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However hard a situation may be, eventually you will get used to it.
A nasty neighbour, a dripping tap, bad weather, far away from your family.
You may get used to a situation so much,
that is becomes part of you.
Ouch! Hot!
Hi uncle! – Hi nephew!
You okay? - Couldn’t be better, brother.
How’s your mum?
She’s fine. – And Finfin?
They are okay. – So they’re all right?
They’re fine, man. – Yes.
And how’s school? – School’s good.
That’s fine. You've always been a good student.
That’s exactly why I want to come to Holland, uncle.
To Holland? – Yes.
In Holland I’ll be able to improve my knowledge.
You know what I mean, uncle!
Uncle understands, but Holland has changed, boy.
But look at you. – Yes, but Holland has changed.
Did you really think about it? – Yes.
I thought that if it’s okay I would come over to you.
Holland is bigger than the Antilles, that's for sure.
And of course there are more possibilities.
But Archell is worried that this is why Juni thinks
that Holland is better for him.
Hey, what a bad weather. – Yes, rain. Lousy.
Nice house you’ve got. – Thanks.
Shahaira, when did you decide to come to Holland?
I missed my aunt. She moved to here. And I wanted to study here.
I felt as if Curacao
was getting too small for me.
Honestly, I had never planned to go to Holland.
I came here for my brother.
He had moved from Curacao to Den-Helder.
And wanted some company.
Would you recommend people to come to Holland?
Looking at the Netherlands now, they better stay there.
Don’t think that all your problems will be solved over here.
They won’t. This culture is different and you will have to adjust to it.
Indeed, people came here because of their aunt, nephew or uncle.
It could be life changing. For Curacao was to small for them...
to realize their dreams. But that is not the reality.
Can you imagine people come here and say
that Holland is a paradise?
I can't imagine that.
I really can't.
Maybe if they have a rich family here.
But when you come from there looking for a job,
and depending on benefits.
Because there is no job. This is no paradise.
For you to know!
Tax assessment.
Uncle.
Hey, nephew. – What’s that?
Some tax assessments.
Assess...what??
Tax assesments. Look here, nephew.
I have to pay tax.
tax...
assessment...
In Holland you get your bills by mail.
If you don't pay, you will get a reminder.
And after that comes a debt collection, or even a bailiff.
Who is allowed to enter your house and take away your stuff.
In Curacao you pay your rent but, there are fewer other obligations.
There is much more paperwork over here.
We are not used to that.
In Curacao you hardly hear from a bailiff. Here you do.
Did you ever have to deal with them? – Me?
I’ve had some debt collections. But I stay clear of the bailiff.
The bailiff? - I make sure he stays out of it.
When you get a debt collection that you can’t pay,
you just call them and you explain:
'I cannot pay this amount of money; can we make a settlement?'
But if you do nothing and just leave it like that,
then you’ll get another one. If you forget that one too.
Then the bailiff is contacted. Phoning then, will be too late.
Uncle, are you ready for me to come and stay with you?
- With me? For a vacation you mean.
Oh no! Not a vacation. To live there.
This is Holland, not Curacao. Houses are small and close to each other.
We have no room to move here. No, it's not possible, Juni.
For you to come over, is not that simple.
We may fight and then I’m no longer your favourite uncle.
No, uncle. That won’t happen. We’ll always be friends.
No, son. It's a no go.
You know, sometimes you bring someone to your house
You give him food and drinks.
But after some time he will think it is his house.
That’s how it goes. You see?
That’s why I made this song. Goes like this.
A dog went from Curacao to Holland.
And he thinks his life has changed.
A dog went from Curacao to Holland.
And he thinks his life has changed.
When you give him a bone to eat.
Vicious dog! Now he wants to bite me.
I went to get help at the municipality,
I went to lot's of people, but no one could help him.
Feeling pity I let him into my house.
But vicious dog, he wants to bite me.
That song says it all.
It is the truth. Why does this still happen?
Because many people think that live in Holland is as on Curacao.
There you are used to just drop in at your family.
You can stay the night.
But in Holland there are rules.
Unlike in Curacao, everything costs money over here.
You don’t talk money with your family. Met familie praat je niet over geld. - You don’t talk about that, sure not.
Look uncle, I drop in and will soon get a student flat.
Soon?
I've explained to you how things work over here.
How things are organized here. How difficult it is.
By the way, did you look for information about studying in Holland?
I though that education in Holland would be easy for me...
to pick up my unfinished study.
But then it proved to be very difficult.
What made it difficult? Isn't there more education here?
They say that if you want to learn you should go to Holland.
Yes, but before I came I had not applied for a bursary.
When you've just arrived you know nothing.
The rules for students are getting stricter and stricter.
In the eighties you could be a student for as long as you liked,
and public transport was free for students.
Since the year 2000 you have to score a certain amount of points
otherwise your bursary would become a loan.
And the rules got even more strict.
On top of that, not knowing the Dutch way of life makes things harder
Are you cold - No, not really.
Mel is a student from Sint Maarten where he was raised in English.
Nice and warm.
You`re negative about Holland, uncle.
You know that I go for what I want.
Just like you.
You are my example. You,too, never give up.
Give me a chance to broaden my horizon.
beyond this island.
