October 2015. As of 31 December 2016, the total number of Syrians in Germany reached 637,845.
Germany's peak number of asylum applicants peaked at 890,000 in 2015, however, the trend began to reverse. In 2018, only 185,000 Syrians applied for asylum in Germany. Despite the heavy drop in applications, deportations nearly doubled to 20,000 a year, marking a shifting sentiment among the German people away from the welcoming culture that brought thousands of Syrians to Germany since 2015. The changing sentiment among German leaders and citizens towards Syrian refugees comes in light of an increasingly right-wing Parliament. In the 2017 elections, the
Alternative für Deutschland
Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist
*
*
*
*
*
*
* political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany. I ...
(AfD) Party gained seats, bringing
far right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
opposition to immigration
Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory ...
to the national stage.
Of the approximately 740,000 Syrians living in Germany, under 1,000 of them voluntarily agreed to return to Syria in 2018. Due to this extremely low rate of return to Syria, there is growing concern amongst Syrian refugees that once the volunteers and criminals are deported from the country, the idea of deportations will be normalized. Some Syrians believe this normalization will lead to a larger wave of deportations that will negatively affect people who can't speak German, don't contribute to the economy, and are unable to fully adapt to the German culture.
A large part of the resistance to return to Syria is the ongoing war and
Bashar Al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
's rule of majority of the country.
Return of Syrian Refugees
Bashar Al-Assad is the 19th President of Syria and has been in leadership since 2000. He represents and is the regional secretary of the Arab Socialist Baath Party in Syria. He is the commander in chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and states publicly that the millions of citizens fleeing Syria are barred from returning.
In Syria, more than 500,000 people have been killed or gone missing, with roughly 387,118 documented deaths and 205,300 people missing and presumed dead.
The Syrian government is responsible for 156,329 deaths, alluding to the danger and fear Syrian refugees have to return to their home country or reunite with their family members. Germany falls under the top ten European countries for asylum applications as refugees seek freedom from the Syrian government, Kurdish forces, the Turkish military, Syrian rebels, the Islamic State, and Jihadist forces.
Syrian refugees travel to Germany seeking safety and community and do not intend on returning to Syria, unless the war is resolved and the various religious groups in Syria reconcile.
According to a survey regarding violence and the return of refugees, 18 refugee candidates from different areas of Syria have different perspectives. While 90% of Syrians indicate they are interested in returning to Syria, they believe these conditions need to be resolved first. 88% of candidates were from neighborhoods that were shelled, 92% felt threatened by the armed combat, and 88% had at least one family member or friend who was arrested, injured, or killed.
Refugees are also concerned for solidarity, as they must prioritize returning or relocating to a new country with their whole family. Some Syrians leave Syria with no intention of returning and are focused on attaining a European passport rather than fleeing from danger and violence.
The Syrian Refugee Crisis was the result of the Turkish government attempting to alter and renovate their immigration system, so that it would reach international standards akin to those of the European Union. Reforms made during this transformation affected the way Turkish authorities dealt with the situation. They could not manage the inflow of Syrians, which resulted with the problem being left at the will of national organizations working at the ground level, in camps, without larger policy guidance.
In the intervening time, formal immigration channels continued to be circumscribed to Europeans, while non-Europeans obtained momentary protection prestige and are anticipated to be assigned to be resettled in a third country.
Originally, the arrival of Syrian refugees in Turkey was moderately small. The crisis started in April 2011 when the Syrian government halted all anti-government protests. They used lethal force to dissipate the crowds, unaffected by the damage they dealt. By mid-summer 2011, around 15,000 Syrians had left the city in search of shelter, resideding at the Syrian border in Hatay Province.
They inhabited tent cities, but by the end of July, more than 5,000 had returned to Syria as the circumstances there had settled down. By the end of the year 2011, only 8,000 refugees continued to live in Turkey.
The rate of refugees increased drastically in 2012 as the previous ceasefire attempts had failed.
About 15,000 registered refugees had fled to the Hatay province along with projections of thousands more unregistered refugees fleeing to other provinces by March 2012. In response, Turkish officials started providing more tent cities throughout the southern provinces of Hatay, Kilis, Gaziantep, and Sanliurfa.
The situation only escalated when the idea of the ceasefire dissolved in mid-2012. A monthly average of more than 20,000 Syrians subsequently left to seek safety in Turkey. By year end 2012, it was recorded that more than 170,000 Syrian refugees resided in Turkey.
The monthly arrival rate had increased during 2013, and by the end of 2014, 55,000 refugees were seeking asylum in Turkey each month. The increase in the rate of refugees was driven by emerging violence from
ISIS
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
, which seized territories in Syria and Iraq during the summer of 2014.
Associations
Turkmen
Established in Germany, the "Suriye Türkmen Kültür ve Yardımlaşma Derneği - Avrupa", or "''STKYDA''", ("Syrian Turkmen Culture and Solidarity Association - Europe") was the first
Syrian Turkmen
Syrian Turkmen, also referred to as Syrian Turkomans, Turkish Syrians, or simply Syrian Turks or Turks of Syria, ( ar, تركمان سوريا; tr, Suriye Türkmenleri or ) are Syrian citizens of Turkish people, Turkish origin who mainly trace ...
association to be launched in Europe. It was established in order to help the growing Syrian Turkmen community who arrived in the country since the outbreak of the
Syrian Civil War. The association includes Syrian Turkmen youth activists from many different Syrian cities and who are now living across Western Europe.
