Pelopor.nl

The Country of Origin 1)

“Il faut chercher en soi-meme autre
chose que soi-meme pour pouvoir
se regarder longtemps”

Migration is a colossal experience. By migration I mean leaving for an other country, an other continent, with the intention to settle definitely in the new environment. It means cutting the own roots and growing new ones in a totally different situation. The old habits, the old ways, the language in which one feels at home, will be no longer valid. It may cause homesickness, nostalgia or worse. That hurts. And it all has to be replaced by something else and totally different. That’s hard. Probably the new neighbour will always recognize your accent. Only by the time you are able to decipher the subtle codes of the new language, gestures and humour, you really can feel at home. You will have arrived at your new identity at last. But still it will be a blurred identity.

This does not apply to, for instance the almost 150.000 Indonesian nationals who are living in the Netherlands at this moment. They may suffer from a kind of homesickness too , but the majority of them will move on ( and back home eventually). Mainly their identity is Indonesian student abroad or Multinational Indonesian – that is: employed by a Multinational organization. Up to this moment I did not notice any major identity crisis in their ranks.

It’s different for those who came from far away to stay. For instance: in the Netherlands an awkward discussion is going on about those migrants who came from Turkey and North Africa. They usually were male workers who – in the sixties and seventies- came from rural areas and had to cope with work in a factory and a modern, secular society. Yet they stayed, married a girl from back home and raised an (often) large family. But like earlier the Irish or Italians in the US, their ties with the country of their origin never really broke. And it didn’t happen in the next or third generation either: now the grandsons and granddaughters also have a kind of double – and often confusing-identity. A lot of them feel ill at home in Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Utrecht, but they don’t fit in the Turkish or Moroccan society either. They have a hard time, especially now. Mainly because of their religion, which of course is conspicuously different from the traditional ones in Western Europe.

But there’s yet an other example of migration that has had a wide impact. On the immigrants themselves as well as on the country.

Because in the late forties and the fifties about 250.000 people migrated from ( or: were thrown out of) Indonesia. Most of them were “Indo’s”; Dutch nationals of racial mixed origin, who never before had seen Holland. By now their recreational powers has more than doubled their numbers: 585000. And some of these did make the headlines.

To mention a few: the Tielman Brothers have now officially been pronounced the first Rock’Roll band in the country,Simon Tahamata was a winger in the FC Ajax as well in the Dutch National Squad, Marion Bloem became one of quite a number of Indo authors in national literature,Willem Nijholt is a renowned performer and actor,while Wibi Soerjadi is a very successful (classical) pianist. They seem to prove how well this group has blended into society. However..

That’s only part of the story. Still they have their own organizations, their own magazines, their own culinary culture, their own habits of sociability. And all that refers to Indonesia. They often are distinguishable from others in the country. By their features. But also because they choose to be. They practice a slightly different lifestyle. Their identity usually is not typically Dutch. It’s kind of a two ways identity. For the old folks that may mean they cherish parts and pieces of “tempo doeloe”. But the younger generation shows a genuine interest in the RI. A lot of them prove to be still tied to the “country of origin” – that is where the roots of their [(great) grand]parents are. It’s an interest which has been recognized by the media. You can even see it reflected in the national newspapers and TV channels at large; compared to other European countries news from Indonesia makes the headlines relatively often. The majority of which unfortunately is no good news. One might argue whether the the ailing Suharto is good or bad news. But while the imminent death of the ex dictator was in all leading European newspapers, only the NRC had it as a major report on the front page a few days ago.

For some the double identity leads to even more drastic moves. They leave Europe to return to the father-or motherland of their ancestors. Eventually a few even succeed to make the grade – up to a point. That’s what seems to happen to Rebecca Reijman (22 y.o.) According to the Indo magazine “Moesson” she made it to the charts in Indonesia with her CD “Kata Hati”. She ‘is still halfhearted on whether to go and live in Jakarta or do it the Anggun way ( who has her career in Indonesia, but lives in Paris). Adjie Massaid (41 y.o.) on the other hand is permanently living in Jakarta and became an Indonesian national. Over 12 years he has been in the Indonesian entertaining business and now is member of parliament. The third one I know of is “Bule gila” actor Herman Langebroek (27) also known as Harry Bond jr. As bad or crazy white guy in movies or series he earns a very decent living.

Probably mass migration will always have these characteristics. It will be tough to fit in the new society. Gradually the push factors ( reasons why one went away) will vanish. The pull factors (why one has chosen this particular country) will always be taken for granted. But the alluring call of the country of origin will never fade away. Therefore those who moved away will keep a soft spot for the old country, whatever the reason of departure. For most of them this will turn out in their choice of a slightly different lifestyle and and a slightly unique and deviant identity in the new country. They are the ones who could be at the core of mutual good relations between the new and the old country.

And some may want to return. And get happy. Or, maybe, experience a disillusion, if the new realities don’t match the Utopia they created in their minds.

1) This is the title of a classic in Dutch literature: Eddy du Perron: “Het Land van Herkomst”. This autobiographical novel is about an “Indo” born and bred in Indonesia, who forever stays a kind of stranger in Europe and has this lingering feeling of being incomplete -which in turn is linked to this longing for the tropical country he left. (The quote in the book is by a French author, André Malraux).

Update: This is what I read about being an immigrant in an article in “Daily Kos”. It proves once more it’s not a life for a softy.