“I was amazed by the architecture, the cube houses and skyscrapers… very beautiful,” says Julia from Belarus, still known to some as White Russia. She has been living in Rotterdam with her husband since 2017. “I met him online. After that, we often went on holiday together. Then he came to Belarus and I came to him… my husband wanted to live in Belarus but I wanted to live in Rotterdam. Because things weren’t going well in Belarus.”
In the end, the couple chose Rotterdam. And the architecture wasn’t the only thing she liked there. “And I like that you have water nearby. In Belarus, there is a lot of concrete. And here, you have a bit of water everywhere. I especially like the reflections of the lights in the water.”
Melting pot
She has become so attached to Rotterdam that she misses it when she is in Belarus. “The first time I went from the Netherlands to Belarus to my parents, I really missed the difference in languages, faces, stories… here it lives through all those different cultures. It really is a melting pot here.” In Belarus she also saw some other population groups, but not many. “Before the war we did have a large Jewish population, but not anymore. Now we only have some Russians, Ukrainians and Tartars.”
She hopes that we will continue to cherish and preserve the diversity of Rotterdam. “We should not get overheated by all the cultures in the city. The municipality wants to cut back. But I hope they will not demolish all the cultural centres and important places. We must preserve and cherish our culture and history.”
A community
She would also like to see the city become more of a community again. Like it was in Ijsselmonde, where she lives. “It was like a village there, but now it is really anonymous. Life there is gone. It would be great if people tried to get to know each other again and start taking care of each other.”
She herself found her community through art and culture. Not surprising, because Julia is an artist. “So building connections with different people is part of my job. That’s how I make friends. You can miss your family when you live in another country, but you can also make new family where you live.” And that’s what she did. With people from different countries, including Belarus of course. “Unfortunately, there is no close-knit community of people from Belarus in Rotterdam, but there is in The Hague. I celebrate a big Belarusian festival with them on June 29. We get together, sing and eat and do workshops like weaving.”
Dutch
She tells her story in fluent Dutch. “Thanks to my mother-in-law. Because we often visit her. She thinks she can speak English well, but she can’t, haha. That’s why I literally had to learn by heart in advance what I wanted to discuss with her.”
Her advice to other newcomers is simple. “Go outside. Talk to different people. That’s also the way to learn the language and the cultures that exist here. If you continue to live in your own little world, you miss so much. Stay open.”