The official statistics on the number of Syrian refugees in Egypt are contradictory, but they do not exceed a quarter million, spread throughout the cities of the 6^th of October, Mansoura and Alexandria. Most of them are capital owners or merchants who transferred their business from Syria to Egypt. These are the ones who remained out of about 300,000 refugees since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution.

The official statistics on the number of Syrian refugees in Egypt are contradictory, but they do not exceed a quarter million, spread throughout the cities of the 6^th of October, Mansoura and Alexandria. Most of them are capital owners or merchants who transferred their business from Syria to Egypt. These are the ones who remained out of about 300,000 refugees since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution.

Firas, an assumed name, owns a restaurant in the city of 6^th of October. He moved to Egypt in 2013 and had to partner with an Egyptian for governmental administrative affairs to ensure his stay in Egypt. His restaurant serves Syrian dishes and employs six workers, two of whom are Egyptian. “I do not feel like a foreigner inside my neighborhood, where more Syrians live than Egyptians. However, I cannot enroll my kids in governmental schools or universities; only in private ones. My two eldest sons study at the private 6 October University,” says Firas.

“My situation is much better than other Syrians, who could not bring their funds from Syria. They had to work for Egyptian employers under harsh circumstances in exchange for residence and could not seek asylum in European countries.”