An interview with Ghada Bahri for the MYgration podcast series. Ghada was born in Damascus, Syria in 1965. Her family moved to Aleppo soon after. There she completed high school, graduated as an English teacher and got married. Ghada taught English all over Syria – from Idlib to As-Suwayda to Deir ez-Zor – while raising her six children. When her eldest son finished high school and was at risk of conscription, she fled to Turkey with her family. After living in Turkey for over three years working as an English teacher, Ghada and her children were granted asylum in the Netherlands. Now retired, Ghada shares Syrian food with her local community in the Netherlands and cares for her garden. For Ghada, the Netherlands is home.

With this collaboration between the non-profit organisations; Wijdoenmee! Initiative, the Haella Fund, Correspondents of the World, and Broadcast Amsterdam aka BRAM RADIO, we want to explore the large spectrum behind the word “migration”, and the personal stories involved.

Guest: Ghada Bahri
Podcast interviewer: Sarah Tekath
Language: English
Podcast producer: Cathy Leung for BRAM RADIO
Recorded: September 2023
Music by Anıl Kahvecioğlu (@celestialcompositions)

If you want to discover more migration stories in the Netherlands, you can read interviews online and find out more about the MYgration project at MYgration.nl.

Public discourse around migration continues to be polarised in the Netherlands. On both ends of the spectrum, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers are often spoken about in mainstream media, with resulting stories maintaining an us/them divide. MYgration seeks to bridge this divide through providing a space where people can share migratory stories in their own words and on their own terms. In doing so, MYgration offers a multi-dimensional portrait of the ‘migrant experience’.

Please help us to share these stories, however you can.  Together, we can improve the understanding of migration in our society, and the people it involves.