"Greetings from Holland" is what postcards showing windmills and tulips usually say. Now it's also the title of a new film series to help foreigners travelling around the Netherlands to learn more about the country.
The series' producers say they aim to encourage discussion among immigrants without sounding preachy. The series, however, does offer norms and values. Robert Chesal of Radio Netherlands Worldwide compares the series with his own experiences in the 1980s, when he came here from the United States.
When I came to live in the Netherlands in 1985, I received lots of help integrating, both formally and informally. A crash course in Dutch language and culture gave me a solid basis to build upon. The intensive language lessons, combined with instructive trips to places such as Parliament or the Flevo polder, soon gave me enough confidence to strike up conversations with strangers. Just two years later I was ready to approach employers. A successful integration, I dare say with un-Dutch pride.
Open-air museum
The new DVD series shows a group of immigrants in the midst of their integration process. Among them are Turks, Moroccans, Russians and Moluccans. A number of trips across the country exposes them to issues that are important for their integration: democracy, religion, housing, work, health. Like me, they visit Parliament, the Open-air museum near Arnhem, a former coal mine in Limburg, and a mosque and a church in Deventer. The film follows them discovering the country's history and current customs.
Lucky few
Getting immersed in the language in the midst of society is the way to integrate. The series' immigrants, however, are a lucky few. Their outings are beyond the reach of most other immigrants in the Netherlands. Public funds are too scarce to take all of them on a trip to The Hague. And since most immigrants have low incomes, they are not likely to make the trip on their own either. So they will have to make do with passively watching the series in a classroom. One wonders how much they'll learn that way. Simone de Vries, one of the makers of the documentary, admits there's a
big difference between watching and doing:
"We travelled a lot with a wide variety of different people and the trips always stirred lots of emotions. We took one class, for example, to parliament and sure it's a bit cliché but it really is fantastic to see it up close. Most people really have no experience of democracy. Coming from different countries and different regimes, they are thrilled they can just walk into parliament. Experiencing that thrill oneself is, of course, completely different from watching others. Such occasions really allow immigrants to experience the place they've come to first hand."
Rita Verdonk
It's not the first time film has been used to inform immigrants about the Netherlands. A film targeting potential immigrants was made in 2005 under the populist Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk. The film clearly aims to showcase the freedoms and rights women, gay people and other groups enjoy in the Netherlands in contrast to other countries. "Greetings from Holland" may strike a different tone but propagates and defends the same values. The term "values", though, provokes something like an allergic reaction from Simone de Vries:
"We should be careful trying to impose values. When, some time ago, I saw the film Minister Verdonk had made for people considering to emigrate to the Netherlands, one came away with the feeling: ouch, I don't think I'll go, what an awful country. The film had a clear agenda and was meant as a deterrent. We wanted our documentary to be different."
Contrast
What strikes me most is the sharp contrast with my own integration during the 1980s. Back then Utrecht University went out of its way to help me integrate as a student-even though it was far from certain I would stay on. The approach was active, with an emphasis on doing things. Dutch norms and values were taken for granted and were introduced without the least embarrassment. That combination of learning actively and clear social expectations did much to help me integrate.
Educational films such "Greetings from Holland" can't match that.
Robert Chesal
Radio Netherlands
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How to become Dutch.
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