Mohammad Ali Hafiz

I feel alien, when I'm not being understood, and when I cannot express myself as I would like to. If I mastered the language fluently, I would feel 0% alien.

I worked in a civilian hospital in Syria, where I took care of the injured after attacks by ISIS and the Syrian military. I was only 15 years old, and my family had already fled Syria. I wasn’t really scared. Only for ISIS. I remember looking at a lot of videos on the web, with all the terrible things they were doing, and they were only ten kilometers away from the hospital.

The most important time in the hospital was, when the doctor made his rounds. It was about once a week. Everyone respected and appreciated the doctor, and when I think about my future today, I hope that I may even end up being a doctor. It’s important for me to have a goal in life. Before I came to Denmark, my goal was just to survive. I spent all my time working, just to get enough money to buy food. But here I can concentrate on learning Danish, getting an education and later on a job.

In Denmark, I meet people who want me to succeed. I haven’t experienced racism or insecurity. But some of the things that really hurt, is reading or watching the news, and experiencing that there is endless talk about problems with refugees. As I see it, there are good and bad people all over the world, and likewise there are good and bad refugees. I wish the media not only focused on the negative aspects of refugees, but also on the positive.

Mohammad Ali Hafiz / 20 / male / single / attends KVUC / Rødovre / from Syria / came to Denmark in 2017 / family reunification same year