‘You’re always the foreigner’: Why some people are leaving the Netherlands for Morocco
Children facing insults, parents questioning their future: in Rotterdam, some families are beginning to consider leaving. Among those close to a community mediator, several people have already chosen to live in Morocco.
A family settled in Morocco, young adults who have left for the kingdom or Turkey: Karim describes departures that he links to a climate of hostility toward people from immigrant backgrounds. The community mediator in Rotterdam-South spoke to Pointer.
He describes the concerns of parents who see their children and their partners subjected to insults and feeling unsafe. He says the repeated incidents eventually weigh on their choice of where to build their future. “How long do you want to put up with this?” he asks.
Karim stresses that the feeling of being defined by one’s origins also affects residents born in the Netherlands or those with Dutch citizenship. “You’re always the foreigner,” he says.
At the Meld Islamofobie association, Rahma Bavelaar also hears accounts of this everyday rejection. In early September, the organization shared a report about a veiled mother who was insulted in a shopping mall in front of her loved ones. According to the account, she no longer wants to go out since the verbal attack.
A collective response in Rotterdam
Karim criticizes the normalization of “great replacement” and “remigration” rhetoric, particularly on Ongehoord Nederland programs. In response to this rhetoric, he is working to bring residents together around the difficulties they share.
Along with others, he founded the Wijkbond in 2025 in Afrikaanderwijk, a district in southern Rotterdam. The group helps neighbors organize against poor housing conditions and excessive rents, then take collective action with landlords.
He is also working to bring several diasporas closer together, including Moroccan, Turkish, Congolese, Palestinian and Asian communities. His goal is to hold a national demonstration in spring 2027. If their demands go unanswered, he is considering a strike.