Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Special correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is based in Berlin. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and read at NPR.org. From 2012 until 2018 Nelson was NPR's bureau chief in Berlin. She won the ICFJ 2017 Excellence in International Reporting Award for her work in Central and Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Nelson was also based in Cairo for NPR and covered the Arab World from the Middle East to North Africa during the Arab Spring. In 2006, Nelson opened NPR's first bureau in Kabul, from where she provided listeners in an in-depth sense of life inside Afghanistan, from the increase in suicide among women in a country that treats them as second class citizens to the growing interference of Iran and Pakistan in Afghan affairs. For her coverage of Afghanistan, she won a Peabody Award, Overseas Press Club Award, and the Gracie in 2010. She received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award from Colby College in 2011 for her coverage in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Nelson spent 20 years as newspaper reporter, including as Knight Ridder's Middle East Bureau Chief. While at the Los Angeles Times, she was sent on extended assignment to Iran and Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She spent three years an editor and reporter for Newsday and was part of the team that won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for covering the crash of TWA Flight 800.
A graduate of the University of Maryland, Nelson speaks Farsi, Dari and German.
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"It's going to be a surge of hate," says a Parisian paying his respects at one of the attack sites. "We have to be careful of that." -
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi NElson talks to Scott Simon about travel security in France after the terror attacks.
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Some Muslim migrants from Afghanistan and Iran are converting to Christianity in Germany. Skeptics claim it is a ploy to gain asylum. -
The arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants sparks calls in Germany and elsewhere to end the open border policy that exists among many European countries. -
European ministers meet on Monday to discuss the migrant crisis. France and Germany want a quota system to distribute refugees across the EU, but there's opposition from Eastern European states.
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In Munich last weekend, 195 children seeking asylum showed up alone. The growing number of unaccompanied minors presents a special challenge to German authorities, who generally don't deport children.
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Prime Minister Viktor Orban has adopted staunchly anti-migrant positions to try and win back supporters from the far right, which is making significant gains. -
More Americans are studying for graduate degrees in Germany, where many programs are taught in English and tuition is usually free. (This piece first aired on June 28, 2015 on Weekend Edition Sunday).
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Berlin is one of Europe's premiere cities, yet it lacks an airport befitting its status due to years of delays and cost overruns. The new airport was supposed to open in 2012. Now the target is 2017. -
Germany has struggled with a record number of refugees, prompting calls for increased deportations. But German businesses see an opportunity in these newcomers to ease a shortage of skilled workers.
