I am Ali, I am thirty years old. Four of my family members are in Iraq: my mother, my father and two sisters. One of them is married. I came to Germany one year and four months ago. I travelled from Iraq to Turkey by plane. I stayed in Turkey for seven days and then went to Greece by boat [across the Aegean Sea]. From there we walked or took the bus along the Balkan route - through Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary and then to Passau, in Germany. There, I was registered by the officials and stayed at a refugee home for a day. Then I was sent to Dortmund [in western Germany]. I decided to come to Germany because it is safe here and people are respectful. I feel at home here. I have met many nice people. In Iraq, I lived in a place called Diyala [a province in eastern Iraq] and worked in a bakery there. I am a baker by profession and have eight years of experience. I baked bread - flat Arabic bread known as "khubus." I applied for asylum in Germany in August 2015. After seven months, they answered saying they had rejected my application. Normally we have two interviews. I only went for the first one and after six months, they said I had been rejected. Then I looked for a lawyer to appeal my case and am waiting for a decision. Right now, I have an "Aufenthaltsgestattung" [residence permit for refugees that enables them to work under certain conditions]. But with this permit, I can work only if someone offers me a fulltime job.  I applied for a job some time back, but they replied after four months saying they didn’t want me. The Federal agency for Employment is helping me find work. I get some money from the social security office and I'm doing a course to improve my German and intercultural skills. I definitely don’t want to go back to Iraq, because everything is not alright there. If I go out on the streets, I don't know whether I'll be back alive. There is no safety at all. There is no "Islamic State" in Diyala, but there are bomb attacks by secret groups and jihadists. I know some people who went back to Iraq because they were deported or they had to return because of some reason, I don't know, maybe a problem in the family. But a lot of people don't return. It's very dangerous there...you can't leave the house once it's dark. I want to find a job and start a normal life here. I want to be independent. I don't know how much longer I will have to wait. This interview was conducted by Manasi Gopalakrishnan for Infomigrants.