:00:41. > :01:40.This is the east of Germany. The former GDR, Gera, around an hour
:01:41. > :01:43.from Dresden. It has a population of 95,000, a declining population.
:01:44. > :01:49.Young people off and head for the west. It feels like a very white
:01:50. > :02:07.town. East Germany experienced very little immigration. Only 2000 people
:02:08. > :02:13.are foreign. 2%. Hello. This is Muhammad, his wife and three
:02:14. > :02:20.children. Muhamed, eight, Seba, four, and of their 18 -month-old. He
:02:21. > :02:27.came ahead of his family, overland from Germany from Syria a year ago.
:02:28. > :02:31.He was imprisoned by the Syrian regime and fled. In theory he worked
:02:32. > :02:37.in IT. His wife is from a family of farmers. -- in Syria. He has been
:02:38. > :02:42.granted a silent in Germany and so his wife and children were allowed
:02:43. > :02:49.to join him a month ago, flown from a Turkish refugee camp. Then his
:02:50. > :02:53.15-year-old brother arrived, braving the journey overland in the hope of
:02:54. > :03:04.joining them alongside thousands of others. His boat almost sank on the
:03:05. > :03:07.crossing to Greece. Because he has been in Germany for a year his
:03:08. > :03:13.family are ahead of many refugees still arriving. They have an
:03:14. > :03:38.apartment and state benefits. While he learns German and tries to get a
:03:39. > :03:52.job. This is Dirk. His daughter is to back -- two. His other daughter,
:03:53. > :03:56.six. His wife, Daniela, and their youngest, Pierre, ten months old.
:03:57. > :04:00.Dirk has lived his life in Gera and works in care for the elderly. They
:04:01. > :04:24.know that refugees are coming to their town.
:04:25. > :04:31.And this is the new refugee centre, capacity 2000, which opened a week
:04:32. > :04:35.ago in an old hospital to cope with the growing numbers arriving here.
:04:36. > :04:41.This is where the new refugees in Germany and up before they apply for
:04:42. > :04:48.asylum. There have been lots of attacks on refugee centres of this
:04:49. > :04:54.year and someone tried to even fly this place before it opened. The men
:04:55. > :04:59.are doing security and they said don't show the figures on TV because
:05:00. > :05:02.if neo-Nazis see them on the street they will beat them up. One security
:05:03. > :05:08.guard agrees to be on camera and shows us around. There are single
:05:09. > :05:19.men here but many families have also been resettled in Gera. And venue
:05:20. > :05:32.were moved? Your fifth camp? I am seven. You are just being moved
:05:33. > :05:38.around Germany? . No space to do anything. Only sleep. The whole
:05:39. > :05:57.place feels like hospital. It is all very temporary. It is from a
:05:58. > :06:10.doctor. His legs, during the war, from a plane, a shot, and he lost
:06:11. > :06:23.them. In Idlib? And what do you want from Germany? I want to walk. You
:06:24. > :06:32.want to walk? So, this man is relaying an attack by a Nazi. I want
:06:33. > :06:37.to find out more what happened. Outside, I asked... I found out the
:06:38. > :06:42.facts later. Three refugees were attacked by two men with five dogs.
:06:43. > :06:46.There is some hostility here. But it is piece can head with what this
:06:47. > :07:20.family fled in Syria. Over the next few months, they will
:07:21. > :07:24.try to create a new life in Germany. Some people in Gera don't think
:07:25. > :08:00.there should be so many refugees coming.
:08:01. > :08:19.Why do you think people would be protesting about the refugees?
:08:20. > :08:23.The family know that Germany is taking huge numbers of refugees
:08:24. > :08:49.compared to the rest of Europe. Saturday afternoon in Gera. In town
:08:50. > :08:53.today are two stalls, one representing each side of the
:08:54. > :08:57.refugee debate. Both had advertised they would be in the local paper.
:08:58. > :09:04.Dirk and family are here to see both. So, Dirk has told me that the
:09:05. > :09:12.political party here are the former Socialist party when this was east
:09:13. > :09:22.Germany. These guys are pro- refugees.
:09:23. > :09:57.Syria? And you live in the hospital? Yeah.
:09:58. > :10:05.The other side is the AFD, alternative for Deutschland. It is a
:10:06. > :10:17.right-wing party opposing the arrival of so many refugees. Young
:10:18. > :10:20.guys are being told, when you come to Germany, then you will get your
:10:21. > :10:30.own house, you will get a lot of money and so on. When in Germany you
:10:31. > :10:33.say something harsh about asylum seekers, it can very easily happen
:10:34. > :10:42.that you are going to be reported by your next door neighbour. Do you
:10:43. > :10:46.mind if people call you guys racist? They can tell me whatever they want
:10:47. > :10:50.as long as they listen to me and think about what I am trying to say.
