Migration - Perspectives from North Africa and the Middle East - Ruya - Goethe-Institut

Three photos. The left depecting a mother looking at her young son. The photo in the middle showing a man looking at an empty city square at night. The photo on the right showing a woman with brown hair looking at the camera. — Migration

Is migration good or bad, how can and should it be dealt with? Those and other questions were subject to sometimes heated discussions between politicians, economists, media representatives, “experts,” as well as ordinary people and neighbours. However, important voices more often than not failed to be heard: those of migrants and persons with migrant background themselves.

Three photos. The one on the left depicting a small hillside town in Syria. In the middle Huda Al-Jundi, a woman wearing a hijab, holding a book with the title "Kuchen trifft Orient" (cake meets orient). On the right a photo of a small town by a river.

Migration4 min
My German-Syrian headscarf identity and my trip to the hairdresser

“And where do you come from?” Hmm, what should I say now!? I could say Worms, the ancient German town where I was born and enjoy the unsatisfied look on the hairdresser’s face, or I could say Syria, which is what she’s really asking about; most people aren’t interested in where I was born and grew up.

Watercolour drawing of a large yellow, pink, red robot reaching out to a small child sitting on the ground.

Migration4 min
Being a Stranger in a Second Language

When you leave your home or familiar environment – either voluntarily or by force, through migration or displacement – you are likely to feel alien in your new environment. People migrate for different reasons and feel alienated in different ways, by the physical space – the location itself – or by the new language that now surrounds them.

Three photos. On the left a mother Fatima el-Mutahar looking at her young son, in the middle Ali Hassan a young man with his back to the camera looking at an empty city square at night, on the right Rose Kuku sitting with her young son on her lap.

Migration7 min
Migrants in Egypt: Between estrangement and alienation

There are those who came to Egypt alongside foreign occupiers or as invaders, and those who came to escape war or poor conditions in their own countries, seeking asylum elsewhere. This is not to mention those people living in Egypt because of work, study or marriage to Egyptians, all of which reasons might lead us to assume that there has been an increase in acceptance and integration of the other, and not the reverse.

A group of ca. 40 members of the African community in Jerusalem at the opening of a community centre in 1996

Migration3 min
The Africans of Jerusalem: alienation and counter-alienation

I was the eighth. My father, an African, came from the city of Masina in Chad and my mother was a Palestinian "white" mother from Jericho in the Jordan Valley. I grew up as the mulatto ("muwallad") kid in the African neighbourhood. This is how the first generation of African immigrants to Jerusalem were known.

Palestinian territories

Four photos. From left two right: A tall old bridge over a river in Mostar, a small town. A hand holding several ripe mulberries. Two empty coffee cups on a terrace overlooking the city of Amman. An old mulberry tree.

Migration5 min
Cities without rivers

"Do not spend more than three days in a city. On the first day, you can claim not to know the language in order to be alone with your thoughts. On the second day, you can ask local people for directions. On the third day, you can show tourists the way to the mosque... But on the fourth day, you have no choice but to leave."

Protesters in Beirut, holding up signs to protest the kafala system, which strips migrant workers of their rights and binds them to their employers.

Migration3 min
Migration under the Kafala System – When Human Beings Become Commodities

“Where is your bint from?” is not an unusual question in Lebanon. Bint is a loaded term that refers to thousands of African and Asian workers arriving in Lebanon every year.

An elderly woman, Hassina, has her arm around a young boy, Fayçal, they are standing on their balcony, facing the bay of Algiers. — Migration experience between hope and despair

The photographer and artist Leïla Saadna met six humans from different backgrounds in Algiers, Algeria. She spoke to them about their individual experiences as migrants in Algeria and Europe.

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