{"id":140311,"date":"2022-05-19T11:22:52","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T09:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=140311"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:17","slug":"upper-class-chick-meets-status-holder-euc-students-come-out-of-their-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/05\/19\/upper-class-chick-meets-status-holder-euc-students-come-out-of-their-bubble\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Upper-class chick\u2019 meets status holder: EUC students come out of their bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can hardly think of a bigger contrast with their natural habitat. Every Wednesday afternoon, twelve Erasmus University College students change their monumental school building at Nieuwmarkt, with its woodcuts, bright daylight and a grand piano, for a dark basement in a nondescript building at Zuidplein. Here, they meet for ten weeks for their social service period, way outside their quite privileged bubble, as they also say themselves.<\/p>\n

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EUC student Milou and status holder Wafa are getting on like a house on fire.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tElmer Smaling<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The social service period is a kind of voluntary internship that can take place in many different ways. In general, young people use the service period to gain new skills and improve their CV. They can receive a certificate for it, for example. For university students, taking this service period is less usual. The service period mainly entails that the student is a status holder\u2019s buddy1<\/a>\u00a0or the buddy of another migrant who took up residence in the Netherlands in one of the past few years. Students can opt for a more extensive service period, for which they can be awarded credits too.<\/p>\n

To the market<\/h2>

In the windowless room of the Workshop Foundation, the students are attending a lecture this Wednesday by EUC lecturer Gera Noordzij about how migrants can feel more connected with the land they currently live in (answer: not through family ties or colleagues, but through friends). They are also meeting, like they do every week, their buddies, most of them status holders from the Middle East. They have a walk together, go to the market or try to learn each other\u2019s language.<\/p>\n

Although the EUC students are used to operating in an international setting, the contact with their buddies feels very different, Penelope Kierans and Benjamin Harm say. For most students it is their first acquaintance with a status holder ever. Penelope does not mince her words: \u201cThe average EUC student is the kind of alternative upper-class chick who lived in several countries with her parents. These status holders have been considerably less privileged in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

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EUC students Nuria Penelope and Benjamin.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tElmer Smaling<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

App in the night<\/h2>

Penelope\u2019s buddy is Hoessein. He is attending class in the room next door and can therefore not be at the interview. Together they went on outings to China Town, the Park and the Market Hall. According to Penelope, the Egyptian Hoessein is \u2018a very pleasant, extroverted boy\u2019. They communicate in Dutch. It is going quite well; they help each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to him, I am learning Arabic now.\u201d She already knows a few words: Salam<\/em> (hello), kaif halak<\/em> (how are you?), jayid<\/em> (fine!). During the lecture, Penelope learned that status holders will feel more at home if they have Dutch friends. Are Hoessein and she becoming friends, little by little? \u201cI think so. I had my birthday last Sunday, and at two minutes past midnight he sent me an app. \u2018Hi. Congratulations. I am super grateful that we got to know each other,\u2019\u201d she says with a beaming smile.<\/p>\n

Benjamin\u2019s contact with his buddy was not all that smooth, initially. \u201cThe first time, I was ill. As a result, we haven\u2019t been able to do many things together. We really do want to do this, though \u2013 going out together, for instance. We also had an iftar together.\u201d
\nBenjamin does notice some cultural differences. One led to a small misunderstanding between him and his buddy. \u201cHe sent me an app that he wanted to go out with me and \u2018arrange for girls\u2019. As I didn\u2019t know that much about him yet, I told it to others when they asked me how we were getting along. Later on, I found out that he didn\u2019t like the fact that I had talked about it. I had told them because it struck me. Most EUC students would not say a thing like that, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cultural differences<\/h2>

A bit further away, Wafa Mousa and Milou are sitting closely together. It looks as if they have really found one another. Wafa came from Syria, four years ago, and is only 17 years old. Milou, three years older, helped her with a school assignment on Paris, Wafa says enthusiastically. \u201cI hope we can speak Dutch a lot and that she helps with school, like arithmetic.\u201d Milou says she is very happy with her buddy. \u201cIt was very pleasant between the two of us, right from the start. We chattered for an hour.\u201d Wafa: \u201cShe is really very sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question of whether they have noticed anything strange in the other, initially sounds hilarious to them. \u201cNothing! Nothing at all,\u201d Wafa says with a laugh. Milou, jokingly: \u201cWell, I have a whole list here!\u201d Milou gives it some thought and then says: \u201cWhat is different for me is that my mother works and that your mother is at home. Women of my generation are encouraged to work, whereas you say you would rather your mother stays at home.\u201d Wafa: \u201cYes, my brother and father think so too, and so do I. That my mother has to stay at home: taking worries away, preparing meals!\u201d Milou: \u201cBut you don\u2019t want to stay at home in the future. Do you?\u201d Wafa: \u201cYes, I do!\u201d Milou: \u201cThat\u2019s certainly a difference!\u201d<\/p>\n

Fighters<\/h2>
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Buddies Abdulsatar and Emma.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tElmer Smaling<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Despite the fact that Abdulsatar and Emma Preu\u00df are in a room that reminds me of a police interrogation cell, they are having a good time with each other. The Syrian status holder and the German EUC student have been in the Netherlands for only one and a half years now, and yet their Dutch during the interview is remarkably fluent. Until now, they walked and studied together. \u201cShe is going to teach me English. She is perfect at it,\u201d Abdulsatar says. Besides their knack of languages, they have something else in common: they both work in fast food. He at KFC and Emma at Five Guys. \u201cOn 30\u00a0May I get my diploma,\u201d he proudly says. He will get his ICT diploma at MBO (upper secondary vocational education) level 3. They have regular contact too, via WhatsApp, but they also went out to have pizza and falafel. \u201cI have a lot of respect for her. She is a kind girl, very polite. And a fighter.\u201d Emma: \u201cWe both work very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

King\u2019s Day<\/h2>

Lecturer Gera Noordzij enjoys the meetings, she says after her lecture has ended. \u201cEver since the start of the Erasmus University College, it has been my opinion that we should go out more with our students, into town, take them out of their bubble. But this is not always easy.\u201d Here, at Zuidplein, the students see a direct relationship between theory \u2013 immigrants feel more at home, in particular because of local friends, they have just learned \u2013 and practice.<\/p>\n

The students have much freedom to have contact with their buddies in the way they want. Noordzij: \u201cI think this is important. It is awfully nice to see how they go about it.\u201d When the meeting was cancelled because of King\u2019s Day, the pairs decided to explore King\u2019s Day together. Her colleague Frieda Franke, coordinator of the programme from Erasmus X, agrees with her. \u201cThese students have a strong intrinsic motivation. This is logical, since we had little time for our recruitment for this programme; only students who were very keen on doing this registered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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