In the summer of 2014, when the civil war has been raging for over three years, Jadallah - “just call me Jad” – flees from Syria. The day before his flight he has received his Bachelor’s diploma of Mechatronics Engineering in Aleppo. Obtaining his diploma automatically designates him as a conscript. “You can finish your study and then you must join the army.” However, just like many of his peers he does not want anything to do with the war. “I love life. I don’t want to arrest or kill people. So I decided to go away.” His parents supported him in that decision.

His destination is the Netherlands, where his eldest sister has arrived a couple of months before. Remarkably enough his picture of the Netherlands is not formed by his sister’s stories, but by an episode of the TV series Prison Break he once saw. In that episode a character gets obsessed with a watercolor of a typically Dutch landscape: a flat country, with lots of water and windmills.

His journey from Syria to the Netherlands takes more than ten days. The route runs via Greece, and that is all he wants to say about it. In October he arrives in the Netherlands. During the subsequent period he is relocated several times: Ter Apel, Veenhuizen, Budel, Ter Apel. In the autumn of 2015 he is given a residence permit and a room of his own in Utrecht.

Philips was his dream employer even in Syria

Of his many months of stays in asylum seekers’ centers he remembers the boredom in particular. He is happy when he can start to learn Dutch. In addition to the lessons at a language school, it involves many months of endless exercises and homework. He envisions a goal: become an engineer, like his father. “My plan was to achieve that as soon as possible.” Meanwhile he obtains information on a study and a university. “I chose Eindhoven because there are lots of companies here.” He hesitates. “And I am interested in Philips. Even in Syria that was my dream employer.”

Studying as a refugee proves to be a complicated process, though. “There was no specific procedure for my situation. I have a Dutch residence permit, but a foreign diploma.” The university brings him into contact with the Refugee Students’ foundation UAF. The organization supports him in the admission procedure and advances his tuition fee, which he is paying back in monthly instalments by means of a loan granted by DUO.

Last September, just over two years after having obtained his Bachelor’s diploma in Aleppo, he begins his Master’s program of Systems and Control. Initially he finds it difficult to go back to university life. “The first few weeks I hardly had any social life. I had forgotten many of the things I had learnt during my Bachelor’s program.”

He sees his drive also among Syrians in his environment. “My sister has two children, a family to care for, but is following a pre-Master at the same time and she speaks Dutch better than I do.” Besides, he is aware that some of the Dutch have a biased view of refugees. “That is another reason why I want to get a job as soon as possible. So that I can also pay taxes like everybody else.”

“I don’t want to be seen as ‘that refugee’”

His Dutch is almost perfect, with only a very slight accent. He blends in effortlessly with the mass of TU/e students. In his own words he has very little trouble adapting. “My life here is very much like it was in Aleppo. Here I also play basketball, listen to pop music, and like to watch films and series.” He has also quickly got used to his new university. “I’m in an international atmosphere. We are all Master’s students. We all work hard to finish our studies. Syrian refugees are a hot topic, but I don’t want to be seen as ‘that refugee’.”

Nevertheless the situation in his home country is eating his heart away. Especially during the past semester the situation in Aleppo, where his parents and two younger sisters live, gives him cause for concern. “It sometimes felt as if I had two lives. When I was at the university, I would focus on my study. At home I was occupied by other things. Sometimes I could not get in touch with my parents, when there were reports of bombardments at the same time.”

By mid-December the battle of many years for Aleppo comes to a provisional end, after the Syrian government has managed to recover East Aleppo from the rebels. His relatives in West Aleppo are unharmed, whereas several friends and relatives in the eastern part of the city have been killed. At this moment the situation is relatively calm in the major part of the city. “My parents are doing all right, but there is no water and electricity. Besides, prices have increased drastically.” 

As long as the present government is in power, he cannot return. “Just after I had left the country, the police were knocking on my parents’ door. They had an arrest warrant for me for my refusal to do military service.”

At times he misses his university in Aleppo. “Even when there were no lessons, we would often meet at the university. To catch up, drink coffee. It was more of a social meeting place. Here many students go straight home after their lectures.”

He longs especially for the Syrian summers. “Thirty to forty degrees. The mountains, you can see them in the distance… We have such a beautiful sea. A sea that has been unreachable for many years now. “The other day I phoned my mother. ’I so miss the sea,’ she said. ‘Aleppo is a small prison.’ Sometimes I would like to be there, so I wouldn’t have to feel guilty about being here.”

Entry ban USA

Jadallah, too, is - indirectly – affected by the entry ban imposed by Trump. When his cousin Muhamad, a physician at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, heard about the plans for an entry ban he advised his wife Nabila, who was visiting her mother in Qatar, to fly back to the USA as soon as she could. She was already on the plane when the entry ban became effective. Only two hours after having arrived in Washington, she was put on a flight back to Qatar. Their story received coverage in the American media.

Jad personally finds the entry ban ridiculous, because of the selective choice of nationalities to which it applies. “But look at the bright side, I was very happy when I saw the worldwide demonstrations. Then I knew that the world is still a good place, a place of freedom.”

Studying as a refugee

Refugees who want to study often come up against a number of obstacles, says Jasper Vink from the Refugee Students’ foundation UAF. For starters, they need to learn Dutch and choose a study in a ‘foreign’ society. The Dutch education system, which emphasizes tutorials and informal manners between lecturers and students, often takes some getting used to. In most cases refugees cannot fall back on relatives for a financial contribution. 

The UAF support usually begins with advice on the language training. Then follows assistance in the choice of the academic career and the application for a student grant. In the final stage of their studies, refugee students are prepared for the labor market by means of job interview training sessions, among other things. Finally, graduates are brought into contact with employers for an internship, a work experience position or a job.

At present the UAF is coaching approximately 2,500 refugees throughout the Netherlands, which amounts to about one third of all refugee students. Currently there are 5 UAF students at TU/e. How many refugee students the university has altogether, is not registered by STU.