For some of the more far-flung refugees, the hardest thing about resettlement is thinking of the people left behind.

Rana did not expect to move to Berlin when she first came to the city to visit a friend seven months ago. But when her friends and family in Syria told her not to return to her war-torn country she thought she should listen. After approaching the German foreign office for an extension to her visa for three months, the 32-year-old was surprised to receive a residence visa valid for one year.

"It took me about two months to believe I was here," she said. "At first I was unhappy because I didn't really have anyone here – my friends and family and job were all in Syria, so I had to start from the beginning and it was very difficult."

After a while, the multicultural lifestyle and inclusive nature of Berlin won her over. But she misses the people left behind. Her mother, father, sister and brother-in-law and their two children live together in a house in Damascus.

"I'm always worried about them and always thinking about them," she said. "This might be a reason I can't focus on language and being part of this society and my life here because I just think about them and want to talk to them to feel they are safe. I always wonder how I can help them to get out of Syria."

However, she added that sometimes it is a relief to forget about the troubles in her country.

"Sometimes it helps to feel more at home [by speaking to Syrian friends in Berlin], but not always," she said. "You want to speak your own language and because you have the same feelings you can share your worries about family in Syria. But sometimes you want to be free from this and I feel like I don't want to meet Syrian people and want to forget about the problems."

Rana is one of more than 10,000 Syrians who have been accepted into Germany since the conflict in Syria began in 2011, many as part of resettlement programme run by the government.

Bernd Mesovic, deputy director of Pro Asyl, a German organisation working to protect refugee rights, said the recognition rate for Syrian asylum seekers was very high, at around 99.5%, and the process quick, while conditions for asylum seekers from other countries remain poor.

"Concerning asylum seekers in Germany, who made their way on their own, I feel it is part of a political manipulation … the ministry of the interior wanted to produce recognition quotas not too close to zero and it's very easy to find wording for recognition of Syrian refugees so the federal agency is able to do it in great numbers and in a very short amount of time," he said.

He added that agreement by the German interior minister, Hans Peter Friedrich, to accept 5,000 Syrians as part of a resettlement scheme had come about due to pressure on the government from the relatively big community of Syrians already living in Germany.

A 30-year-old Syrian, who asked not to be named, and has lived in Germany as a student for 10 years, told the Guardian his family were allowed to come to Berlin as part of the resettlement programme. Given residence visas, members of the family have the right to work and travel, have health insurance and access to education in Germany.

But despite the good situation for them in Germany, he said his family would like to be able to return to Syria if things improved, a sentiment echoed by Rana.

"If the situation was better in Syria, I would go back," she said. "But I don't know. In one year, if I have a job and a house and friends, it might be different."