“Before I came here, I used to look at the map in Istanbul to see if there was water,” he says. That was very important to Pinar, who grew up on the Bosphorus in Turkey. “I always looked at water, swam in water and my mother was a marine chemist so we often sailed on water too.” When Pinar saw that Rotterdam was on the river Maas, she literally dared to take the plunge. She moved 36 years ago to the city she did not know: Rotterdam.
“I was a bit fed up with Istanbul. These were troubled times. Like girls who want to explore borders in the Netherlands, I also wanted to do something different. So then I looked at what were nice countries. A friend of mine lived in Rotterdam and invited me to look. So I came to the city as a tourist and also went to check out the university. That’s when I decided to give it a try.”
No place by the water
In her first visit, she therefore wanted to go to a place by the river first. ‘I was surprised that there was almost no waterfront café or restaurant,’ she says. Fortunately, the city had other nice features. “It is a busy city, but not as busy as Istanbul. Also, you can just walk from one side of the street to the other. That’s different from Istanbul, though.”
Not to be stopped
She soon faced discrimination. “Even then, there was a group of people who said you have no business here if you are not from here. When I applied for a job in a café as a student, people there heard my accent. They then said they wanted a Dutch girl.”
But she never let that stop her. Not only did she continue her studies, she did them in Dutch. “The university said I could do the study in English, but I already spoke English and French. So I thought I could also learn a third European language.” So she did that the first year. She then studied sociology in Dutch.
After studying sociology, she left for a while. “I wanted to continue my studies. I applied to Foreign Affairs because I wanted to improve global relations there. I didn’t get that job, but I was offered a job in Bangladesh. I went there but my boyfriend couldn’t really settle there. We then went back to the Netherlands. In the end, I am very happy with that.
Migration City
She is now the founder and coordinator of the Erasmus Foodlab, volunteers for the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and is even a member of the Schieland and Krimpenerwaard water boards, one of the three water boards in Rotterdam. “Looking back, I don’t see many differences on the surface. Rotterdam remains a migrant city; hundreds of years ago and now too. That’s also why Rotterdam is so open and direct. You can argue but have a beer afterwards.”
She does see that this takes some getting used to. “You have to learn to love Rotterdam, unlike other cities in the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, you can fall in love immediately but if you stay there longer you think: this is not going to be it. But Rotterdam has several layers. You have to peel them off one by one and discover them. All cosmopolitan cities have that in them. You can have the wrong or world experience one street over. You have to discover that. You have to get to know yourself as well as the city. Then you can always find something you like. That’s the whole idea of migration: then you are curious about another life. You don’t find that right away.” Pinar has since found what suits her. ‘I didn’t think I would stay so long,’ she says.