Archell has started thinking about what Juni said.
He decides to talk to Eldrick, his big example.
Eldrick knows how to carry on and has started his own shelter.
This is the kitchen.
The most important room for the youngsters.
Look at that! Fish and funchi!
This is where they eat.
This is also the office where they come to report.
I started Mi Refugio in July 2009 with one client, Daniel.
That was at my father´s house where I rented a room.
I slept in the livingroom. That´s how I started.
I invested everything I had to build Mi Refugio.
This is the upper floor.
Do they all have their own room? Yes, everybody.
And do they wash their own clothes? Yes.
Every week they each have one day to do their laundry.
On that day they clean their clothes and their room.
Watching you, the director in his office
makes me wonder with what degree you came to Holland.
None. None?
No certificate at all.
Explain. I don`t understand.
When I arrived in Holland and started looking for work
the employment agencies told me I needed at least a MAVO-4 certificate.
I had to make choices and arrived at a T-junction.
Choose the straight path or not? I chose the straight path.
And I kept choosing the straight path.
I went back to school.
Would you advise people to come to Holland with no certificate?
I can´t tell just like that.
It differs from person to person. You need to focus on the situation.
And you need to be honest to yourself.
Who am I? What do I want? Why would I want to achieve that goal
To find those answers
you should realize that life in Holland can be very hard. 203 00:15:04,840 - > 00:15:08,000 Did Netherlands change in your opinion?
Even in good health it's hard to find a job.
Shahaira has finished school successfully and yet ended up with an unemployment benefit.
According to the law she has to apply for every possible job.
It puts quite a pressure on you, as if they don´t believe I'm applying.
It feels as if people think you are lazy.
Looks like they think, all Antilleans are lazy.
Last week when I was there
the woman said: 'I honestly think'
'that you only apply for jobs because we tell you to'.
Another agent says: 'Go clean rooms'.
'That way you will find a job more easily'.
I applied for cleaning lady, but I always got rejected.
So I started forwarding the rejections to the agency.
They were so many that they asked me to stop forwarding them.
Now they know I´m not lying.
I had an industrial accident. And now I can´t work.
I fell from a higher platform and hurt my back.
But in Holland no one cares that your back hurts.
I saw disabled people doing their work in wheelchairs.
They should be at home.
In Holland they say: 'as long as your hands function, you can work'.
I don´t mind working, uncle.
Look at you, uncle. You´ve got an iPad.
You´ve got an iPhone and a flatscreen.
An Apple laptop. I want that too.
Just let me come over.
What Juni doesn´t know is how much people sacrifice to buy these things.
Everybody has second jobs or makes overtime.
Here it's so easy to borrow money.
Before you know you have huge debts.
There are so many ways one can get into debt.
The moment you arrive you can easily buy on credit.
You can get money so easily. Before you know you are deep in debt.
But in Curacao you can also get into debt with the credit coupons.
Or by borrowing from a bank.
So what makes it so much easier in Holland?
Because there are a lot more possibilities here than in Curacao
In Curacao we have credit coupons.
But here you buy phone's, computers, laptops on credit.
You can buy just about everything on credit.
So let's say an iPhone 5, can I buy that on credit?
So I just select the phone.
then I place the order,
will it be delivered tomorrow? Because this says...
'Ordered today, delivered tomorrow' - Delivered tomorrow
And than you just...
Than it's yours.
How many of these sites are there? A lot!
These are the popular ones, but there are also many smaller sites.
And what happens if you don't pay?
Let's say I ordered a sweater.
That sweater costs forty euro.
Now when the bill arrives, I don't have the money to pay it.
So what happens next? -Next they will send me a reminder.
And after that they'll be extra charges.
Those charges can add up to hundreds of euros.
So those those forty euro's... -Yes.
they can add up to 200 euros, or is that crazy thinking?
No, that's possible!
My friend is paying off for years. -Are you serious?
So when you buy something for forty euros,
you end up paying ten times as much for it?
If you are not able to pay it all at once.
What is the difference between the time before Internet and nowadays?
Nowadays you can get everything so easily.
Before you had to go to the store. -Yes.
And pay immediately.
In case you get into debt,
know that in Holland there are various agencies to help you.
But you have to go to them yourself.
In Holland you mustn´t sit and wait.
You must go for it yourself.
There are agencies that you can ask for help
Like legal aid centers and social workers. Free of charge.
The right social worker, will really help you sort things out.
So it's up to you... - Yes, you really have to be pro-active.
It won´t work if you just wait.
Uncle - Hey my friend.
How are you? - Chill
What are you doing?
Finding out things for you about Holland.
Some flyers and books. - Yes
I was also looking for information.
And I´m not coming over just like that.
Seriously, Juni? - Yes, uncle.
Tell me what you found out.
I have to be better informed before I come over.
I need to be well prepared. After that I will come over.
Well done, Juni. - Okay, Uncle?
I that case I will help you. - Nice, Uncle.
You know, let´s keep in touch. One love.
Yes and take care. Now don´t you cry, uncle!
Ah no, tears of joy. Stay strong, uncle.
Cool. - See ya.
for more information: www.going2holland.com
Subtitling: Maaike Vondenhoff Translation: Gerda and Wim Lo-A-Tjong.