Overview

• Former Chancellor Angela Merkel met on June 26 in a Berlin Syrian restaurant with five people who fled to Germany in 2015 for a WDRforyou discussion
• Participants include an Afghan student who lived in church asylum and an Iranian couple confronted by a xenophobic crowd in Clausnitz
• They recounted their arrival experiences, hopes, hurdles, encounters with racism, resilience and steps toward rebuilding their lives
• Moderators Borhan Akid and Bamdad Esmaili guided a conversation in Arabic, Persian and German that also addressed border pushbacks and family reunification
• Excerpts will appear on social media before the full recording debuts on the ARD-Mediathek, where it is expected to renew public debate on migration policy