\n<\/p>\n
ROSTOCK: Shahd Najeeb still remembers the trauma of fleeing Islamic State fighters during Syria\u2019s civil war. More than a decade after finding refuge in Germany, she now fears she may no longer be welcome there.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I think about the time we left Syria, I still don\u2019t know \u200bhow we managed to get through it,\u201d she told Reuters in her home in Rostock, on Germany\u2019s Baltic coast. \u201cIt was like a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n Najeeb and her husband, Mahmoud Hmouech, fled their home in Deir \u200cal-Zor in eastern Syria and rebuilt their lives in Germany, where he works in a barber shop and she serves meals in local schools. They have two young children.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are grateful to the German people for welcoming us and giving us peace and security,\u201d Hmouech said. \u201cThe work we do is a small way of showing our gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n They are among more than 900,000 Syrians living in Germany, most of whom arrived as asylum seekers during the civil war.<\/p>\n But as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gains support and migration returns to the centre of political debate, migrants \u200bsay hostility towards foreigners is growing.<\/p>\n Reuters spoke to 20 people of migrant background in Rostock and the nearby city of Schwerin, many of whom have become German citizens and have lived in Germany for years.<\/p>\n Most said they \u200bhad encountered more anti-immigrant abuse in recent years, ranging from muttered remarks to demands that they return to their countries of origin. One woman said a neighbour poured foul-smelling water \u2060on her from a balcony.<\/p>\n Their concerns come as the AfD gains momentum across eastern Germany.<\/p>\n In Najeeb and Hmouech\u2019s home state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in the formerly communist east, opinion polls suggest the AfD is set to become the biggest party in \u200ban election on Sunday.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the party, which wants to restrict immigration and talks about \u201cremigration\u201d \u2013 or sending foreigners back to their home countries \u2013 won its first major regional election in Saxony-Anhalt, another eastern state.<\/p>\n Several interviewees, including people working in healthcare, tourism, \u200beducation and food services, said they would consider leaving Rostock or Schwerin if the climate continued to worsen.<\/p>\n \u2018THIS COUNTRY IS FOR GERMANS\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Sitting in the family\u2019s small apartment in northern Rostock, where their children\u2019s drawings cover one wall and toys are neatly stacked in corners of the living room, Najeeb spoke as her children, aged 6 and 4, played nearby.<\/p>\n Najeeb, who studied physics in Baghdad and later worked as a jewellery designer in Syria, recalled stopping at a grocery store after collecting her children from school when, she said, an elderly man in a \u200bwheelchair shouted that she did not belong in Germany.<\/p>\n \u201cThis country is for Germans,\u201d he yelled.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pain I experienced in Rostock is a new kind of pain that I have never felt before,\u201d Najeeb said. Item 1 of 3 Shahad Najeeb, 38, from Iraq, speaks next to her children, Zaid, 4, and Khaleed, 7, and her husband, Mahmoud Hmouech, 47, from Syria, in their apartment in Rostock\u2019s Luetten Klein district ahead of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state elections, Germany, September 17, 2026.<\/p>\n She recalled her son asking: \u201cMama, why is he insulting you? What did you do to him?\u201d Unsure how to \u200cexplain, she told \u2060him the man was perhaps unwell.<\/p>\n LABOUR FORCE<\/strong><\/p>\n The AfD began as a eurosceptic party in 2013 and its anti-immigrant tone sharpened markedly after former Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s decision in 2015 to open Germany\u2019s borders temporarily, admitting around one million migrants and refugees, around a third of them Syrians fleeing the civil war.<\/p>\n Since then, it has grown from a fringe movement into Germany\u2019s most popular party, leading Chancellor Friedrich Merz\u2019s conservatives in national polls.<\/p>\n Leif-Erik Holm, the AfD\u2019s main candidate in Sunday\u2019s election, says he has \u201cabsolutely no objection\u201d to immigration by skilled workers. He says those who should be deported are the more than 250,000 foreigners who have no legal right to stay in Germany.<\/p>\n But critics say the broader problem is the atmosphere created by rhetoric they say \u200btargets foreigners in general.<\/p>\n During a televised debate on Wednesday, \u200bSocial Democrat state premier Manuela Schwesig accused the AfD \u2060of \u201ccausing widespread fear with its statements on remigration and workers from different cultural backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s terrible that people who work here, who make their contribution and pay their taxes and social security contributions, are afraid and don\u2019t feel at ease,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n During the debate, she and Holm took a question from a design engineer concerned at the risk of losing a \u200bvalued Moroccan draughtsman because of the racist insults he said he encountered regularly on the street.<\/p>\n Holm said it was \u201cnaturally a shame that there\u2019s such a mood\u201d. But he \u200bblamed the government for allowing illegal \u2060immigration and failing to deport more than a fraction of foreigners formally required to leave the country.<\/p>\n The debate carries economic implications as well.<\/p>\n Around 50,000 people with a migration background work in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Economists have warned that like other eastern states with low birth rates and an ageing population, it will need more skilled workers.<\/p>\n According to data from Germany\u2019s labour office, around 316,000 Syrian nationals \u2013 not including Syrians who have acquired German nationality \u2013 work in Germany, most in full-time jobs that pay social security contributions.<\/p>\n Their unemployment rate is \u2060above 30%, but \u200bdata show the longer people stay, the more likely they are to find work. Figures from 2023 indicate that among those who have been \u200bin Germany for seven years or longer, more than 60% have a job.<\/p>\n Many Syrians say they hope to return home if conditions improve. Others, including Najeeb and Hmouech, increasingly see their future in Germany.<\/p>\n Whether the AfD\u2019s rise changes that calculation remains an open question.<\/p>\n Hmouech says he does not want his children \u200bto grow up feeling rejected by the society they call home. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cYou feel the injustice because you have done \u200bnothing wrong. I worked hard to build a life for myself and then someone comes along and treats you like garbage,\u201d she said, her voice cracking.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, family comes first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n