“Being in the middle”

Team members: Meral, Andrea and Sanne

This Sunday, 20 February, we met a Turkish family. Our first impression was very positive: all the
people looked very calm, warm and open, they shook our hands immediately after first letting take
our shoes off and receiving some fancy pair off slippers. We were welcomed very friendly, because
they offered a lot of food: all kinds of biscuits, cookies and cake. Of course we also got a nice cup of
delicious Turkish tea.

Meral knew the family and so we were able making an appointment. We were lucky of finding 3
members in the same family of different generations. In this way we can describe the evolution of
multiculturalism in Rotterdam.

We interviewed three persons: the older grandmother, the young Rabia and the little Akif. Here are
their stories!

We started with the oldest generation, namely Meryem

Age: 41

Religion: Muslim

Nationality: Turkish

This woman is already living in Rotterdam for 25 years. In short she knows her way through this big
metropolis. Why she came to Rotterdam? Because of her father, he came to the Netherlands looking
for work. And later on his family joined him.

She attended only primary school and language courses in Rotterdam. Meryem also took some
specific courses to get a job! Therefor she had to accept some Dutch customs. Language is one of
them. The Dutch food also found a place in her life. But especially the first feature is a necessity. You
need to communicate with the outer world.

Meryem tries to fit in the community, but when she just arrived in the Netherlands, it wasn’t
obligated to learn the language! A few years ago the government decided to change the laws by
which even the older generation of migrants needed to master the Dutch language. Aged 50 it’s
impossible learning a whole new (and quite difficult) language.

Although there are some efforts of adapting to the environment, you can still notice that Meryem is
Turkish. In which way? She brought some part of her own and native culture to the Netherlands, like
her headscarf, dresses, food culture, and in general sense the relationship with neighbours.

Did she experienced some kind of discrimination? Sometimes , as you can read in the example in the
city hall.
One day Meryem went to city hall, to renew her passport and the civil servant told her that she had
to change her photo, because she was wearing a headscarf. But actually there was no problem with
the photo, because she had handed in an official form on this matter. Meryem didn’t want to change
her photo, so she complained about the civil servant to someone in a higher position.

The manager apologized for the civil servants behaviour and explained that this general clerck
servant always did the same thing to women that wear a headscarf. They didn’t know the reason, but
there was no problem with the photo at all. So she didn’t have to change it.

Luckily there are also good things to find about Rotterdam! When we asked Meryem “ What do you
like most about Rotterdam?”. She answered the transportation. You can go wherever you want to:
metro, tram, bus, train, car and so on. It’s also because of these transport possibilities that the family
doesn’t want to go back to Turkey. In Rotterdam the sky is the limit.

Secondly we interviewed the middle generation, we asked some questions to Rabia, a girl who’s
born in Rotterdam.

Age: 26 years old  married (but divorcing) and has one little son (4 years old)

Religion: Muslim

Nationality: Turkish

Rabia is born in the Netherlands and therefor she carries the Dutch nationality. Rotterdam is a
multicultural city so there are a lot of different nationalities. In the streets and so too in the schools.
Rabia didn’t feel like an outsider, because of the previous arguments. So if she had to move to
Amserdam it would make her feel very uncomfortable. She went to school in this neighbourhood and
has her own family and circle of (school)friends around.

She was not discriminated in school, but you there was some distance between the city girls and the
country girls. People aren’t mocked for their skin colour or cultural differences, but for their accent.

Sometimes people are talking bad about her headscarf and every time Rabia tries to explain why she
wears it. It’s not because her husband want her to do so, but because it’s part of her faith an
believing in God.

A few years ago she had a neighbour who never spoke to her. One day, when she reached the age of
19, she mustered all her courage and finally said “Hello!” to him. Strangely he answered very polite
back. Then Rabia found out, that the man was afraid talking to women wearing head scarfs, because
of he only knew little about the culture. That’s why he avoided speaking to ‘foreign’ people.

Wearing her own Western clothes, she doesn’t stand out to much. But she’s still covering her body,
because of her religion. Even in hot summers. Comparing Meral (whose also Turkish) with Rabia:
Meral is more quit and respectful, while Rabia is more easily picked out of the crowd, because of her
clothes. So there’s a very thin border between being Turkish and being too much Turkish.
People accept the fact that everyone may choose their own religion and believe. It’s a way of
expressing yourself and making your own choices. This is at least in what way Rabia goes through
life! Unfortunately not everyone is this open minded .

And last we had a little chat with the newest generation: the 13-year old Akif.

Age: 13 years old

Religion: Muslim

Nationality: Turkish

This little boy is going to a secondary school. And he’s doing pretty well at his new school, because is
a smart boy with good grades! He was even able doing some parts of the interview in English. But
while is able of talking Turkish, I (Sanne) am able of speaking fluently Dutch. Asking some easy
questions wasn’t that hard.

You should maybe think that a life in the big city is sometimes hard, but Akif gave his point of view.

Akif feels like a real Rotterdamer, because he is born in this city and this country. Here he is at home
and for that reason he isn’t mocked and bullied at school. In his class there are a lot of different
nationalities: Turkish, Moroccan, Surinam, Algerian, Chinese… They’re learned to accept each other
and to live in harmony.

The most wonderful thing about the Netherlands to Akif is the educational system. That’s also the
reason why he wants to finish school here in the Netherlands and then take of to Turkey to find a job
over there. The reason for this choice is that Turkey still is his home country and he should honor it in
some kind of way. Of course he has a lot of respect for the land of birth of his parents, so he will
definitely go back.

He shows his love for Turkey in eating the traditional dishes. Drinking tea is also part of it! Akif also
believe that a religion is something personal: it tells who you are and what you believe in. He isn’t
forced, being a Muslim, but his parents are learning him to become a good person. And in some way
the Islam is helping a hand in this matter.

But living in Rotterdam also means adapting to your environment! Therefore Akif wears typical
Western clothes, like his friends do. His parents follow fashion trends, but mix it with traditional
elements of Turkey. Some flower patterns and dark colours are favorites. The women hate wearing
bright fabrics, because then they stand out to much in the crowd. In the sunny Turkey it’s a habit, but
here it’s a custom wearing rather less outstanding skirts, pants and dresses.

In other words this Turkish family keeps loyal to their roots, but try to fit in the community! There’re
trying their best, but you can’t change the fact the first generation were foreigners . The place you
can call home differs just a bit. Don’t lose your personality and never forget were you’re coming
from, because that’s the place where your family grew up and still have a lot of connection…