On Friday the eighth of January Siham Atassi and Jochum Jarigsma organized a visit to the University of Amsterdam and Leiden for refugees from Syria and Eritrea, that would possibly qualify for an education on a Dutch University. We decided to participate in this event to find out more about the refugees that are considering an education in The Netherlands, and the process ahead of them.
The day started in Amsterdam on ‘Roeterseiland’, the faculty of economics, business administration, social- and behavioral sciences. Several students of this particular faculty volunteered to show the refugees around the campus. During the tour we were able speak with the refugees. The group existed of three guys, aged 21-23. One of them studied Business Administration back in Syria, one had almost finished his course of Arabic Poetry. The third had been studying engineering, but was momentarily very interested in flying planes, thus the track to become a pilot. Besides questions regarding their studies, we wanted to try to find out more about their future perspectives. Cautiously we asked if they would ever want to return to Syria, or if they want to stay in The Netherlands or any other place. Mohammed Ali, firmly responded that Syria was too full of dark and negative memories, all of his friends that were still alive, were in Holland, and his family left his country as well. So in order to forget about these events, he shouldn’t return. While Ahmed and Milan were not sure if they wanted to stay in The Netherlands, Mohammed Ali was pretty sure he would.
After the tour, the day continued and the group left for the University of Leiden. During our time on the road, the guys told a lot about their journeys and experiences of the past one to two years. They concluded their stories with the message that
“all that they wanted for the future was to be happy”
Mohammed Ali added that he had no interest in Dutch money or people to look out for him, he explained he had enough money of his own back in Syria and all he wanted in The Netherlands was to have a peaceful life and forget about the war. Another Dutch participant wondered if he ever could, as the war is reported on the television every single day, to which the others responded that they did not watch the news any more. The older people in their camp did, but as all the people they knew left the country, the news was merely making them sad. Why the older generation did watch the news, was because they still had hope to return some day.
After a quick stop at a student organization in Leiden, the dean of International Studies at the University of Leiden gave a clear explanation of the application procedure that is designed for students from outside the EU and particularly refugees to the University of Leiden, as this procedure differs slightly per University. This presentation was complemented by a representative of the UAF, an independent nonprofit institution that assists refugees in their application to universities and schools of higher education. Since they are independent of the IND, she explained, refugees can already start off with the UAF while their asylum procedure is still running. This was new information to many of the Syrians and Eritreans. She also emphasized the importance of learning the Dutch language, as many of the group had declared their aim to start with learning English fluently before starting off with Dutch. The UAF representative explained how learning Dutch takes a lot of time and practice and is more important than learning English when you want to live and work in The Netherlands. In addition, if you want to become a Dutch citizen, learning Dutch is mandatory. The UAF also assists in this trial, while DUO offers a €10.000 loan for people that want to integrate in The Netherlands. Both speakers clarified a lot about the different procedures the refugees would have to undertake. However, it also gave an insight of the long road they still had to go…
Humanitarian Stories 