SOME expats come to Bulgaria for love. Some come for money. Some, like Syrian native Yousef Hamoto, come because they want to escape. They want to start a life that's better than the one they've left behind.
"I was dying in Syria," he said. "I couldn't stand it anymore. Bulgaria was my destination number one."
Nine months ago, Hamato came to Sofia with the support of his brother, who has been living here for 25 years. It was a decision based mainly on the political situation of his homeland, which he describes the way an unlucky son might view his stepmother - more a source of grief than love and support.
Hamato enjoys literature by Arabic, Western and Russian authors. He's also something of an armchair psychologist who enjoys reading Freud and other analysts. But these interests weren't received well in his native land. He found few people at his university, for example, who shared his passions.
Adding to Hamato's alienation was his ethnicity. He is a Kurd. Like in Turkey, the life of the Kurds in Syria is not easy. "Several years ago it was awful," he said. "Officially the government said we don't exist, despite the fact there are one million Kurds in Syria. We couldn't talk our language, we didn't have any rights, we couldn't even think."
The final straw came when he had doubts about his professional future. After he graduated from his university with a master's in law, he served two years as an apprentice in a lawyer's office. The experience taught Hamato (28) that Syrian clients trusted only wealthy, older men. Here in Bulgaria - where he owns a general store on Madrid Street - Hamato said he could earn enough money to establish a law office that would attract customers. He is passionate about the law, he said.
"I will still work as a lawyer when I don't need this profession to pay my bills, but when the profession needs me," he said. "I won't care for the money. I'll work with my soul. And helping young lawyers without experience like me now will be one of my essential goals."
In contrast to how he views his fellow Syrians, Hamato finds Bulgarians to be open-minded. "I like that everybody here doesn't look at me as a foreigner, but as a human," he said. "If I respect them, they'll respect me."
That openness carries over to Bulgarian women, too. Not only are they gorgeous, he said. They're also smart and independent. Hamato has met many who can hold their own with him in discussions about literature and psychology. Syrians are narrow-minded when it comes to women's rights. "It's a man's society," he said. "Women are good only for three things - delivering children, cooking and housekeeping. If a woman is better than a man in something, she's not accepted."
Hamato doesn't want to marry a Bulgarian girl, however. Many people might think his reluctance stems from religion. That's not the case. Rather, he fears that marrying a Bulgarian woman might result in him losing a bit of his Kurdish culture and identity. "I respect everybody and every diversity," he said. "But there are some things that I cannot change."
He isn't very optimistic about the situation of children in a Kurdish-Bulgarian marriage, for example. "I can tell this from the experience of my brother," he said. "I want to bring up my children in the Kurdish tradition. I want them to speak the Kurdish language. Don't get me wrong, but with a non-Kurd wife this will be impossible. And if one day my children come back to Syria, they will be doomed because they will be different from the others."