The Flood

The decision to move to Holland doesn't feel prudent. Why relocate to a country that could be flooded at any moment? For the last 25 years, the political climate has shifted. The public debate on migration has become harsher, more heated, and deeply polarized. What would have been considered right-wing xenophobia back then is now mainstream. Populists reduce complex realities to simple dualisms of good and evil, victims and perpetrators: us versus them. Their rhetoric frequently relies on dehumanizing words and metaphors. One of these is 'water'. In reality, water is not an immediate threat to the average Dutch person; but it represents a huge threat to the thousands attempting to reach the Netherlands. People striving to survive the Mediterranean Sea in rubber boats. Struggling to endure winter on the Aegean coast in primitive tents. To them, water truly is deadly.