Algeria - “Keep on seeing and don’t buy” (come watch and don’t buy), “O roses, we will bring you roses”, the phrases of the young merchant’s shadow, Walid, that he repeats not in the Hamidiya market in the Levant, but in “Zanika Al-Arayes” in Martyrs’ Square in the heart of the capital Algiers

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Walid, in his twenties, stands at the door of the shop where he works, distributes his glances to passersby as he races his breath, selects his customers with the eye of a sniper who knows how to catch his target, pronounces his famous phrases loudly that penetrates the chaos of the popular market.

Syrian immigrants brought the Syrian cheese trade to the Algerian market (Al-Jazeera)

Passers-by skill

The young man, red-faced by the heat of enthusiasm, despite the cold weather in Algeria, can hardly swallow his saliva between the words "promotional" and another, as all his senses work to "magnetize" (attract) passersby.

A smile from here and a zajal from there until the customers gather inside the shop to follow them in turn and complete his mission of persuading them to buy after he convinced them to turn up.

"The good seed, wherever it goes, will sprout," this is how the 48-year-old Algerian Saeed, the owner of the shop where Walid works, describes his Syrian merchant neighbors, and about Walid, the speaker says, "This young man is my treasure, whose services I will not dispense with."

The fashion of Syrian restaurants swept the Algerian street in the recent period (Al-Jazeera)

Baba Aleppo

Kilometers away from Martyrs' Square, a visitor to the "Baba Hassan" area in the western suburbs of the capital cannot ignore the shops named on Syrian streets, restaurants, or cities.

This wide street smells of cumin of falafel, the smell of grills that glow from under the embers, the ghee of animal origin from the "Arabian sweet" shop, and the smell of thyme mixed with the smiles of the Syrian young man, Raouf, from the "Sheikh Market", which specializes in Syrian cheeses.

Syrian immigrants brought their restaurants with them and the smell of grills that glow from under them (Al-Jazeera)

In this street, the visitor can hardly hear anything but the Syrian dialect, so that he is called “Baba Halab” instead of “Baba Hassan.” Merchants exchange peace as they open their shops at nine in the morning to “cause a livelihood” .. They are trying to conjure Syria.

Merchant Hussam pushes the iron door of his shop up with his left hand, while he picks up the last bite of his morning breakfast from his right hand, as if he were stealing time, a piece of Syrian bread coated with cheese and sprinkled with thyme and olive oil.

A large group of Algerians consider Syrian immigrants a unique model, as the 66-year-old Algerian merchant says, "The Syrian does not give you time to feel his sadness, he enters directly with you in giving and giving to produce, this person does not have time to wipe his tears or bring them down."

Algerians before the Syrian community accept Levantine Arab sweets shops (Al-Jazeera)

Night has come

Among the inspiring stories, Ahmed Munjid, director of the Syrian community’s page in Algeria, which is followed by nearly 43,000 people, explains the commercial activity of Syrian immigrants by saying to Al Jazeera Net, “The Syrians understand from what they have gone through that life does not give gifts.”

Munjed, who graduated from the University of Aleppo with a major in commerce and economics, and also from Damascus University with an English translation, adds that when he came to Algeria, he chose commerce.

He started from scratch and then established his small company, which later went bankrupt, so he returned to work as a simple worker seeking to collect his daily livelihood, and with persistence he returned to open his own project in the field of sewing women's clothes.

Ahmed Munjid says, "A Syrian is not arrogant about work, regardless of his educational level and no matter how simple the position."

Young Ahmed Munjid believes that the secret of success lies in the continuous search for livelihood (Al-Jazeera)

In the language of numbers

In the latest statistics provided by the Algerian Ministry of Trade last December, Syrian companies jumped to third place at the end of 2021 after Turkish and French in Algeria in the field of foreign investment by 11%.

As for the category of natural merchants located in Algeria, Syrian merchants ranked first with a percentage of 30%. The interests of the commercial registry in Algeria counted 9,648 foreign merchants, "of which 2,471 are natural and 7,177 are moral," according to the Minister of Trade, Kamal Reziq.

In December 2021, Bouzid Lazhari, the former head of the High Council for Human Rights (a governmental body) in Algeria, revealed that the number of Syrian refugees in his country had reached the threshold of 40,000.

The Syrian immigrant, according to most of the people we met, works from 14 to 16 hours a day, Ahmed says, "Some of us arrive night and day to stand on our feet and so that we do not live dependent on anyone." Many tend to the theory that the Syrian immigrant was able to be an important economic actor in Algeria. .