Zeeham Shalaby thought she had done everything right.
She and her daughter, Eva, 16, have learnt fluent German.
Ms Shalaby studied so she could work as a teacher's aide and Eva is about to finish school.
But still, there are Germans who want them gone.
"I'm working to settle down here and not to be kicked out of the country by the end," Ms Shalaby told the ABC.
"And if the party has … a strategy … to get rid of us, it's pretty sad."
The far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, has surprised many, gaining big electoral ground in recent years off the back of its anti-establishment stance.
The party has been consistently polling second ahead of the German election this weekend, campaigning hard on its policy of "remigration", which is a plan to send migrants back to where they came from.
"I've been here for about seven years now," Ms Shalaby said.
"I applied for my citizenship here in Germany. I hope I can get that … then I will feel safer because I will be a German person."
The mother and daughter fled to Germany in 2017 when the Syrian civil war was raging, and they have worked hard to make a life in the eastern state of Thuringia.
Ms Shalaby says she chose to come to Germany because then-chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders and she wanted to give Eva a stable home.
"I thought … I have to look for a place where I can settle down with my daughter and … I can show her a future," she said.
"I don't want to stay in a place where I'm not sure if I would get a visa after two years or not, so we decided to come here."
Ms Shalaby says she feels she's done everything she can to assimilate into German society.
However, the mother and daughter have found themselves at the centre of a bitter and divisive election campaign that has become defined by immigration.
The AfD's hardline anti-immigrant stance has gained traction with more voters in recent months following a series of attacks perpetrated by people seeking asylum in Germany.
The party has politicised the tragedies, which include two car-ramming and stabbing attacks, which have left 11 dead and hundreds injured.
Eva feels, as a result, all migrants are being tarnished with the same brush and she now worries about her future.
"I'm pretty scared. Just the thought of starting over somewhere else, it's basically like I'm throwing my whole past away," she said.
"Everything that I've worked for. I've grown up here and lived here for longer than I've lived anywhere else … I feel like this is my home."
Young voters key to AfD rise
The AfD has established Thuringia as a stronghold.
Voters there helped the party win the largest share of ballots of any party in the last state election.
It is the first time since World War II that a far-right party has had such electoral success, buoyed by the growing support of younger voters.
At a campaign launch in the AfD heartland ahead of Germany's federal poll, 22-year-olds Leonardo Lekhi and Carolin Lichtenheld are among the crowd.
As members of a youth group affiliated with the far-right party, they're proteges of the movement.
Ms Lichtenheld believes the cases of all migrants should now be reviewed, including those like Ms Shalaby and Eva, who said they have assimilated into German society.
Ms Lichtenheld said Syria had now been declared a safe country, at least in parts.
"Of course, you have to look at which region in Syria she comes from. But basically, these decisions will now be reviewed, simply because millions have come to this country and we are not a country of immigration," she said.
"Ultimately, we have to represent the interests of Germans, namely Germans who were born here.
"And yes, unfortunately, there will be, or sometimes there has to be, a decision that may hurt the individual. But at the end of the day, it's the big picture — the German population — that's at the forefront, and we have to represent them."
Mr Lekhi agreed with the sentiment and recounted being attacked last year by three people who he thought were Afghani.
"They kicked me on the head. I still have the scar over here. My cheekbone is broken, and things like that happen out of the blue," Mr Lekhi said.
"There are places that you can no longer visit in the evening. [In those places], there are no rules that you can stick to in order to know and be able to guarantee that nothing will happen to you there, especially as a woman."
Right-wing crime 'on the rise'
The AfD is not only appealing to voters because of its stance against immigration.
The party has also focused on distancing itself from the established political parties, much like Donald Trump has done with success in the United States.
Think tank ISD Global Germany's interim director, Cornelius Adebahr, told the ABC the party came across as "relatable".
"They are normal folk. They speak plain language. They don't come across as being very elitist or with academic backgrounds, using the jargon of the day," Mr Adebahr said.
"They portray themselves as very close to the people.
"They have gotten elected into a public office where they are sitting on the city council, where they are providing mayors and where they can actually run some kind of social services."
Mr Adebahr politically analyses the far right and has watched its rise in recent years with concern.
He said he has received death threats for his work.
"Right-wing extremist crime is on the rise. People are being harassed and persecuted. There are areas where a [person of colour] wouldn't want to go inside Germany for fear of their own health and safety," he said.
"What we do see is a shift towards more hate, more extremist positions, which we didn't see previously. And that is where the dangers are that the discussion, whether it shifts or not, is entering the ground, which is no longer covered by our constitutional guarantees."
Anti-migrant group 'very loud'
As the only black girl growing up in her city in the formerly Soviet-controlled East Germany, Doreen Denstadt knows what it is like to fear going out.
"I was born in 1977 … in the German Democratic Republic, and it was challenging, very challenging because I was the only black child around," Ms Denstadt said.
She then lived through the fall of the Berlin Wall and witnessed the East opening to the rest of the world.
With it came migration.
"[With] the fall of the Berlin wall, [came] the so-called 'baseball bat years', when the violence came, the right-wing parties and the right-wing violence rose to the point where I was afraid to go around," she said.
"There were places that were not safe for me."
The former police officer was Thuringia's migration minister with the left-wing Greens party until she lost her seat when the AfD swept the floor at last year's state election.
"I think a small group of people, they don't want migrants here and they are very loud. They are very loud, and they are very connected, especially on social media," she said.
"Maybe [they] just want to spread fear, make people angry, or they just think it's funny, and to work against this narrative is one of the most challenging things if you want to bring people together.
"It's easier to point to someone than think about the complexity of the whole problem. Our environment is changing, our world is changing, our society is changing, so a lot of people are tired."
She believes the anti-immigrant sentiment has risen in recent years, becoming an "easy solution" to a complex problem.
"I don't think the thoughts have changed; people are just easier with talking about it," she said.
"It's easier now to say, 'I don't want this' … before 2015, people would have asked, 'What do you say?' Now, they just let them scream and shout against the migrants."
Germans head to the polls on February 23 to decide who will run their next government.
The snap poll was called after Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition collapsed late last year.
Conservative Christian Democrats leader Friedrich Merz is in the box seat to become the next German leader.
While it is highly unlikely that the AfD, polling second, will get the votes needed to govern in its own right, gaining 20 per cent of ballots would put it in pole position for elections in four years' time.
"They will be kept out of parliament, sort of out of government for the next term. The question is, can the other parties form a government that delivers for the people in a way that they see the benefits of sticking with the democratic parties?" Mr Adebahr said.
"Or will … the next government, if it holds again for four years, will that contribute to the wider frustration? And will we see a further strengthening of the AfD towards the [next] election?"
"Then, they [the AfD] might be the strongest party, as we see in Austria these days already."
All these things may seem hypothetical until the polling numbers start to roll in, but what is certain is that this election is shaping up to be one of Germany's most divisive.
