Syrian Refugees: Trusted Members and Mayors of German Communities

Syrian refugees continue to emphasize their active role in the new communities they have settled in across Europe, after being forced by the military machine of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to seek a new home away from war.

In a historic step among the new achievements of Syrian refugees in Germany, two Syrian refugees have succeeded in winning the position of mayor in important states.

Around 924,000 Syrian refugees have been living in Germany since Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed them during the peak of the refugee crisis in 2015.

 

New Achievements

The Syrian refugee Ryyan Alshebl won the position of mayor of Ostelsheim in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany on April 3, 2023, after he received an absolute majority (55.41%) of the votes in the elections, according to the German magazine Stern.

The 29-year-old Alshebl, who hails from the city of Sweida, studied financial and banking administration in Syria, and arrived in Germany in 2015 and quickly learned the language.

He then worked in vocational training as an administrative assistant before leading his election campaign and achieving his ambition in a town where he has no historical roots.

Alshebl ran as an independent candidate, despite being a member of the German Green Party since 2017.

He beat out candidates from the town, whose population is about 2,500, after convincing voters that he was the most suitable person for the job over his competitor, Marco Strauss.

Alshebl said in a television interview: “We have a lot of tasks that must be addressed in Ostelsheim, including improving childcare and care for the elderly, and we must achieve this as soon as possible.”

The victory of Alshebl came a week after the victory of Syrian-German politician Mike Joseph, 40, from the Social Democratic Party, in the runoff election for the position of mayor of Frankfurt, surpassing his competitor Uwe Becker.

Joseph is originally from Qamishli, northeastern Syria, but he arrived in Germany with his family in 1987, and he is not classified as a new refugee.

He holds a degree in political science from Fachoberschule University, and he has been heading the Planning and Housing Office in Frankfurt municipality since 2016.

Joseph focused on social, security, and economic issues in his election program, saying that it is essential to have no prohibited areas with high levels of violence and drug trafficking.

German media reported that citizens whom Alshebl met during his campaign said: “We care about his competence, not his origin.” One of them added: “We need a good candidate. I do not care if he is Syrian, German, or Romanian.”

 

Democratic Experience

According to the Migration Research Group, only 1.2% of the mayors of German cities have migration backgrounds, which is a low number compared to 27% of Germany’s population who have origins from other countries.

Interestingly, the recent achievement of Syrians in the diaspora, especially in Germany, was not the only one.

Hassan al-Khater, born in 1989, from the same town as Alshebl, won a seat in the foreign branch of the city council of Kassel, Germany, after the results of the local elections were announced in March 2021.

Al-Khater’s election program was to work on helping successful integration and coexistence of foreigners in Kassel and to make their voices heard in the local parliament of the city.

Al-Khater holds a master’s degree in law from the University of Gottingen, Germany, in September 2021. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Al-Furat University in Deir ez-Zor, Syria, and moved to Germany as a refugee in mid-2015, before being able to complete all language stages to reach DSH at the University of Kassel.

Al-Khater explained to Al-Estiklal that the elections in which he won a seat on the advisory council are held once every five years, and this is the first time that a foreigner has been elected to this council, which is responsible for reviewing and making recommendations for all issues related to foreigners in the city.

He stated that he had nominated himself for these elections at the beginning of 2021, explaining that the Advisory Council serves as a bridge between the German government in the city of Kassel and foreigners in the city, and works to represent all nationalities in the city except for Germans, and is the link in all aspects of the state.

Regarding his new political experience, al-Khater said: “I was able to prove myself in a great country with all its nationalities and to have my first democratic experience and exercise my right in all its forms after obtaining German citizenship.”

Al-Khater believes that he bears the responsibility of being a voice for foreigners residing on German soil in the city of Kassel to achieve the demands of those who trusted and elected him.

The successes of Syrians, who enjoy support and endorsement from German citizens, come as a cumulative model over the past decades, as their peers have been able to reach government positions there.

In 2021, three Germans of Syrian origin won in parliamentary elections, two of whom are members of the German Parliament (Bundestag), and the third is a member of the Berlin state parliament.

They are Rasha Nasr, Lamya Kaddor, and Jian Omar, and all three have been living in Germany since before 2011.

In Germany, the European countries that hosts the most Syrian refugees, these refugees have shown a special readiness to integrate, for example, through strong language skills and compliance with applicable laws.

According to a statement by the Federal Statistical Office on May 10, 2022, 19,095 Syrians obtained German citizenship in 2021.

It was also mentioned that Syrians ranked first in the number of naturalizations, followed by Turks with 12,245 and Romanians in third place with 6,920.

Many Syrian refugees in Germany who obtained citizenship participated in voting for the first time in the nationwide elections on September 26, 2021, to choose a new chancellor to succeed Angela Merkel.

Tarek Saad, a 28-year-old political science student who obtained German citizenship and voted for the first time, was quoted by Reuters as saying that “Our parents lived under a different political system for long years [in Syria]…This is an opportunity to develop a new generation [in Germany].”

A study conducted by the Expert Council on Integration and Migration in Germany and published in 2020 concluded that 65% of citizens of non-German origin cast their votes in 2017, compared to a rate of 86% among native Germans.

The study mentioned that the longer people spend in Germany, the more likely they are to feel understood and able to participate in political life.

This political ascent of Syrians who fled the Assad regime represents a new chapter in the book of those who preceded them, who shone in the diaspora with their experiences, knowledge, and skills in the countries they migrated to around the world until they assumed ministerial positions.

Among them is Omar Alghabra, who was appointed as the Minister of Transport in Canada by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the beginning of 2021. In recent years, Syrian immigrants have been able to reach government positions in Europe.

For example, Dutch-Syrian Mahaar Fattal, who ran for the Green Left party, won a seat in the city council of Utrecht, the fourth-largest city in the Netherlands, during the elections held in mid-March 2022.