[Nettime-nl] "Vluchtelingen hebben iets goeds te maken en moeten dankbaar zijn"

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee

Prachtig 'long read' van Dina Nayeri in The Guardian. Zij heeft ook een 
tijdje in Amsterdam gewoond, hieronder de gedeelte van haar stuk die 
daar over gaat:

"I've been moving back and forth between New York and Europe pretty much 
my entire adult life. When I lived in Amsterdam, even highly educated 
people openly complained of "too many Moroccans and Turks" in certain 
neighbourhoods. Geert Wilders, the head of the far-right Party for 
Freedom, had warned that the country would soon become "Nether-Arabia".

In Amsterdam, I got to know Iranian refugees who didn't have my kind of 
luck with their asylum applications. One man in our community set 
himself on fire in Dam Square in 2011. He had lived in Amsterdam for a 
decade, following their rules, filling out their papers, learning their 
culture, his head always down. He did all that was asked of him and, in 
the end, he was driven to erase his own face, his skin.

Remembering Kambiz Roustayi, a man who only wanted a visa, his family 
and his own corner of the world, I want to lash out at every comfortable 
native who thinks that his kind don't do enough. You don't know what 
grateful is, I want to say. You haven't seen a young man burn up from 
despair, or an old man faint on a football field from relief and joy, or 
a nine-year-old boy sing the entire Marseillaise from memory. You don't 
know how much life has already been spent settling into the cracks of 
your walls. Sometimes all that's left of value in an exile's life is his 
identity. Please stop asking people to rub out their face as tribute."

Lal Salaam from p+4D! (7 meanwhile ...)
______________________________________________________
* Verspreid via nettime-nl. Commercieel gebruik niet
* toegestaan zonder toestemming. <nettime-nl> is een
* open en ongemodereerde mailinglist over net-kritiek.
* Meer info, archief & anderstalige edities:
* http://www.nettime.org/.
* Contact: Menno Grootveld (rabotnik@xs4all.nl).