(EQTSAD)- Stories of successful Syrians in Europe in the scientific and academic fields are not matched by any news about the economic projects carried out by them as they did in all the countries they migrated to. So, what is the reason?
Are the restrictions imposed by European countries on the establishment of economic projects, prevents them from thinking about the business? Or, is it because all the Syrians who came to these countries are from the poor and middle classes?
With the exception of Germany, which allowed limited commercial activity to all those who come to it, we hardly hear or know about Syrians in other European countries, who have started commercial or investment projects that could have a role in the future.
The reason, as Ahmed M., a refugee in the Netherlands for 4 years, sees it: the disappearance of small shops and the proliferation of big malls with world-renowned brands in Europe.
According to Ahmed, the large number of Syrian refugees in Germany played a role in the opening of some small shops to serve the refugees with Syrian food, while in the rest of the European countries there are rarely large concentrations of Syrians.
Ayham, who has been living in France for about two years, says he worked in the food trade from Germany, where large stores of Syrian goods could be found. He said that he went there every week and distributed them to Syrian families in a number of French cities.
Ayham has been in this business for more than a year, but during this period he could not establish a shop in the city where he lives because of the lack of economic resources due to the small number of Syrians there.
On the other hand, many Syrians, who have thought of business in Europe, complain about the many restrictions, taxes and almost impossible requirements imposed by those countries on anyone who plans to do business.
Mohammed Ali, who has lived in France for nearly five years, says that during his life in Syria, he knew nothing but trade. When he came to France, he tried to continue in this line of work, but encountered many obstacles with no Syrians to trade with, trading with the French instead.
The second obstacle, he adds, when they knew he would be doing business, they began to ask questions: ‘How a refugee wants to do business?’ ‘Where did the money come from? Why did you not inform us that you have a lot of money before we’ve given you asylum?’
According to Ali, European countries, and especially France, do not want any of the refugees to grow on their land, and start a trade and business.. Except in some limited areas, such as opening a small restaurant to sell hummus, beans and falafel sandwiches. A trade that does not make businessmen or investors, and most importantly does not create a future for Syrians in European countries.
On another context, Tayseer, a refugee in France and a former lawyer in Syria, believes that the burden of high taxes imposed by European countries on private employers, which can reach as much as 40 percent, is enough to make any investor reluctant to do any business; pointing out that investors from these same European countries are fleeing to other countries in Asia and Africa. In addition, employment is a complicated issue in European countries, as they impose monthly insurance equivalent to the worker’s monthly wage.
In other words, Tayseer explains: "If I have a worker who receives 1,500 euros a month, I actually pay him 3,000 euros, because I have to pay another 1,500 as unemployment insurance in case they’ve stopped working."
The issue of labor contracts and workers' rights in European countries further limits the commercial and investment activity of any investor of any nationality.
We asked a large number of Syrians living in European countries whether we could see Syrian businesspersons in Europe in the future. Most of them said that they did not believe that this could be achieved, but that they could reach advanced scientific ranks. The European Commission, according to the journalist Mohammed, anticipated this. In one report, they stated that within a few years, most executives could be Syrians.
Mohammed, who has been living in Belgium for more than five years, came from the Gulf by sea, with a good amount of money and started a small company to perform some media services. However, he ran into enormous obstacles and came to new conclusions, most notably, that strangers in these countries, have a certain amount of success they can access, an amount that the authorities cannot control, such as excellence and academic and scientific success.. Otherwise, he doubted that Syrians would become big businesspersons in European countries, unless they become purely European, abandoning their Syrian culture and Arab identity completely.
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
(Eqtsad is a fellow Zaman al-Wasl news site)
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