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Damascus (AFP) – In the courtyard of a Damascus clinic where he volunteers, Mohammad Chacho, a medical student, takes an online course to improve his level of German, crucial to emigrate to Europe’s largest economy.
Since the start of the war in Syria in 2011, Germany has become the dream destination for hundreds of Syrian medical students.
The Arab country had only one German-language institute before 2011, but today there are more than 80 in government-controlled areas.
“The German language is very difficult, especially since native speakers don’t teach it in Syria,” Chacho, 23, who is in his sixth year at the Damascus Medical College, told AFP.
“But the effort is worth it and it will be forgotten as soon as I take my first steps in Germany,” added the student.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians arrived in Germany, especially in 2015, at the peak of mass emigration due to the war.
Most traveled without a visa, which is difficult for Syrians to obtain… with the exception of doctors, who can obtain the precious permit to Germany if they meet certain conditions, such as having a relatively high level of German language.
In the absence of a German representation in Syria, candidates must apply at the Lebanese or Jordanian embassies or at the German consulate in Erbil in Iraq.
Germany, safe destination
“All my friends have left, are preparing to leave or are thinking about it,” Jaafar Mustafa, another medical student who is also learning German, told AFP.
Germany is “the simplest and safest destination (…) there is a large Syrian community and I will not be out of place,” he said.
At the Damascus Arabic Institute, one of the oldest foreign language centers in the capital, around 70% of the roughly 1,000 students enrolled in German courses have medical training, according to its director, Abdallah Saleh.
Before 2011, students’ interest was mainly focused on learning French or English, but the trend reversed from 2013.
“The Goethe Institute in Damascus was the only center specialized in teaching German and it fully met the demand,” Saleh told AFP.
Although the Goethe closed, “more than 80” more schools have opened and students must register early to secure their places.
Omar Fattuh, a graduate in German literature from the University of Damascus, teaches a course at the Arab Institute and other sites in the capital, where he teaches the translation of medical terms into German.
Most of his students are “medical students or applicants for family reunification,” he said.
Brain drain
The German Office for Migration and Refugees has registered more than 700,000 asylum applications from Syrians since 2015.
The number of Syrians living in Germany is now about 924,000, up from 118,000 in 2014.
Since then, the number of Syrians obtaining asylum has fallen, despite the fact that Berlin recently resumed granting facilities to foreigners, including medical personnel, to make up for a shortage of qualified professionals.
Some 5,404 Syrian doctors were practicing in Germany at the end of 2021, according to Germany’s Federal Order of Physicians. Therefore, they represent the largest contingent of foreign practitioners in the European country.
The Syrian authorities did not provide the number of students who emigrate annually.
But Higher Education Deputy Minister Fadia Dib declared in May 2022 that the emigration of doctors “became a reality due to the economic crisis.”
Syria lacks specialists in fields such as “oncology, physiotherapy, radiology and anaesthesia”, it added.
Faced with the brain drain, Nabough al-Aawa, a former dean of the Damascus Medical College, is concerned about the future of the profession in Syria.
“My students begin to learn German from the first years of study,” says this sixty-year-old who has been teaching medicine for more than 30 years.
“It saddens me that we are losing them, they are supposed to take over,” he said.
© 2023 AFP