Welcome FlowerChild

Being an immigrant in a new country is not always easy. I know from experience. Our integration went smoothly and we feel very welcome and happy where we live. For many other immigrants this is not the case, especially for groups of second generation foreigners. Every western European country has groups of young (mostly) men who do not fit in and start bothering, threatening, robbing and frightening other people in the areas they live in. This happens in all big cities and is an extreme nuisance. We experienced that too when we still lived in Amsterdam. There is of course a reason why so many young healthy guys choose to be a nuisance instead of nice, well-behaved, respected citizens. Governments spend millions of euro’s trying to change their behaviour, to get them back on track. But the social system is failing here. Social workers cannot help these young men finding their passion in life. We live in a world where we expect governments to have or find a solution for all the problems in society. That is what we pay taxes for, don’t we. I think we redeem with that our responsibility to change things ourselves.

If every successful man or woman would spend a couple of hours with a young person who is about to slide away. If we would just point out to this young person that his contribution is valuable and useful, that there are examples of young Moroccans who are successful, and that there are people wanting to help (voluntary) this individual who does not get any positive feedback elsewhere. Wouldn’t that make a difference?