Two feet and two different boats
Entering upon our 2nd week of classes, I was excited to learn more about the Netherlands. During our first week we had touched upon various aspects of the history, culture, and politics of the Netherlands. We even got a micro view of the education, and political system along with an insight into the tolerant legal policies. Today, we focused on a sensitive issue that had plagued and continues to plague many countries across the world, Immigration. As we had learnt last week, the Dutch colonial empire was huge, and their supremacy was based on exploitation of their colonies. This impoverishment of the natives meant that the Dutch had to make some compensation; one of them was that they would be tolerant and secular in allowing the natives of their former colonies to immigrate to the Netherlands upon becoming independent. For example, Professor Jeroen Dewulf informed us that in 1949 when Indonesia became independent 300,000 people (mainly repatriates) left for the Netherlands. Additionally, in the 1950’s there were many “guest” workers from the relatively poorer southern Europe countries i.e. Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, etc that came to the Netherlands for work. Most of these workers performed the lower and unwanted functions of the society and in the 70’s, when they were asked to leave, they refused. In the end, they were given citizenship and were allowed to bring their family over as well. I thought this was a difficult decision that the Netherlands was forced to make because of the additional cost involved in social security cover for the immigrants, and also their assimilation into the society. While the additional cost associated with social security cover is a minor issue for such a wealthy nation, the bigger problem was the assimilation program. This clash of different cultures was brought out well in the movie ‘Shouf Shouf Habibi’ that followed the lecture. The movie deals with problems that the immigrant society faces in their daily life in the Netherlands in a comical way- there were many tensions within the immigrant family and many reasons could be attributed to them. Furthermore, from the movie I realized that the core of the problem for the immigrant society lies in the choice of either sailing the boat of their own culture, or that of the Dutch.
When immigrants move to the Netherlands they have a lot of problems in acclimatizing to the culture of the Dutch society. Initially, it’s a culture shock for most, a situation to which they must slowly learn to get accustomed. Also, many of the immigrants who come from conservative backgrounds find themselves in a greater crisis, and this can be attributed to the fact that the Dutch society has a lot of liberal elements that relatively less liberal societies find difficult to accept and adopt. Therefore, the immigrants must feel as someone who is caught in the middle of the sea with two boats to choose from would: one is that of their own culture, while the other is to assimilate into the Dutch culture. If they choose to continue with their way of life, they find themselves either ridiculed or out of place. On the other hand, when they try to assimilate into the Dutch way of life, their own society fails to recognize them. The third more difficult, frustrating, and near impossible option is to have a foot each in both the boats. However, even this does not solve the problem as there is a compromise that the individual has to make. Nonetheless, it’s the more practical option to make. ‘Shouf Shouf Habibi’ did a good job of showing this dilemma faced by the immigrant society. The conservative parents continue with their lifestyle, and try to impose it on their children as well. The parents don’t find it very difficult to maintain their lifestyle as they keep themselves relatively aloof from the Dutch. Conversely, their children find it difficult to live such a life as they are in constant touch with the Dutch society. It makes it very hard for them as they are made to face ridicule by other people outside their own, small society. For instance, the daughter is made fun of by the others, this despite the fact that she wears western clothing, and is very alike the Dutch in her social mannerisms, except for the colour of her skin.
In conclusion, the topic of immigration, and clash of cultures is a very sensitive issue that can be discussed at great length. Immigrant families face a lot of problems upon moving to the Netherlands, and hence it is very important for the Dutch to be more open and tolerant towards the beliefs of these individuals and groups. In the same breath, the immigrant families need to realize that they are no longer in their home country, and the rules, traditions, and laws are very different. They must learn to live with that or accept the Netherlands as their home and start living their lifestyle. Lastly, our visit to the multi-cultural neighborhood showed us that the Dutch have on their part provided the immigrant families with decent housing and surrounding environment to live in. If they have opened their arms as a gesture of acceptance, then it is definitely time for the immigrants to do the same
No comments:
Post a Comment