[Music]
so a few years ago it was April much
better weather than this April but
that’s when I arrived to the US I
arrived to a suburb of Atlanta Georgia
to start a new life it wasn’t really a
choice of mine or my families but we had
to do that nonetheless and I was
intending from the beginning to make the
best out of it
now I knew there will be challenges but
there’s one category of challenges that
I had not anticipated and this was
people’s reactions when I tell them
where I’m from especially being a woman
and especially with the refugee status
so eventually I realized that these
reactions can be categorized into three
different buckets first of all there’s
pity those reactions that fall in the
category of oh my God where are you from
oh I’m so sorry or this has happened to
you or that’s what happened to your
country and we’re very sorry about it
now I know that these reactions are
normally very well intended I know that
people who say these things are
kind-hearted and they probably mean well
but to me it always felt like I don’t
want to be patted on the shoulder I
don’t want to feel like someone is being
condescending towards me and I don’t
feel like I want to be treated like a
wounded little cat you know like I’m
just a person so treat me like a person
the second category of reactions was
fear now I might be one of the lucky
ones who didn’t suffer from this as much
as others because maybe I look more
modern or normal than many other people
coming from my region I’m quoting and
quoting because I don’t really believe
in these words but yeah so I one example
I can say is that I had a neighbor in my
building who always used to say good
morning and then all of a sudden he
stopped and that was the day he met my
mom who
insta wear headscarf now the third
category of reactions is actually my
absolute favorite and these are in the
categories of your from where and you
look like this now I actually have no
idea what that’s supposed to mean but
I’m assuming it has to do with maybe
just having my hair out or maybe wearing
red lipstick almost all the time I have
no idea but it just felt like you know
I’m looked at at some as some sort of
alien and but I always took it with a
grain of salt laughed it off and moved
on so now this over time got me to
really think why can’t the typical
reaction to the question of where are
you from just be oh you’re from there
okay seriously why can’t it just be okay
why can’t I just be viewed as a normal
human being who has just flesh and blood
and soul like anyone else around here
why is it so difficult for people to
perceive people from my region as people
who have just you know work experiences
in dreams and failed relationships and
cool best friends that they gossip with
– sitting right here by the way and and
have like young siblings that they pick
on and you know all those sorts of
normal life things that every one of us
here has why does it always have to be
some sort of an extreme somewhat
reassumed reaction so I kind of gave in
at that point and I started just trying
my very very best to just be as American
as possible so that I can feel normal I
slowly realized that I almost was almost
never speaking Arabic anymore I was
usually just speaking English much more
than Arabic I was listening to more pop
music than I was listening to really
awesome Arabic music which now I
realized that it’s really awesome but it
took some time I was eating more burgers
for fast food than shawarma grates in
never will happen again and and I was
now the worst part is that I became so
obsessed with just climbing the American
corporate ladder more than I was you
know more than I cared about what
get up in the morning with a smile on my
face because I’m doing something that I
liked and the worst thing that I was
doing in my opinion was that I was
spending a lot more time talking about
reality TV shows and the Atlanta highway
traffic then I was discussing the crisis
in Syria so I had a wake-up moment and I
realized that I did not integrate I
actually just completely assimilated
from the world that I came from I
thought that um you know I I have put
that pain of the region that I came from
to sleep but actually all I did was hit
a snooze button because at some point it
all just came back I had my what on
earth are you doing moment which was
great because then the first thing I did
was quit my job it was awesome the best
decision I ever did so I quit my really
fancy and cool American corporate job
and I hopped on a plane I had just
become an American citizen so I could
afford to hop on a plane and fly without
having a million visa and passport
checks going on so I got on a plane and
went to Hungary and from there that
wasn’t fall of 2015 and this was the
height of what was called in the media
as the refugee crisis so I went to
Hungary and I spent a few months hopping
between the Balkan borders so I hopped
between Croatia Slovenia obviously
Hungary and Austria and I also made it
to Germany and this was my first
interaction with Berlin I got involved