:10:51. > :11:00.Will your party grow because of the refugee situation? Naturally, it
:11:01. > :11:06.will. The majority of refugees here are Muslim. And Dirk gets involved
:11:07. > :11:10.in a debate because of the negative things he has heard about the
:11:11. > :11:16.religion. The man tells him is money is not aggressive and that ISIS does
:11:17. > :11:22.not represent the religion -- Islam. These muslins handout Korans
:11:23. > :11:24.Antell locals they don't have to worry if their numbers increase. --
:11:25. > :11:55.and tell. As weeks passed and leaves for all
:11:56. > :11:58.from the trees -- fall from the trees come and you people have
:11:59. > :12:03.arrived at the refugees enter, men's, women and children from other
:12:04. > :12:07.places as well as Syria. But others have also left, some have been moved
:12:08. > :12:10.to another part of Germany and others are choosing to go,
:12:11. > :12:15.particularly those who don't want to be in the east of Germany. Have you
:12:16. > :12:20.heard that the West is better? All the people say that. There is also
:12:21. > :12:23.confusion. Lots of confusion. The rules on which we refugees can stay
:12:24. > :12:26.in Germany and what they are entitled to are constantly being
:12:27. > :12:34.debated and changing all the time -- which refugees. For this family, it
:12:35. > :12:53.is the third month they have all been together in Germany.
:12:54. > :12:59.In Syria, eight-year-old Mohammad used to hide under his father's
:13:00. > :13:12.clothes from bombs. Here it is the climbing frame he is scared of. Do
:13:13. > :13:40.you worry that people don't understand just how bad it is in
:13:41. > :13:44.Syria? Over tea back in their living room, they show me their life back
:13:45. > :13:46.in Syria. They come from a town first bombed by the government and
:13:47. > :14:27.now controlled by ISIS. At the moment, there is no purpose
:14:28. > :14:36.built a mosque in this town to visit. This man's room over a shop
:14:37. > :14:46.provides for most of the Muslim visitors here but the congregation
:14:47. > :15:06.is growing daily. Are you building more space to accommodate? Over at
:15:07. > :15:16.the family home, this baby's walking has come under nicely since my last
:15:17. > :15:20.visit. Dirk is following news about the refugee arrival closely and says
:15:21. > :15:57.politicians keep changing their minds over how welcome the refugees
:15:58. > :16:01.actually are. On the other side of the town, there is a gathering.
:16:02. > :16:05.Students from a nearby University are studying the arrival of
:16:06. > :16:10.refugees. There is a buffet and later a disco where students can get
:16:11. > :16:20.to know the new arrivals. A teacher tells me why this is an interesting
:16:21. > :16:26.place to study. Being a former federal state, there was not really
:16:27. > :16:33.any experience of being an ethnic state before 2012. It is much
:16:34. > :16:37.different in West German cities. They don't have any knowledge about
:16:38. > :16:42.them so it is quite easy to be manipulated by the right-leaning
:16:43. > :16:48.parties. Is there a problem with racism? Yes, all over Germany and it
:16:49. > :16:55.is increasing. It never went away and it grew and grew. Racism is not
:16:56. > :16:58.what is on show here. The night ends with another sharing of culture as
:16:59. > :17:06.the Syrian refugees teach the Germans some dance moves. These
:17:07. > :17:09.students represent the ultimate in a German welcome of refugees,
:17:10. > :17:22.something about to be challenged by events in Europe. On the 30th of
:17:23. > :17:25.November, terrorists killed 130 people in Paris. At least two of the
:17:26. > :17:52.attackers entered Europe posing as refugees. The family is growing.
:17:53. > :18:21.Mohammed has just arrived from another town in Germany but Paris is
:18:22. > :18:27.on the mind of this family. I meet this family at a restaurant. The
:18:28. > :18:29.Paris attacks have had a real impact here happy they are scared and it
:18:30. > :18:33.has hardened their view on the refugees arriving. Has that changed
:18:34. > :18:55.the way people feel about the refugees? Dirk and Daniela
:18:56. > :18:58.Hantuchova concerns that the there is currently a big debate about
:18:59. > :19:18.whether the minimum wage should be lowered for refugees. Daniella tells
:19:19. > :19:41.me she is seeing more refugees now than she used to. Today, Mohammed
:19:42. > :19:48.has started at this cool, a short walk from there and new home --
:19:49. > :19:52.their new home. And he is also in school himself. He goes to
:19:53. > :19:56.integration classes daily, paid for by the German government happy they
:19:57. > :20:05.teach German history and culture as well as language. The government
:20:06. > :20:11.lessons only get refugees up to basic German, which worries some of
:20:12. > :20:15.the teachers here. These refugees who come from Syria are very
:20:16. > :20:22.ambitious. They don't have enough language though. Here in Germany, we
:20:23. > :20:27.have so many free workplaces because we don't have many young people. The
:20:28. > :20:30.city and the government can do more for the refugees and for the German
:20:31. > :20:48.people, they can work together and live together. This man bumps into
:20:49. > :20:59.an Iraqi he has just come to know. My daughter is in the same class as
:21:00. > :21:06.Mohammed. I am from Mosul. You know it. We escaped and managed to
:21:07. > :21:13.survive. The city centrefield very far from a war zone today and it is
:21:14. > :22:24.this family's first German Christmas market.