A personal account by software developer Mert Bulan traces an intended three-month internship in Hamburg into a longer migration story shaped by work, friendship and a growing sense of belonging. The essay is a first-person reflection rather than an independent survey of German society, but it offers a detailed account of one immigrant’s experience.
Bulan writes that he was a computer-science student in Turkey when he sought a European internship after completing his third year in 2017. An Erasmus scholarship helped with the visa process, and he secured a position at a Hamburg company. It was his first trip outside Turkey and his first sustained contact with people from other countries.
Before arriving, his impressions of Germans were largely inherited from familiar stereotypes and stories told by Turkish guest workers who returned for summer visits. His experience quickly diverged from those expectations. A German flatmate collected him from the airport, answered his questions during regular conversations and trusted him to leave the apartment keys in the mailbox at the end of the stay.
At work, Bulan says his team gave him meaningful responsibilities, included him in events and created an environment that combined learning with enjoyment. His team lead offered him freelance work from Turkey while he finished university, with the possibility of a full-time contract. That contract arrived in April 2018, before he completed his degree. He moved back to Hamburg at the end of June and returned to the same team and flatmate.
The essay emphasizes practical assistance from colleagues during his early months. They accompanied him to apartment viewings, helped resolve an electricity-provider problem and, on a later move, rented a van to carry his belongings. Bulan also recalls managers encouraging vacation and sick leave, and event organizers accommodating dietary requirements including vegan, vegetarian and halal food, alcohol preferences and allergies.
For Bulan, routine moments became evidence of social norms he valued. He describes executives getting their own coffee and washing their glasses, a finance chief commuting on an old bicycle, and office workers eating alongside construction workers at the same neighborhood restaurant. He interpreted these scenes as signs of trust and reduced social distance.
He also says he experienced professional advancement without the discrimination he had feared. In a works-council election, he received the most votes despite immigrants representing about a quarter of the company, according to his account.
The essay does not claim that every immigrant or workplace produces the same outcome. Its significance lies in the contrast between expectation and lived experience: a temporary career move became, through a sequence of personal relationships and institutional encounters, the place Bulan came to regard as home.