with a few social initiatives and I also
spent some time working in Lebanon
working in Turkey and eventually I just
realized that this will be my long-term
career path I will be working in a field
that will have an impact on the region
that I came from I also realized though
that I didn’t want to do relief work I
didn’t want to do crisis support because
it felt to me that yes someone needs to
do it but it feels to be more like
you’re putting one
and you’re putting band-aids on wounds
but you’re not really fixing real
problems and what I really wanted to do
was contribute to longer-term social and
economic change so that got me to where
I am right now I realized that the best
way to develop the region or any region
that’s undergoing conflict and extreme
circumstances weak infrastructure and
corruption the best way is bottom-up
development it’s not reliance on foreign
aid but its reliance but it’s
encouraging the people to take destiny
into their own hands and one way to do
this is entrepreneurship so one thing
that is really important is to actually
encourage people to empower themselves
economically so this is what led me to
what I’m doing right now I’m doing my
PhD here in the table in the Technical
University of Berlin focusing on better
understanding entrepreneurship under
such exceptional circumstances and how
entrepreneurship can be a key vehicle
for economic empowerment for
peacebuilding and for social change now
looking at Syria as an example the
unemployment rate in Syria rose from 15%
in 2011 to 78% in 2015 additional
research shows that the key reason why
actually young Syrians join armed groups
is for susta for achieving economic
stability and that’s kind of standard
everywhere all of us as young people if
we don’t have jobs we’re very likely to
get in trouble
just some kind of trouble if we don’t
have goals to work on if we’re not
studying if we’re not learning if we’re
not contributing we’re gonna get in
trouble so for me focusing on helping
people start businesses is a way to help
people not get in trouble and therefore
have something to work on now this might
sound like a bit far-fetched right like
why would someone under such
circumstances start a business why would
that even be something that they do
now here this a study was done in 2009
by the Global Entrepreneurship monitor
in Syria shows that 89%
eighty-nine percent as close to ninety
percent of adult Syrians perceive
entrepreneurship as a valid career
option that gives them stability and
high status in the community
eighty percent of Syrians are not afraid
of taking risks associated with starting
businesses we’re talking about a country
with a very highly entrepreneurial
culture as is now adding to that today
right now in Syria there are over forty
four zero organizations working to
foster entrepreneurship among youth I
personally know quite a lot of tech
entrepreneurs artists and social
innovators working inside Syria and
outside of the country as refugees and
they are just doing absolutely
fascinating things so taking the German
perspective for a little bit even in
terms of refugee integration the
Deutsche Bank has said that refugees is
the best thing to happen to Germany and
the Institute of economic research in
Germany has said that financial benefits
of refugees could exceed the costs
invested in refugees in as little as
five years of having refugees entering
the country
if integrated properly so you can see
the huge amount of potential there is
and look around where we are right now
we’re in Berlin in this particular city
a start-up is founded every 20 minutes
so imagine the potential that exists
here now the funny thing is the more I
dive into this research the more I
realize how much time I frickin wasted
just thinking about I don’t want people
to look at me as a source of pity or I
don’t want to be scary or I don’t want
to look cool or exotic but you know what
it doesn’t really matter because I yeah
of course I come from a region that has
been in crisis for as long as I can
remember but you know what it is so damn
awesome to be from there I absolutely
have nothing more to regret or to be
ashamed of or to be scared of my mother
tongue is a language that is so damn
complex it makes German sounds like a
piece of cake to learn which is great
I mean you know there are quite a quite
a few good things that can come out of
the region
besides what we already talked about if
any of you has ever partied with Arabs
you can just sit down at a table it
might be a normal dinner soon enough it
might turn into a street party super
normal and let’s face it we open the
best restaurants everywhere we go I can
take a shower mind Caban tabbouleh /
schnitzels and curry Wurst any time of
the day any time of the week
my hope is just that next time any of us
here looks at someone or meets someone
coming from a region that has a lot of
stereotypes associated with it
maybe we can start with something
besides the pre assumptions or judgments
maybe we can just start with a hello and
see where that goes
so hello thank you
you
