"My studies are a victory over everything I've experienced!"

At some point, in another life, Ali Al Hamad had once studied agricultural engineering in the Department of Food Biotechnology. He was unable to complete his degree. The civil war in Syria, which has been ongoing since 2011, got in the way. Ali Al Hamad was twenty-five when he fled from his hometown of Darʿā to Europe; the city is located about 60 kilometers from Damascus. The “Al” in Ali’s last name is like the “von” in German; Ali von Hamad, so to speak, he explains to me. Today he is 34; he has just arrived from Dresden and still has a few things to take care of in Zittau, shortly before completing his master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. He also earned his Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biotechnology in Zittau. He is older than most of the other students. “But I don’t compare my degree to others’,” says Ali Al Hamad. “My degree is a victory over everything I’ve been through—a victory for myself. I’m very proud of myself.”

Before Ali Al Hamad fled his homeland, he faced two options: either try to make his way to Europe somehow, to regain hope for a meaningful life, or die along the way. He had a guardian angel by his side during all those long weeks on the run. He was lucky, he says today. When the engine on the rubber dinghy failed, somewhere on the open sea between Istanbul and Greece. On the second attempt, the roughly 40 people on board made it all the way to—well, where exactly? Ali Al Hamad sometimes doesn’t even know himself. Sure, he knows the general direction—Europe—but was it Lesbos, Budapest, Vienna, or Serbia? He made it to Dresden. And that’s what matters most.

Ali Al Hamad has come a long way—in both senses of the word. After fleeing to Germany, it takes another three years before he can file applications for admission to universities and colleges and begin his studies. He files for asylum, lives in Dresden, and manages to get by thanks to his family and his savings. He uses YouTube to learn German up to Level A2. Once he reaches language level B2, he begins submitting applications; both Dresden and Zittau want him. He takes an immediate liking to Zittau. “Nice and quiet,” says Ali Al Hamad. “The friendliness here really touched me.” He passed the DSH language exam—which assesses whether a person’s German skills are sufficient to complete a German-language degree program at a university in Germany. Language proficiency must meet the C1 level. Then, in 2018, he sits in his first lectures in Zittau and doesn’t understand a thing—not a single word. He doesn’t understand the dialect. He gets poor grades. For the entire first two semesters. “I asked myself, ‘Is that person up front even speaking German?’” says Ali Al Hamad with a laugh. “But of course, I’d always been learning German for foreigners; people made an effort to ensure we could understand them.” But Ali Al Hamad got creative: “I asked a few professors if I could record the lectures. Then I sat down at home and worked through the lectures at my own pace.”

Since then, Ali Al Hamad has greatly improved his grades, successfully completed his Bachelor’s degree, and is now on the verge of finishing his Master's thesis.

He is working on lung cells and air pollution in his Master's thesis. "You discover your interests along the way," he says. "Immune cells, bacteria, viruses and fungi are interesting, I think." He is completing his Master's degree in collaboration with Dresden University Hospital and has also moved back to Dresden in the process, into a shared room. Ali Al Hamad wants to go even further: to a Ph.

"My region, my home, is called the 'vegetable basket', there is a lot of nature, similar to here in Zittau, and I like that so much." Nevertheless, there is always this vague fear that this good life could be taken away from him again. He has experienced too much, seen too much. Ali Al Hamad has written a book about his escape, handwritten and bound with thick adhesive tape. "Maybe for my children," he says. "If they want to read it." Of course, he doesn't yet know which direction he will take with his doctoral thesis. It almost doesn't matter to him: "The main thing is something to do with the immune system," he laughs.

Text: Sophie Herwig