To belong, or not to belong; that is the question

To belong, or not to belong; that is the question

25 June 2020

By Ismintha Waldring:

Growing up in Amsterdam in the 1980’s, I went to primary and secondary school with kids who had their origins all over the world. I had friends without a migration background, and I had friends whose parents had come from one of the former Dutch colonies –like mine-, or as so-called “guest workers”from Morocco, Turkey and Spain, or as political refugeesfrom various countries in South-America. This multi-ethnic school environment was mirrored in the ethnic diversity I saw throughout the city, and especiallyon a daily basis in the suburban neighbourhood in which I lived with my mother. My Surinamese background, my brown skin and the accent with which my mother spoke (and still speaks) Dutch, never seemedout of place. I was one of many kids with a “different” ethnic background, one of many kidswith a skin tone other than white, and with a parent who had an accent. Central to my life was a city in which diversity was so common and felt so familiar that I thought it represented the Netherlands as a whole. Little did I know…

Ismintha Waldring 2019: To belong, or not to belong; that is the question (PDF)