Street Corner: Refugee and Berlin

street corner: Instead, his starting point is a shady street corner in a bustling immigrant neighbourhood . Here, standing between gritty pawn shops and greasy kebab stores, the 34-year-old Syrian refugee introduces you to his own, very personal version of Berlin, according to Metro News. Zakri is one of four refugee guides with "querstadtein," or "cross-city," a non-profit that initially started off offering tours of Berlin led by formerly homeless people. To begin with, Zakri doesn't even meet the groups he guides in Berlin touristy Mitte district. This year, reacting to the large number of migrants who came to Germany in 2015, the group added asylum seekers to its team and created a new refugee tour that features refugee shelters, Syrian restaurants and other relevant sights."Our goal was to give the refugees a face and personalize them — especially in times where so many people are only talking about the 'floods' or 'waves' of refugees," Tilmann Hoeffken, a project manager with "querstadtein," said. The tours also try to change perspectives by asking participants to see Berlin through the eyes of its newcomers. Like the homeless, refugees often can be isolated from other city-dwellers, a gap the organization is trying to bridge by bringing together people who cross paths without connecting, Hoeffken said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.