Ziad Alahmad

Q1. Who are you?

Ziad Alahmad, a Syrian, currently Ph.D. candidate at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and a part-time lecturer at Bunkyo Gakuin University/Tokyo. I also have years of experience in the humanitarian and development sectors. Before leaving my hometown, Aleppo, in 2015, I had never heard the term “forced migration." Since that day, all my life has been about it; I live it, observe it, study it, and work for it, hoping that every forced migrant can find a place to call home.

Q2. What was your motivation for applying for the FFVT fellowship? Why Germany?

Although I had chosen Japan thoughtfully to earn my degree, working on forced migration-related topics in Japan is very challenging. The very low rate of protection applications accepted annually has a big influence on the number of research projects and academic events, which makes meeting with local and global experts very difficult. While Germany, is one of the most welcoming countries for forced migrants, and the biggest share of leading forced migration research is either conducted by German scholars or funded by the German institutions. The FFVT fellowship is a great opportunity to go beyond geographic limitations, and connect with researchers from Germany and other parts of the world.

Q3. What do you expect from the fellowship?

During the fellowship, I expect to have the chance to present my current research, get feedback on it, improve it, and finalize it to be submitted to my Ph.D. committee. Besides, I expect to join seminars, discussions, and events organized at the host institution to broaden my knowledge about contemporary forced migration research in Germany and beyond. Lastly, I expect to have the chance to connect with scholars from IMIS and other FFVT institutions and fellows to navigate the possibilities of future research collaboration.

Q4. What is the focus of your work, and what is innovative about it? / What are your planned outcomes and activities for the fellowship period? And how do they relate to your FFVT hosting institution/ the FFVT cooperation project?

Influenced by my personal experience and having the chance to live and observe the lives of the forced migrants day by day for around a decade, the project I am working on focuses on analyzing the integration of Syrian forced migrants and the Turkish receiving community using a unique approach that gives special value to the factors that direct integration processes. During the fellowship, I am planning to collaborate with IMIS scholars and FFVT fellows to enhance the quality of the conceptual framework I am using in my research to come up with a new integration model that can be used in different contexts. I hope that these discussions can also lead to a joint publication.