Notable people
*
Aias Aosman
Aias Aosman ( ar, أياز عثمان; born 21 October 1994) is a Syrian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Pendikspor. He previously played for SC Wiedenbrück 2000, 1. FC Köln II, and SSV Jahn Regensburg. His younger brot ...
*
Mahmoud Dahoud
Mahmoud Dahoud (born 1 January 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Borussia Dortmund and the Germany national team.
He made his professional debut for Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2014, and, in ...
*
Mamoun Darkazanli
*
Rafed El-Masri
Rafed Ziad El-Masri ( ar, رافد زياد المصري; born August 10, 1982) is a German former swimmer of Syrian origin, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. He is also a four-time national champion for Germany, and a gold medalist for ...
*
Hanin Elias
Hanin Elias (born 31 May 1972) is a Syrian German industrial/techno artist. She was a member of Atari Teenage Riot and is now a solo artist.
After Atari Teenage Riot's non-definitive break in 2000, and the subsequent death of Carl Crack fro ...
*
Adel Karasholi
Adel Karasholi (Arabic: عادل قرشولي. born October 15, 1936) is a German and Arabic writer.
Life
Already a published poet in his youth, he founded a literary magazine in Damascus which was banned by the Syrian government. He then began w ...
*
Yusra Mardini
Yusra Mardini OLY ( ar, يسرى مارديني; born 5 March 1998) is a Syrian former competition swimmer and refugee of the Syrian civil war. She was a member of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team (ROT) that competed under the Olympic flag ...
*
Sarah Mardini
Sarah Mardini ( ar, سارة مارديني; born 1995) is a Syrian former competition swimmer, lifeguard and human rights activist. Fleeing her country in 2015 during the Syrian civil war with her sister, Olympic swimmer Yusra Mardini, they pul ...
*
![Yousefradwan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Yousefradwan.jpg)
Rafik Schami
Rafik is the given name of:
*Rafik Al-Hariri (1944–2005), business tycoon, former Prime Minister of Lebanon
*Rafik Bouderbal (born 1987), French-born Algerian player currently playing for ES Sétif in the Algerian Championnat National
*Rafik Deg ...
*
Bassam Tibi
Bassam Tibi ( ar, بسام طيبي), is a Syrian-born German political scientist and professor of international relations specializing in Islamic studies and Middle Eastern studies. He was born in 1944 in Damascus, Syria to an aristocratic famil ...
*
Radwan Yousef
*
Mohammed Haydar Zammar
Mohammed Haydar Zammar ( ar, محمد حيدر زمار ''Muḥammad Ḥaydar Zammār'') (born 1961) is a Syrian-German militant who served as an important al-Qaida recruiter, and is currently a member of the Islamic State. He claims to have re ...
See also
*
Syrian diaspora
Syrian diaspora refers to Syrian people and their descendants who chose or were forced to emigrate from Syria and now reside in other countries as immigrants, or as refugees of the Syrian Civil War.
The number of Syrians outside Syria is es ...
**
Syrians in Austria
**
Syrians in Sweden
Syrians in Sweden are citizens and residents of Sweden who are of Syrian descent. As of 2019, there were 191,530 residents of Sweden born in Syria, and 50,620 born in Sweden with at least one Syrian-born parent.
Demographics
Most Syrians residi ...
**
Syrians in Norway
**
Syrians in Denmark
Syrians in Denmark are citizens and residents of Denmark who are of Syrian descent.
Demographics
Syrians in Denmark arrived primarily as asylum seekers after the Syrian civil war. According to Statistics Denmark, as of 2017, there are a total ...
**
Syrians in Turkey
Syrians in Turkey (, ), includes Turkish citizens of Syrian origin, Syrian refugees, and other Syrian citizens resident in Turkey. As of January 2023 there are more than 3,500,000 registered refugees of the Syrian Civil War in Turkey, which ho ...
*
Arabs in Germany
Arab Germans, also referred to as German Arabs or Arabic Germans (german: Araber in Deutschland/Deutsch-Araber; ar, العرب في المانيا), are ethnic Arabs living in Germany. They form the second-largest predominantly Muslim immigrant ...
**
Arabs in Berlin
Arabs in Berlin form the fourth-largest ethnic minority group in Berlin, after the Turkish, Polish and Russian community. As of December 2017, there are about 135,000 people of any Arab origin residing in the city, which corresponds to 3.5% of t ...
*
Arab diaspora
Arab diaspora (also known as MENA diaspora, as a short version for the Middle East and North Africa diaspora) refers to descendants of the Arab people, Arab Emigration, emigrants who, voluntarily or as refugees, emigrated from their native lands ...
**
Arabs in Europe
Arabs in Europe are people of Arab descent living in Europe today and over the centuries. Several million Arabs are residents in Europe. The vast majority form part of what is sometimes called the "Arab diaspora", i.e. ethnic Arabs or people des ...
*
Kurds in Germany
Kurds in Germany are residents or citizens of Germany of full or partial Kurdish origin. There is a large Kurdish community in Germany. The number of Kurds living in Germany is unknown. Many estimates assume that the number is in the million ran ...
*
Turks in Germany
Turks in Germany, also referred to as German Turks and Turkish Germans (german: Türken in Deutschland/Deutschtürken; tr, Almanya'da yaşayan Türkler/Almanya Türkleri), are ethnic Turkish people living in Germany. These terms are also used t ...
References
{{Immigration to Germany
Arabs in Germany
Ethnic groups in Germany
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
Syrian emigrants to Germany
Middle Eastern diaspora in Germany
Refugees of the Syrian civil war