A NEW NORMAL: Audio Diaries from Syrians in Europe
Summary: A series of five documentaries featuring audio diaries kept by five Syrians as they try to lay down roots in their new countries of asylum. With diarists in the UK, Germany, Sweden and Turkey the series is intended to give an intimate insight into the day-to-day experience of trying to start life from scratch in an alien country, having left everything you know behind.
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- Artist: Jodie Taylor
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Growing up in Damascus as a Circassian - a minority ethnic group in Syria - Sidra had already heard a lot about her ancestral homeland in the North Caucases. But with the advent of war, she and her family found themselves moving back to the region that their ancestors had fled 150 years ago, and eventually through four cultures, five languages, and nine schools. Here, as she begins life at her ninth school - this time in Istanbul - Sidra takes us into her world via her audio diaries.
Hanan is a 23 year old former biomedical engineer student from Damascus. In 2012 she and her parents and three siblings applied for a family visa through an Aunt in Berlin, but they didn't hear any news for three years. However, two days after she finally married the love of her life, Alaa, in Syria the family were suddenly granted the visa and she was forced to leave her new husband behind.
Dr Ahmad Terkawi and his young family reached Greece by boat in 2015, and from there they relocated to Sweden. Through Ahmad's diaries we hear of the endless paperwork that the family faces in settling, of their being relocated from a single room in Oxelosund to a far away town without any prior notice or information, and of the highs and unpredictable lows of starting a new school in a new land.
Eiad is a 31 year old dentist from Damascus. He reached the UK by smuggling himself onto the back of a lorry in late 2014, and since then he has been trying to find his place in the country's capital city. Through his diaries we hear how his approach is to this new life is to ensure that he is always extremely busy - filling days with meetings, volunteer work, studies and speaking engagements - but finding a place to really call home is far from simple.
The diary of 25 year old Hesham Moadamani recorded in the summer of 2016 when he had just arrived in Duisburg, Germany. Through his audio diaries we learn of the day-to-day monotony of life alone in an alien and at times hostile city, of the 'virtual world' he has started to live in and of the frustrations and occasional triumphs of trying to build a life from scratch, having fled one of the worst conflicts the world has ever seen.
