Should I stay or should I go
I normally do not write much about politics and strangely enough when I do it is about British politics. Of course you have already understood that this post is going to be about Brexit.
There are so many people talking about it that you will find me hardly original so I will try to approach this topic from an odd angle.
The whole debate on staying or leaving was undoubtedly about immigration issues and when it comes to immigration everybody thinks about boatloads of Syrians and central Africans but I was thinking about all of the EU citizens that moved to the UK for many different reasons. I kept on thinking, what is going to happen to them and to the lives they have built?
And then it dawned on me, what if The Netherlands leave the EU (as mister Wilders is advocating). What would I do? From one day to the other I would become an unwelcome alien (maybe I am already an unwelcome alien). I have been bashing so much at Dutch society that the likes of Geert Wilders would probably say "we couldn't kick you out before now we can! And since you do not seem to like it much here, all the better".
Of course if it would come to this I would have three options
1) Go back to Italy on my own (since my husband and children are Dutch therefore welcome to stay)
2) Apply for Dutch citizenship
3) Apply for a work permit and consequent residence permit
As you might imagine option one horrifies me, I would never leave my family!
Option two is possible, I qualify for Dutch citizenship, I have lived long enough in the country and I have passed the state exam for Dutch language and these are the only two requisites (and you do need to have a clean criminal record, well mine is very clean since all the car fines go to my husband who's already a citizen). What's the problem then you would say, just get a Dutch passport. Well I have a problem with that because I am not Dutch and applying for a document that says I am would be a moral fraud. Machiavelli always comes to the rescue in this kind of situations, "the end justify the means" but I have never been a fan.
This leaves us with option three, I do work in The Netherlands since many years already. I have an high education and I do possess relatively specialized expertise. Would I get the permit, probably yes if my employer would be willing to apply for it for me stating that they can't replace me that easily with a Dutch person. I probably would have a good chances but not 100% certainty.
If I think deep option three is the only one which would keep my conscience at ease. Living and even more, working abroad has thought me a lot of things about being Italian and about being European. Being freely able to move around the continent allows people like me to take the best of our culture with us and share it wherever we go. On the other hand we also take the best of the culture of the country where we live and so we all become better (for the ones of you who are doubting, I do love many aspects of the living in The Netherlands).
I think this is what Europe should be about, not only dry economical calculations of who's is allowed to sell what to whom tax free, but sharing our different heritages and create a new and better generation based on both commonalities as well as differences.
I hope now that the British have shown how short sided certain decisions can be, the rest of Europe will stick even more together avoiding me to have to take the above mentioned though decision and allow me and the other millions of EU migrants to make Europe a better place for all.
If you are in my same situation do share your opinion on this!
There are so many people talking about it that you will find me hardly original so I will try to approach this topic from an odd angle.
The whole debate on staying or leaving was undoubtedly about immigration issues and when it comes to immigration everybody thinks about boatloads of Syrians and central Africans but I was thinking about all of the EU citizens that moved to the UK for many different reasons. I kept on thinking, what is going to happen to them and to the lives they have built?
And then it dawned on me, what if The Netherlands leave the EU (as mister Wilders is advocating). What would I do? From one day to the other I would become an unwelcome alien (maybe I am already an unwelcome alien). I have been bashing so much at Dutch society that the likes of Geert Wilders would probably say "we couldn't kick you out before now we can! And since you do not seem to like it much here, all the better".
Of course if it would come to this I would have three options
1) Go back to Italy on my own (since my husband and children are Dutch therefore welcome to stay)
2) Apply for Dutch citizenship
3) Apply for a work permit and consequent residence permit
As you might imagine option one horrifies me, I would never leave my family!
Option two is possible, I qualify for Dutch citizenship, I have lived long enough in the country and I have passed the state exam for Dutch language and these are the only two requisites (and you do need to have a clean criminal record, well mine is very clean since all the car fines go to my husband who's already a citizen). What's the problem then you would say, just get a Dutch passport. Well I have a problem with that because I am not Dutch and applying for a document that says I am would be a moral fraud. Machiavelli always comes to the rescue in this kind of situations, "the end justify the means" but I have never been a fan.
This leaves us with option three, I do work in The Netherlands since many years already. I have an high education and I do possess relatively specialized expertise. Would I get the permit, probably yes if my employer would be willing to apply for it for me stating that they can't replace me that easily with a Dutch person. I probably would have a good chances but not 100% certainty.
If I think deep option three is the only one which would keep my conscience at ease. Living and even more, working abroad has thought me a lot of things about being Italian and about being European. Being freely able to move around the continent allows people like me to take the best of our culture with us and share it wherever we go. On the other hand we also take the best of the culture of the country where we live and so we all become better (for the ones of you who are doubting, I do love many aspects of the living in The Netherlands).
I think this is what Europe should be about, not only dry economical calculations of who's is allowed to sell what to whom tax free, but sharing our different heritages and create a new and better generation based on both commonalities as well as differences.
I hope now that the British have shown how short sided certain decisions can be, the rest of Europe will stick even more together avoiding me to have to take the above mentioned though decision and allow me and the other millions of EU migrants to make Europe a better place for all.
If you are in my same situation do share your opinion on this!
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