This film follows one of them, newspaper editor and Syrian asylum seeker Ramy Alasheq, as he looks into historical patterns of Arab immigration and how the latest arrivals are being received in their new country.
For Ramy and many others, life has not been the same since young men said to be Arab were accused of robbing and attacking German women on New Year's Eve 2015 in his new hometown, Cologne. It is a city that Ramy has come to love. But while he and fellow immigrants initially received a warm reception, there are now widespread calls to halt the entry of Arab refugees into Germany.
For hundreds of years, Germany has been a magnet for migrants and refugees from all over the world. But its specific focus on encouraging migration from countries in the Middle East like Egypt, Syria, Iraq and to a lesser extent Jordan, Palestine and North Africa, is not often discussed.
Through the human stories of second and third-generation migrants, as well as incoming new refugees, this film paints a picture of how the experience of Arab immigrants in Germany has changed over the decades.
We ask what it means to be a foreigner in Germany, and at the same time come to understand Germany itself and the reasoning behind its immigration policies. We also hear from German analysts and decision-makers about Germany's dependency on migrant communities to re-populate its dwindling towns and keep its economy strong.
