WEBVTT

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Do you think innovation will help
in the empowerment of refugees?

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To answer this question,

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I will delve into the very delicate topic
of citizenship and community.

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Personally, I have never had citizenship,

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as I belong to the third generation
of a displaced community

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from Palestine to Syria.

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Refugees who lost, by default,
a package of human rights,

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a barrier which forces us
always to think outside boundaries.

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I was born in Damascus, Syria, 
and I enjoyed living the privileges

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of having entrepreneurial parents,
growing up in a thriving environment.

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Even though I was born
as a refugee, in Syria,

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I've lived a fairly luxurious lifestyle,

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and some of my friends joked
that I was an aristocratic refugee.

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I moved to Europe in 2010 and I earned
a Master's in Business Administration,

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run between Budapest 
and New York City.

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During my study,

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I was seeking to breathe again

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the air of the Jasmine city, Damascus.

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But the situation erupted,

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and made the whole area insecure,

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and made my desire to go back
seem as if I was in denial

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of the fact that there is war at home.

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I realized I had to stay abroad longer,

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waiting for new Jasmine
to bloom again in Damascus.

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As I did not grow up in Europe,

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I always thought 
I would be staying here shortly,

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and I felt trapped

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the moment I tried to belong to a system
that does not recognize me,

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my documents, or my history.

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Difficulties emerged
in every office I entered.

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Clerks, sometimes, have to choose
for me a citizenship from a list,

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to push papers.

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It does not matter where;

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in the hospital, university, 
airports, usually I smile

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when I see the way
clerks are staring at my documents.

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Once a lady told me,

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"You cannot marry here,
because we do not recognize your state."

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I realized that I have to do a lot more
to get what is usually taken for granted.

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I have to invent my way out,
I have to create my own opportunities.

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But having a degree in Physics,
and another in Business Administration

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opened the way for me to work
in the commercialization of technology.

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I stepped into the entrepreneurial 
and innovation scene,

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and I emphasize the added value

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of having a diverse know-how and culture.

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In this way I discovered
the open world of innovation;

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a world, a space with less prejudice.

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Failure was as present as success.

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Many times I have to maneuver around
discrimination, racism, and bureaucracy.

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But working together 
with innovators from Italy,

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Hungary, and many other destinations,

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made me feel like I belong to this state,

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the state of innovation,
of challenging the status quo.

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I enjoyed working in an open
and dynamic environment

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based on the integration of science,
business, technology, design,

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to create new outcomes, new solutions.

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In the meanwhile,

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the war at home, in the last five years,

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has taken from my happiness.

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But never from hope,

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because I am determined

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to create a positive wave impact from here

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all the way to the other side 
of the Mediterranean, where I came from.

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When the refugees crisis, the so-called 
refugee crisis in Europe emerged,

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I took initiative, I started a campaign
with an enlightened team,

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trying to involve refugees and immigrants

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in the innovative
entrepreneurial cycle, in Italy.

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And why not?

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If entrepreneurs and innovators
usually challenge the status quo,

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exactly like refugees,

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they'll have the key role in involving
refugees in the economic cycle.

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In this way we had a vision
that, enabling refugees

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to start their own activities
in a co-working ecosystem,

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will create opportunities.

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So refugees can be potential partners,

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and resources of economic change,
instead of loading the economy.

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We imagine that working
side to side with refugees

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will create and will help in crafting
tools to utilize the inflow of experience,

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a diverse experience,

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of engineers, physicians,
programmers, and makers,

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and involve them in a new,
creative way, with Italians.

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An example of what we're trying
to do in Italy, from Germany:

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in Berlin, entrepreneurs
from Peace Innovation Lab,

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have launched a school
for coding for refugees

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and they tried to employ them
in the labor market.

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Another example from the Netherlands,

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where the refugees' incubator

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is giving refugees the needed knowledge
and financial support

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to start their own activities.

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From Silicon Valley,

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where "Reboot Kamp" is a project

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taking place for teaching
refugees' children coding skills.

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And how can we make this
happen also in Italy?

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Opening co-working spaces,
the local co-working spaces,

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opening the local incubators,
and accelerators,

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and allow the inflow
of this diverse knowledge.

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Supporting startups
that involve immigrants,

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and merge them in the social
economic tissue of our society.

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One could argue that a company
founded by a refugee

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will lack the interaction
with the local territory,

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and will fail.

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Yes, I agree.

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Because we need to work together,
refugees and local citizens,

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adding up geographical 
and cultural dimensions,

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to reach to new horizons.

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In this way only,

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entrepreneurship with refugees
will be a win-win strategy.

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Imagine,

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if you have to pass a life
without having a citizenship,

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if you left a life beyond the sea,

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how can you create a new life?

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How can you create a new home
and replace a lost one?

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To survive, people invent their ways,

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and when there is nothing to lose,
they will find the only way to succeed.

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For that, being a survivor,
an immigrant, or a refugee,

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implies having the entrepreneurial spirit,

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where risk-taking and resistance
are the only ways,

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the only options:

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breaking down walls and creating
new opportunities from barriers.

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For me, when it's very difficult,
when I feel like just giving up,

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I continue to try to resist,

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because what I'm trying to do

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is not just for me, 
it is the work of a team

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that does not exist anymore.

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For a generation of youth,
who are under siege, or fire,

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scattered in the world, or in the sky,

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let me ask you today to think of this:

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Next time, when you meet
a foreigner in your town,

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don't ask him, "Where are you from?"

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Try to ask him,

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"What do you want to do here?

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What do you want to create with us?"

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Thank you.

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(Applause)