AMSTERDAM – Around fifty first-year students from the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands were welcomed in Amsterdam last week with riveting speeches, and games.
The most important message conveyed to them: assimilate, but do stay true to who you are. But how do you actually do that?
By Natasja Gibbs (English subtitles available)
According to Amsterdam’s deputy mayor Rutger Groot Wassink, assimilation does not mean that you have to leave your own identity behind. Groot Wassink hopes that the students will actually leave their mark on the city. This is because: “It is nice to get something out of your time in Amsterdam but it’s even nicer to give something back to the city. It’s the people who make Amsterdam what it is: a lovely city where people want to live.”
The municipality of Amsterdam has been organizing this official welcome since 2011 because the city has a special bond with the Caribbean islands. Also in attendance at the event were Miss Amsterdam 2018, and the ministers plenipotentiary of Curaçao, Aruba, and Sint Maarten.
The new students together with the deputy mayor, Miss Amsterdam 2018, and the ministers plenipotentiary of Curaçao, Aruba, and Sint Maarten – Picture: Beeldbank Amsterdam, Frank Lucas