Amsterdam (with words this time)

So I wanted to hold off to write about my trip to Amsterdam last week because I needed some time to reflect, relax and readjust to life in Morocco. Last week was truly one of the most thought-provoking and perspective-altering experiences of my life because of the new cultural lens I've gained after my first month in Morocco.

We arrived at Schipol Airport in the Netherlands on Sunday, February 17 and took a taxi to our hostel in the Zeeburg neighborhood of Amsterdam. Almost as if it were planned in advance, our taxi driver was from Morocco. I began talking to him in broken darija, however he replied in perfect English, adding that he knew French, Dutch, Spanish, German and Italian as well. Although some of his family still lived in southern Morocco, his immediate family lived in Rotterdam and his children were born Dutch. He made it clear that he was Moroccan, but that his children were Dutch. 

The purpose of our trip to the Netherlands was to learn about Moroccan residents living abroad in Europe, a trend of migration out of Morocco that began in the late 1960s when migrant workers and cheap labor were needed to rebuild Europe after WWII. Moroccans were "welcomed with flowers" in Holland, Germany, France, Italy and Spain during this era, and during the 1970s, more and more Moroccans came as a result of the family reunification period in Europe. However by the 1990s, the need for workers dwindled and EU right-wing politics became increasingly anti-immigrant. The result today is a European population that resent these migrants, despite each generation's efforts to become deeply integrated. The other major issue is that if you are born from Moroccan parents, you are Moroccan, and you can never refuse that citizenship under Moroccan law, mainly to ensure that remittences will continue to be sent to Morocco from these residents abroad, which amounts to roughly 10% of Morocco's yearly GDP. Therefore, this causes Moroccan migrants to have to "live in two places at once", an obstacle making their integration in Europe much more difficult. 

Throughout the week, we met with Moroccan residents abroad, scholars, politicians and Dutch students and professionals who had something to do with the issue of migration in the Netherlands. The Dutch pride themselves on their liberal, open society, however in practice, there is extreme racism, prejudice and discrimination against the Moroccan migrant population in particular. We began the week by meeting with Dutch-Moroccan scholars and elites who were able to shed some light on the situation of Moroccan migrants in the Netherlands as a whole, as well as the King's attempts to ensure that these Moroccans retain their cultural identity and ties to the Moroccan state. To achieve this, the King formed the CCME, a commission to provide services to Moroccan residents abroad, from teaching darija to second and third generation Moroccans to providing Islamic services to the population abroad. By doing this, however, these migrants are unable to fully assimilate into European culture because they are being pulled back to Morocco. One of the highlights of my week was talking to the Dutch CCME representative, Nadia Bourass, as well as a Moroccan journalist and professor at the University of Amsterdam, Fouad Laroui. If you have time, Google these names, because these people are quite, quite famous. 

We ended the week by attending a conference about EU Migration Policies, which was perfect for our program and just happened to be the same time that we were in the Netherlands. We learned about border control policies, detention, deportation, legal and civil codes regarding migrants, and a plethora of other topics. 

Each day, we also had a lot of free time to explore Amsterdam and the treasures this beautiful city had to offer, apart from taking tons of pictures, I visited 10 museums, saw a performance of Angels in America, and was able to catch Agro the night before the Oscars. I also got to eat all the meals I missed from home, including spaghetti and meatballs, Chinese, and of course, sushi. I also spend a large amount of time in coffeeshops with my friends, but like I told my parents, "it's just part of the culture..."

When I first arrived in the Netherlands, I was immediately overwhelmed by how different the city was compared to Rabat. For the past month, I had been trying to adjust to Rabat and adapt to the new, culturally diverse way of life with a totally different standard of living. For the first time since I left for Morocco, I was homesick, probably because Amsterdam was so similar to New York, what I know as home. The ability to find WiFi, relay on maps and transit schedules, and to use a credit card was a new concept to me after a month in Morocco. This was truly a culture shock, and interestingly, much more of a culture shock than I had when I first came to Rabat.

I am extremely glad that I had the opportunity to visit Amsterdam after a month in Rabat because I was able to reflect on my time abroad in Morocco; I was able to compare the differences between modern cities and the traditional medina, the different ways of life and variety of cultural practices in each location. Nevertheless, by Wednesday or Thursday, I missed Rabat and wanted to return to my quiet street in the dark, cool medina, especially to see my host family because I missed them tremendously. 

This was a perfect break because I was able to reflect and then return for two more months in Morocco. If I didn't get to go to Europe, my reflection would have been back at home in May, and then I would surely miss Morocco even more, without the chance to return for some time...