the last moroccan leaves the netherlands, but rhiannon misses her flight to rome

I missed my flight to Rome this weekend and am feeling very silly about it, since I have only myself to blame. I left too late from my house, forgot that there would be a long queue at the ticket counter (which I have to use since I don't have a Dutch bank account and therefore can't buy a ticket from the automaat), and then of course, missed the earlier train to the airport. I had so little time left and so much to do at a very large airport, that I missed it. And, fun fact: if you miss the first leg of a round trip flight, the whole ticket is invalidated. SO, considering the 400 EUR was a little much to pay to catch the later afternoon flight, I'm cursing my time-management skills from rainy Amsterdam this weekend, instead of catching up with good friends and acquainting myself with robust Italian reds served by tall, dark and handsome Italian men in Rome. So, I have learned my lesson about travel-preparedness, and will have to look forward to gracing the ancient city with my presence another time.

But, speaking of international flights (insert awkward segue here), I stumbled upon the following during a morning scan of the Dutch news earlier this week:

"Last Moroccan Leaves the Netherlands"

The link goes to a Radio Netherlands Worldwide article about a video launched by the enthusiastic and creative people behind munt.nu. The website is in Dutch, but for those of you who know even less Dutch than I do, its creators want to analyze and challenge current public attitudes and create interesting debate. They're also a bit funny (check the English-language RNW article). The video, Kop of Munt (Heads or Tails, embedded in the sites of both links, also in Dutch, but easy to figure out), poses the question of repatriation: What if all Moroccans left the Netherlands?

Repatriation is actually discussed as a serious solution in some circles in the Netherlands, to what is seen as the problem posed by immigrants and their lack of integration/ assimilation into mainstream Dutch society. Muslims, espcially Moroccans - generally seen as the 'worst' group of immigrants - are usually the main target of repatriation rhetoric. The claim is that if they don't feel at home here (and don't try to feel at home by adopting mainstream Dutch attitudes, which also makes native Dutch feel less at home themselves), they should go 'home' (that is, to a place where they feel at home, regardless of place of birth). The populist right wing party, PVV, headed up by the controversial Geert Wilders often espouses this view or something akin to it.

I found a postcard in Utrecht that ridicules this point of view with the text (Dutch, but I have cleverly provided a translation for my three readers):

Remigratie / Remigration
een eenvoudige oplossing voor een complex probleem:/ a simple solution to a complex problem:
maar dan wel consequent/ but there are consequences
Amerika voor de indianen/ America for the Indians
Azie voor de aziaten/ Asia for the Asians
Australie voor de aboriginals/ Australia for the aboriginals
Zuid-Afrika slegs vir swartes/ South Africa for the blacks (in Afrikaans)
de Zuidpool voor de pinguins/ The South Pole for the penguins
Nederland weer onder water/ The Netherlands again under water

Anyway, unlike the postcard, what makes the video created by munt.nu really interesting is that it shows more than one side of the likely outcome of all Moroccans leaving the country. The images also highlight how integral Moroccans (and by extension, all immigrant groups) have become to Dutch society, whether or not all members of Dutch society consider them 'integrated'.