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Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

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Re: Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

#171

Post by coldarchon »

Morphling wrote: post #158
amerika_blog wrote: post #152

Fight for your homeland, don't just run away and pass off your problems to others. Also encourage Americans to stop their drone-crazed, war-hungry, spy-happy, immigration-positive President (or at least to change his mind). War should be used when there are serious threats. Lately, the USA and Europe have been using war to overthrow the powerful so that mass culture can take over. This is culturally akin to forcibly…

It's easy to say that from the comfort of your home it's quite different when you might face dying in a crossfire or in another drone attack.

What do you think our grandparents did? You think it was easy for them?

Re: Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

#172

Post by anigbrowl »

level09 wrote: post #165
gaadd33 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure the issue is racism and not due to sanctions that a US based company has to follow (and possibly may not be well defined)?

in that case, doesn't a genuine customer at least deserve an explanation ? especially that the account was verified and active for weeks, with a valid credit card and all supporting documents (passport etc ..) I got rejected many times from paypal, 2co, rackspace etc .. but they used to explain the reasons like "we can't deal with syrian citizens" or "you are from a sanctioned country" etc .. maybe I shouldn't call i…

They don't know whether you are some regular person just trying to live your life, or some supporter of the sanctioned regime trying to protect ill-gotten gains by moving them out of the country. Unfortunately the latter is a frequent occurrence in military conflicts. The problem is that they don't really have the cultural or social context to judge which sort of Syrian person you are.

The best idea I can come up with offhand is consider a closer but wealthier and more stable country as an intermediate destination, such as Turkey or Dubai, but I realize that's not very helpful.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

#173

Post by chinmoy »

olegp wrote: post #113
chinmoy wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been trying to come to Finland to study. I became very interested about Finland after I saw some of the the things happening in Aalto University(Startup Saunna, Venture Garage and such). But my Residence Permit application was rejected last year and it was very frustrating. The rejection letter got lost in the mail and for the last six months my communication with the Finnish Immigration has been futile and I st…

Where are you now? It might be easier if you were to visit Finland first on a tourist visa and apply from here. There's also been talk of having the Startup Life program ( http://startuplife.fi/ ) take interns from abroad and get them to work for Finnish startups. That may be a good stepping stone for you. I'll ask around about it and get back to you via Twitter.

I'm in Bangladesh. I would've come to Finland on a tourist visa and apply from there, but looks like that is not allowed for my country. Do you think applying from any other EU countries can make things easier?

I would love to intern at a Finnish startup. I'll keep my eyes on twitter :)

Re: Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

#174

Post by bayesianhorse »

bobbinsIII wrote: post #115
bayesianhorse wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially concerning muslims or people from muslim countries, xenophobia is crossing over to be the majority opinion. Over half of all Germans believe Islam to be a threat. Having an arab/turkish name can disqualify you for most job interviews, regardless of background or skill. There was a bestseller in the past years where someone wanted to rationalize social inequality towards especially turks with the basic idea…

the idea that an "arab/turkish name" disqualifies you from job interviews is dishonest nonsense. it's also quite separate from sarazin's book, which raises some important issues.

This "dishonest nonsense" has been proven in studies and it vibrates with my own experience in companies where behind the curtains this stuff is rationalized a lot.

Sarrazin didn't "raise important issues". He made superficially rational arguments which have in many cases been disproven completely. However these rationalisations were then echoed by racist beliefs buried in society and the discussion became one of racism versus civil rights, ending totally unproductively.

The main "issue" was that "turks are genetically inferior in intelligence so we need not try and give them better chances in education or employment". He didn't even propose to deport two million fellow citizens, but others did that for him in response...

