Wali Khan is nine. He loves sport, learning English, and his dad. He misses his mother and six siblings and wants to know what happened to them. He’s from Afghanistan, but now lives in Derby. He would like to stay in Britain but doesn’t know whether he will be allowed.
I’m writing to you about Wali Khan because he and his father, Said, have agreed to open up their lives to Guardian readers in order to help us understand a little better the situation surrounding asylum seekers and refugees.
The father and son are central to a new project that we are launching today in conjunction with three other European newspapers to find out what is going on with the 1 million-plus people who have entered Europe over the past couple of years.
Much was written about the horrendous journeys these people endured, and the political backlash that their arrival caused. Now we would like to turn the focus to the new lives they are trying to build.
How are they adapting to their new surroundings? What do they miss? What’s it like to swap Homs for Hamburg, Kabul for Croydon, or Mosul for the Mosel? Which European countries are best at helping refugees settle? And what do they make of the rising tide of resentment that they encounter in this populist age?
For the next year, we will periodically check in on Wali Khan and Said and try to answer some of these questions. We will also drop in on newly arrived families in Germany, Spain and France to see how their experiences of asylum and immigration are different.
And along with our partners, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País, we will interrogate the politics behind an issue that remains one of Europe’s biggest challenges.
You can sign up below to receive emails every time we publish something about Wali Khan, or this issue (roughly once a fortnight) or you can bookmark this new arrivals series page.
