Seen and Unseen: Refugees in Darmstadt

When a country suddenly gains over a million new residents, you’d think it would be easy to tell the newcomers from the locals. In my first few days in Darmstadt (Germany), this didn’t seem to be the case.

Germany has granted asylum to more refugees than any other European country, currently just over 1 million. Knowing that, I expected to see many Syrian refugees while out and about in Darmstadt. So far, I have seen a handful of people dressed in traditional Muslim clothing (about ¾ of the Syrian population is Muslim). For the most part though, I cannot easily distinguish long-time Darmstadt residents from refugees who have arrived in the past few years.

Do I not notice a defined separation between these two groups because I am not familiar with Germany? Are refugees so integrated into German culture that to an outsider such as myself the difference isn’t obvious, or do they keep to themselves?

We met a Syrian refugee today who is a student at Hochshule Darmstadt (Darmstadt University). Even when describing his journey to Germany, he emphasized that he did not want to be considered a refugee, and said that mentality is extremely common among other refugees.  That confining identification refugees feel likely contributes to them blending in relatively well with native Germans.

“You live on two things in Syria: fear and hope. That is all there is.” -Syrian refugee

Kylie Bowman

Kylie is first and foremost flattered that you have read this far. Thank you for doing so! A 2017 graduate from the University of Wisconsin Stout, Kylie looks forward to finding a job that fits her passions for creating content, editing, and working with interesting topics. In the meantime, she is grateful to be involved in this Digital Refuge/e blog and have the freedom to pursue her creative endeavors.