Story I - ‘home for me is people’
Belonging
Home for me is people. My sister lives in Berlin, even though Berlin is not my home, when I go to her, it does feel like home. My brother feels like home. And my parents, they live in the Netherlands, but from this year, they will be living in Spain as well. So even though Spain is not my home, but, you know, if my parents are there, then it's home. So it's really just people, and it's not so much a place because even though London isn't my home, it does feel like home.
I think because I've started to build a life here. I have my work here, everything feels normal. Even though sometimes I still feel like a tourist, even though I'm not, but I know how to do things here... like arranging appointments with your GP or being part of the NHS, going to the dentist. Like all those things that you do in your normal life, feel, you know, normal. I don't have Dutch bank accounts anymore, I just have UK bank accounts. I have nothing left in the Netherlands, my whole life is here. So I feel like that's why this feels like home.
The one thing that I really miss - and this is going to make me sound so Dutch - is the fact that I can't just cycle to my friends' house. Even though I’m so happy I can actually cycle to my brother's house in London, it’s a 20-minute-cycle. But in the Netherlands, it's so normal.
Journey
I think I geared towards London as well because my brother already lived here. Even though I'd been to London before and I've visited my brother, it's not that I knew London very well, but at least I was like, if I do end up moving to London, then at least I have someone there that I already know.
The main thing that was so stressful was that there was a Brexit deadline – if I didn't move before that deadline, I wouldn't be able to move to the UK, just because I believe my salary was too low and the work that hired me, they wouldn't be able to help me with a visa. So that's why I moved during the pandemic.
The second thing that was so difficult was my work was constantly asking me for my National Insurance number, which I didn't have, and I didn't understand how to get one because whenever I called, they were saying you need to do this in person, but we're not seeing anyone in person. It was so confusing because I didn’t know what this number meant, and I didn’t know why I couldn’t get it or what to tell my work because I didn’t really know how it all worked.
Identity
I don't really refer to myself as an immigrant, just because I still feel like it sounds so negative. Obviously, some people do have a very negative experience but it doesn't mean that for everyone it's negative. I feel like it's very empowering and I feel like it really enriches your life, and especially if you move to bigger cities – especially London, you meet people from all over the world.
When I applied for jobs here ... I always ask how international the team is, because if you're surrounded by a group of just British people, I feel like a lot of times they don't understand that you're not from this country, and so a lot of references and things like that you don't understand at all. If there's one thing that I wish that they knew was to sometimes be a little bit more inclusive of people that might not understand certain things here.
I definitely feel European and I feel like just because I travel to Europe relatively frequently to see my sister or see my parents, going through that extra step of security or that extra border control just makes me feel so much more European. I think it's when travelling that I definitely feel more European than ever. And it's weird, because I've never felt that before... but it holds so much weight in the UK now.