so a few years ago it was April much
better weather than this April but
that’s when I arrived to the US I
arrived to a suburb of Atlanta Georgia
to start a new life it wasn’t really a
choice of mine or my families but we had
to do that nonetheless and I was
intending from the beginning to make the
best out of it
now I knew there will be challenges but
there’s one category of challenges that
I had not anticipated and this was
people’s reactions when I tell them
where I’m from especially being a woman
and especially with the refugee status
so eventually I realized that these
reactions can be categorized into three
different buckets first of all there’s
pity those reactions that fall in the
category of oh my God where are you from
oh I’m so sorry or this has happened to
you or that’s what happened to your
country and we’re very sorry about it
now I know that these reactions are
normally very well intended I know that
people who say these things are
kind-hearted and they probably mean well
but to me it always felt like I don’t
want to be patted on the shoulder I
don’t want to feel like someone is being
condescending towards me and I don’t
feel like I want to be treated like a
wounded little cat you know like I’m
just a person so treat me like a person
the second category of reactions was
fear now I might be one of the lucky
ones who didn’t suffer from this as much
as others because maybe I look more
modern or normal than many other people
coming from my region I’m quoting and
quoting because I don’t really believe
in these words but yeah so I one example
I can say is that I had a neighbor in my
building who always used to say good
morning and then all of a sudden he
stopped and that was the day he met my
mom who
insta wear headscarf now the third
category of reactions is actually my
absolute favorite and these are in the
categories of your from where and you
look like this now I actually have no
idea what that’s supposed to mean but
I’m assuming it has to do with maybe
just having my hair out or maybe wearing
red lipstick almost all the time I have
no idea but it just felt like you know
I’m looked at at some as some sort of
alien and but I always took it with a
grain of salt laughed it off and moved
on so now this over time got me to
really think why can’t the typical
reaction to the question of where are
you from just be oh you’re from there
okay seriously why can’t it just be okay
why can’t I just be viewed as a normal
human being who has just flesh and blood
and soul like anyone else around here
why is it so difficult for people to
perceive people from my region as people
who have just you know work experiences
in dreams and failed relationships and
cool best friends that they gossip with
– sitting right here by the way and and
have like young siblings that they pick
on and you know all those sorts of
normal life things that every one of us
here has why does it always have to be
some sort of an extreme somewhat
reassumed reaction so I kind of gave in
at that point and I started just trying
my very very best to just be as American
as possible so that I can feel normal I
slowly realized that I almost was almost
never speaking Arabic anymore I was
usually just speaking English much more
than Arabic I was listening to more pop
music than I was listening to really
awesome Arabic music which now I
realized that it’s really awesome but it
took some time I was eating more burgers
for fast food than shawarma grates in
never will happen again and and I was
now the worst part is that I became so
obsessed with just climbing the American
corporate ladder more than I was you
know more than I cared about what
get up in the morning with a smile on my
face because I’m doing something that I
liked and the worst thing that I was
doing in my opinion was that I was
spending a lot more time talking about
reality TV shows and the Atlanta highway
traffic then I was discussing the crisis
in Syria so I had a wake-up moment and I
realized that I did not integrate I
actually just completely assimilated
from the world that I came from I
thought that um you know I I have put
that pain of the region that I came from
to sleep but actually all I did was hit
a snooze button because at some point it
all just came back I had my what on
earth are you doing moment which was
great because then the first thing I did
was quit my job it was awesome the best
decision I ever did so I quit my really
fancy and cool American corporate job
and I hopped on a plane I had just
become an American citizen so I could
afford to hop on a plane and fly without
having a million visa and passport
checks going on so I got on a plane and
went to Hungary and from there that
wasn’t fall of 2015 and this was the
height of what was called in the media
as the refugee crisis so I went to
Hungary and I spent a few months hopping
between the Balkan borders so I hopped
between Croatia Slovenia obviously
Hungary and Austria and I also made it
to Germany and this was my first
interaction with Berlin I got involved
with a few social initiatives and I also