Re: Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

#175

Post by jimbobimbo »

level09 wrote: post #165
gaadd33 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure the issue is racism and not due to sanctions that a US based company has to follow (and possibly may not be well defined)?

in that case, doesn't a genuine customer at least deserve an explanation ? especially that the account was verified and active for weeks, with a valid credit card and all supporting documents (passport etc ..) I got rejected many times from paypal, 2co, rackspace etc .. but they used to explain the reasons like "we can't deal with syrian citizens" or "you are from a sanctioned country" etc .. maybe I shouldn't call i…

It's less risky to not to provide an explanation than provide the one that will blow up in your face in court.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

#176

Post by qwertz »

kleiba wrote: post #136
wheels wrote: post #110

There's a lot of bad information here on Berlin. For context, I'm a non-EU software developer that lives in Berlin and now has permanent residence, as is my girlfriend. Germany is actually one of the easiest countries to get an immigrant work visa for. I would recommend skipping seeking asylum. There's a large enough job market in Berlin for developers that the work visa route will almost certainly be the fastest and…

- software development is an in-demand job ("Mangelberuf") - €39,192/year [...] is above the standard salary that you'd find for development positions at Berlin startups Are you sure about that? Somehow these two statement don't sound like they can go together, I think. Wouldn't that be a ridiculously low salary for a European capital, even for startups?

Ridiculously low? €40k? US$52k? That's quite a good deal I guess, and living costs in Berlin are like 1/4 of NYC for example.

What salary did you expect?

Re: Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

#177

Post by brazzy »

pyre wrote: post #151
ma2rten wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would recommend skipping seeking asylum. +1. You were probably just using the wrong term, that may also be why your Google search did not turn up anything. Asylum is only for political refugees. These are not allowed to work, need to live in provided (usually very bad) residences, their children are not allowed to go to school, etc.

> These are not allowed to work, need to live in provided (usually very bad) residences, their children are not allowed to go to school, etc. What's the point of taking in an asylum-seeker only to treat them like crap? Yay! We've saved them from torture or death in their home country, but instead we'll just make sure to keep them uneducated and in below the poverty line?

The restrictions don't apply once the request for political asylum is granted, but that is a lengthy beaurocratic process.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

#178

Post by MistahKoala »

kmfrk wrote: post #98
Blahah wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same is true of England. We have the EDL who are a bunch of racist morons. But they are a tiny, despised minority, and certainly shouldn't deter anyone from seeking asylum here.

UKIP, too.

Don't forget Labour.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

#179

Post by anovikov »

Becoming a refugee is a bad idea. Get a schengen visa, go to a country like Latvia, show them your references, bank statement with decent documented income, open a company (costs 1000-2000 EUR), and get a residence visa. Takes a few months but you can live most of that time on a 90/180 schengen visa, maybe leaving out 1 or max 2 months which you can spend at home or in a non-schengen European country like Cyprus, which is also close to you that helps. Then get your residence visa and go to Germany - that will not be entirely legal (you'll be supposed not to spend outside of a country where you visa is more than half of your time), but with no borders within Schengen, it is hard to check, and if you don't want to get officially hired for a fulltime job in Berlin (which is hardly your intention), you'll have no problem.

You can do that right in Germany, but may take more cash and time, you will always be able to switch a country once your startup gets going and you are more relaxed cash-wise.

And yes, being a refugee sucks. Forget it.

Re: Ask HN: How Can I leave Syria now and get asylum in Europe (Germany)

#180

Post by [deleted] »

egeozcan wrote: post #122
antocv wrote: post #26

Skip Germany and go to Sweden or England, where people are more than happy to speak English, and there is already many Syrians in Sweden, especially in Sodertalje. Sweden will accept you based on your skills far more easily than Germany, all you need is to find a job, and right now the market is open for a guy of your skills - programmers are in high demand. Look around on various Sweden/Stockholm job posting sites,…

As a Turkish who has been working in Germany (Stuttgart) for the last four years, I'd recommend here, Stuttgart, as a pleasant destination. When you find a job which pays a reasonable amount, they can hire you and you get a visa. Don't ever go to Turkey. Don't even enter Turkish soil. You'll be trapped. They started treating Syrians as if they were second class and didn't even keep guiding them, let alone provide she…

[deleted]
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