My mother is a citizen of the Netherlands!
I arrived in the Netherlands in the summer of 2012, when I was 24.
As per Dutch law, I went to city hall in Utrecht (gemeente) to register, but I was not allowed to do so by an official who told me, upon inspecting my US passport: "you're not Dutch, you need a sticker!"
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| I didn't have the correct sticker! |
I informed the gemeente official in Utrecht that on the immigration website (IND) it indicated that US citizens were allowed to register at city hall without a sticker. The Utrecht Gemeente official once again reiterated while holding up the palm of her hand: "yea, but you're not Dutch, you need a sticker!"
Although now I can see what she did plainly for what it is -- vile xenophobia due to my birth in a developing country -- it also now becomes apparent that she revealed to me what will happen in the Netherlands as the coronavirus spreads: there are countless people living in the shadows who will make contact tracing impossible as the disease spreads.
I turned 25, and as per Dutch law, the children of citizens over 25 are no longer allowed to acquire residence permits, meaning that they have to live in the shadows.
In 2013, I rode my bycicle in Ijburg (a tiny island outside of Amsterdam) to the supermarket and neglected to turn on my lights. The police set up a checkpoint outside of the supermarket, where they told me that they would let me go with a warning.
The Amsterdam police lied to me: they were not letting me go with a warning... they reported me to the foreign police (vreemdelingpolitie) and sent them to my partner's [a Dutch autochtone] apartment.
When the vreemdelingpolitie invaded my partner's home, they told me that because I was in a house for more than 3 days without registering at the gemeente, that they had the right to deport me from the Netherlands. They deported me to Spain, where my mom lives but where I'm not a citizen.
Yes, you read that correctly: my mother is a citizen of the Netherlands, she was my legal guardian in the European Union in 2013, and I was given a deportation order to a country where I do not hold citizenship.
At the time I had a cut on my hand, and the vreemdelingpolitie shoved it into a dirty inkpad which was not kosher, violating my religious beliefs and putting me at risk of catching an infection. Yes, there is blood on the paper which the vreemdelingpolitie used to fingerprint me for not registering at city hall, despite the fact that my mom is Dutch and I made the effort to register. My offense was to not register within 3 days, and because of that they endangered my life and violated my religion.
My case is not unique: there are countless people living in the Netherlands who know that they have to live in the shadows even though they were born there or are the children of citizens.
In 2015, I entered into a domestic partnership with a German national who worked for the Shell Corporation (Ms. K,) and it was through her that I was able to acquire a residence permit in the country where my mother is a citizen.
My relationship ended in 2018, and just last month when I went to the police station to report a lost document, the vreemdelingpolitie was there to interrogate me as to my relationship status. When I informed Officer Ruijter that I was no longer in a relation with Ms. K., he told me that he was going to recommend that my residence permit be cancelled and that I could not register at the gemeente.
Officer Ruijter instructed me to live in the shadows, and as the coronavirus spreads in the Netherlands, you can be certain that the authorities will be completely unable to trace immigrants infected with the deadly plague.
As xenophobia spreads in the Netherlands, don't forget that it's Dutch law that forces immigrants to live in the shadows, even though those "immigrants" may be born in the Netherlands or are the children of citizens.
I predict that once coronavirus hits the immigrant population in the Netherlands, the virus will become unmanageable, and I calculate 80% of the Dutch population will become infected. I estimate that 200,000 Dutch people will die as a result of the xenophobic laws which force immigrants to live in the shadows.
By: Abreu de la Cruz
