Amsterdam is a city of migrants, but rarely do they speak up and share their stories. Migrant Voices is a storytelling project collecting testimonies of first-generation migrants living in the city. Stories are told through text and podcasts. Migrants speak about why they came to the Netherlands, the lives they built, and the impact they have on the city and country. When many in the Netherlands and around the world turn their backs on migrants, we listen to their voices.
Amsterdam is a city of migrants, but rarely do they speak up and share their stories. Migrant Voices is a storytelling project collecting testimonies of first-generation migrants living in the city. Stories are told through text and podcasts. Migrants speak about why they came to the Netherlands, the lives they built, and the impact they have on the city and country. When many in the Netherlands and around the world turn their backs on migrants, we listen to their voices.
Originally from Oruarivie, Nigeria (confirm)
Living in Amsterdam for 50 years
Retired
Pristilla Tomame Oniesiri came to the Netherlands 50 years ago, for 42 years she lived in Bos en Lommer. She left Nigeria to join her husband in the Netherlands.
“He was then doing the welding fabrication. He worked in the ship building yard in Amsterdam Noord. There he worked for some years before they closed up the factory. When I first arrived in the Netherlands, number one [thing I noticed] is the weather, winter. Then I look at the whole place, very, very strange. I see so many things that I've never seen before, like the train.”
Pristilla lived with her husband in a small town near Diemen. There she experieced racism by the local police who told her she could not give birth in the town, she would have to return to the Nigeria. This was not true.
“I feel bad. But later on, we were so happy. Later on they gave us our own house in Diemen. The police was there for us. That's why there's something in the city. You cannot compare a city with a village. It's a big difference. City and the village.”
Eventually, they settled in Bos en Lomer and began raising their five children. Pristilla has seen the neighorhood change while living in the same building.
“When I moved there, there was a lot of white people in the neighborhood. In my building, all the people there were all white. But later on, gradually, they all moved out. I don't know where they go, but they moved out then, a lot more foreigners.”
Last year, Pristilla moved out of her building, resettled into RAI. While she wished she could stay, the housing corporation has stopped maintaining the building and it is no longer pleasant to stay.
Eventually, all the neighbors will be forced to leave and the building will be demolished. Pristilla remembers the building as a place with friends and community.
“I have many of them, one Turkish, Moroccan, Atelier, that plus me, I think we have four different [nationalities] and we work together. We have a garden where we can plant corn, tomato, everything, all kind of crops.”
Now, Pristilla is retired and regularly returns to Nigeria to see family, but the Netherlands is her home. She has lived her life and raised her children here.
“In Nigeria you have your family there, they are there to support you. But here in the Netherlands if you don't, even if you have a family, everybody mind their own business, you do everything by yourself. Nobody come to help you. But I'm lucky when I was having children, my husband also supported me. He can cook, take the children to the crèche, and then in the morning or in the evening. That's how we, everything we do it together. So I did this so far for when I was having children, because we do everything together. Like I said at the time, the lucky one.”