this is the page of walburg college group 3
article 2
For this article we choosed to make a interview because of the story of Lisa's grandparents. Their story is a perfect example for migration we also could make a link with the human rights. We hope you will like the article.
Migration, my family from Indonesia
I am half Indonesian, half Dutch. So my grandparents used to live in Indonesia. My whole earlier family (which I didn’t know) used to live there. In Indonesia my grandparents and their parents etc. were pretty rich. They had a big villa, with servants. They had everything. Money, a house, family. But then in 1958 my grandmother and grandfather had to leave the country and emigrate to Holland. They had to go with the boat and make a journey over the seas all the way from the nice place, Indonesia, to the unknown Holland. Where they had absolutely nothing.
Why did my grandparents had to emigrate to Holland?
My family is Dutch Indies. So it were Indonesian people who worked for the Dutch government, people like my grandfather. But in 1945 august 17, Indonesia declared its independence from the Netherlands. Four years later also the Dutch agreed to its independency. So that meant that all the Dutch and Dutch Indies had to leave, or stay in Indonesia and become a Indonesian inhabitant, or go back to the Netherlands. Most people had made the last choice and returned to Holland, like my family.
What did they do when they arrived in Holland? And what rights did they had?
When my family arrived in Holland, they really had nothing. Luckily they got a small house of the government. And because the available houses in Holland were spread throughout the whole country, my family was also divided over the entire country. The buildings were empty. But they could get a loan which they could pay back after they had worked and had an income. With the borrowed money they could buy all the furniture which they needed. Nowadays immigrants get all the stuff. My grandma wasn’t used to work, because she never needed to. But when she got in Holland, she had to work, and found a job as secretary. Sadly my grandfather passed away during that time in war. My father was back then in his 20s.
It wasn’t like my family had no rights at all, they had some rights because they of course worked for the Dutch government. But the rights were adjusted.
What is the link with human rights?
I think one of the most important rights of a human is that they are free to go live their lives wherever they want. Lisa her family had to make their own decision whether they wanted to stay in Indonesia or go and in Holland. They choose to live in Holland to seek a better future than they had, even though they had to travel half around the globe. This is an perfect example of migration, travelling half around the world; leaving everything behind to live in Holland. This choice is very important for humans to decide where they want to live, they need this to have the feeling that they are free. To choose where they can make the most out of their lives. And to give their descendants the best possible future that they can give them. It’s important to choose your own path and that’s why being able to immigrate over the world is an important aspect of being free.
article 3
“Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.” (Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt)
As group we agree to this statement, because if a country gets too much immigrants, like we have the refugees right know, the recent habitants of the country may not like this. Also it costs a lot of money to give the immigrants their life requirements. If an immigrant won’t adapt to the culture of the land, they won’t learn the language and there is never a change that they will fit in our society and get a good job. And from our perspective we think that you should work and do something to get your place in this society.
There is no place for people who immigrate to our country with the intention to live here profiting from our resources without contributing to society. We don’t mind to take in people in need, as long as they are willing to be part of our society. We’re are not against immigration, but this statement is a good idea.