spent some time working in Lebanon
working in Turkey and eventually I just
realized that this will be my long-term
career path I will be working in a field
that will have an impact on the region
that I came from I also realized though
that I didn’t want to do relief work I
didn’t want to do crisis support because
it felt to me that yes someone needs to
do it but it feels to be more like
you’re putting one
and you’re putting band-aids on wounds
but you’re not really fixing real
problems and what I really wanted to do
was contribute to longer-term social and
economic change so that got me to where
I am right now I realized that the best
way to develop the region or any region
that’s undergoing conflict and extreme
circumstances weak infrastructure and
corruption the best way is bottom-up
development it’s not reliance on foreign
aid but its reliance but it’s
encouraging the people to take destiny
into their own hands and one way to do
this is entrepreneurship so one thing
that is really important is to actually
encourage people to empower themselves
economically so this is what led me to
what I’m doing right now I’m doing my
PhD here in the table in the Technical
University of Berlin focusing on better
understanding entrepreneurship under
such exceptional circumstances and how
entrepreneurship can be a key vehicle
for economic empowerment for
peacebuilding and for social change now
looking at Syria as an example the
unemployment rate in Syria rose from 15%
in 2011 to 78% in 2015 additional
research shows that the key reason why
actually young Syrians join armed groups
is for susta for achieving economic
stability and that’s kind of standard
everywhere all of us as young people if
we don’t have jobs we’re very likely to
get in trouble
just some kind of trouble if we don’t
have goals to work on if we’re not
studying if we’re not learning if we’re
not contributing we’re gonna get in
trouble so for me focusing on helping
people start businesses is a way to help
people not get in trouble and therefore
have something to work on now this might
sound like a bit far-fetched right like
why would someone under such
circumstances start a business why would
that even be something that they do
now here this a study was done in 2009
by the Global Entrepreneurship monitor
in Syria shows that 89%
eighty-nine percent as close to ninety
percent of adult Syrians perceive
entrepreneurship as a valid career
option that gives them stability and
high status in the community
eighty percent of Syrians are not afraid
of taking risks associated with starting
businesses we’re talking about a country
with a very highly entrepreneurial
culture as is now adding to that today
right now in Syria there are over forty
four zero organizations working to
foster entrepreneurship among youth I
personally know quite a lot of tech
entrepreneurs artists and social
innovators working inside Syria and
outside of the country as refugees and
they are just doing absolutely
fascinating things so taking the German
perspective for a little bit even in
terms of refugee integration the
Deutsche Bank has said that refugees is
the best thing to happen to Germany and
the Institute of economic research in
Germany has said that financial benefits
of refugees could exceed the costs
invested in refugees in as little as
five years of having refugees entering
the country
if integrated properly so you can see
the huge amount of potential there is
and look around where we are right now
we’re in Berlin in this particular city
a start-up is founded every 20 minutes
so imagine the potential that exists
here now the funny thing is the more I
dive into this research the more I
realize how much time I frickin wasted
just thinking about I don’t want people
to look at me as a source of pity or I
don’t want to be scary or I don’t want
to look cool or exotic but you know what
it doesn’t really matter because I yeah
of course I come from a region that has
been in crisis for as long as I can
remember but you know what it is so damn
awesome to be from there I absolutely
have nothing more to regret or to be
ashamed of or to be scared of my mother
tongue is a language that is so damn
complex it makes German sounds like a
piece of cake to learn which is great
I mean you know there are quite a quite
a few good things that can come out of
the region
besides what we already talked about if
any of you has ever partied with Arabs
you can just sit down at a table it
might be a normal dinner soon enough it
might turn into a street party super
normal and let’s face it we open the
best restaurants everywhere we go I can
take a shower mind Caban tabbouleh /
schnitzels and curry Wurst any time of
the day any time of the week
my hope is just that next time any of us
here looks at someone or meets someone
coming from a region that has a lot of
stereotypes associated with it
maybe we can start with something
besides the pre assumptions or judgments
maybe we can just start with a hello and
see where that goes
so hello thank you
you
Please follow and like us: