During my volunteerwork I have done research about the following questions:
- What does Vluchtelingenwerk do in order to stimulate the asylum seekers to learn the Dutch language?
- In what way do the asylum seekers get help with housing and accommodation?
- What do employees, interns or voluntary workers at Vluchtelingenwerk do on the daily? What do their main tasks consist of?
The findings which are presented are gained by desktop research and interviews with colleagues. Vluchtelingenwerk stimulates the asylum speakers to learn the Dutch language by organizing Taalcafe and the Pharos project “Aan de slag”. These projects are led by Vluchtelingenwerk . Taalcafe takes place twice a month. Where refugees and volunteers read together and speak together. The authentic interaction between people helps them to have real conversations without switching over to English. I have witnessed this myself when I went to the Taalcafe in Mill.
The Pharos project also really stimulates refugees to speak Dutch. The workplaces are also encouraged to only speak Dutch to the refugees while they work as volunteers. This is also a very authentic opportunity to improve their Dutch. By engaging refugees into local volunteerwork, Vluchtelingenwerk makes it possible to engage within local neighbourhoods and communities. This has great effect on the way Dutch people view refugees this contributes to world citizenship.
The refugees are also expected to learn the Dutch language by following courses. The government loans the refugees 15.000 euros and with that money they have to fulfil exams on reading, listening, writing and speaking. If they fail to pass, they have to pay the money back. However, if they show that they have put 600 course hours into their language development, it is not necessary for them to pass the exams and they won’t have to pay anything back.
Furthermore, The asylum seekers get help with housing and accommodation. Through desktop research into policies it became clear to me that refugees first need to get a social security number. Then they wait for a house and this could take up ages and does not necessarily depend on any factors. It depends on a waiting list and the capacity of the houses which are available. For example, desktop research shows that it is not possible to give a house for 4 people to a single person.
Furthermore, when they get a house, they get 1500 euros to fully furnish their house. Before they move in the housing corporation makes sure everything is in a good state but that’s it. So the refugees do not get fully furnished houses and other luxuries. They even have to stay at the azc for an unknown period of time and that can take years.
Lastly, the employees of Vluchtelingenwerk have a very wide variety of tasks in their daily routine. A very great deal is working directly with and for refugees. The spreekuur takes up half a day and even then people still leave with questions or unsolved cases. The employees of Vluchtelingenwerk do have lots of other tasks such as integration of the refugees through implementing language and getting a loan for their language classes and making sure they all have insurance and and “uitkering”.
My work at Vluchtelingenwerk really opened my eyes and made me a more conscious person. This has to do with the fact that I did not know anything about the roles and the rights of refugees and the media makes it seem like they have a very easy time here in the Netherlands but in reality it is slightly different. They have to learn everything from scratch, they need help with everything and they have a complete different culture and way of thinking in their home country. This voluntary work made it possible for me to educate myself, my surroundings and my students all about refugees.
Imren Goes Beyond Borders 