Pursuits
A Syrian Lawyer Took a Job as a Janitor to Learn More About Germany
- With the population falling, a bid to bolster the workforce
- Immigrants “have one big advantage, and this is motivation”
The German Town Offering Refugees Work for 1 Euro an Hour
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Anas Al-Asadi spent three months and 6,000 euros ($6,785) making his way from his home in Damascus to Germany, braving the frigid waters of the Mediterranean aboard leaky, overcrowded ships on three separate occasions, culminating in a rescue by the Italian Coast Guard and finally a bus across the Alps. For the next four months, he was bored stiff.
Then the 26-year-old got a job through a municipal program in Pfungstadt, a German town 25 miles south of Frankfurt, where he landed in February. The work wasn’t exactly challenging for Al-Asadi, who had been an attorney in Syria, and it certainly wasn’t well paid.