For quit some time now we played with the idea to have a sabbatical year (or even longer), leave the kibbutz and return to the Netherlands for a while. I am fifty plus and husband is going to be 55 soon. I doubt we would find work right away, but if we wait even longer we won't for sure find any and will always be saying if only we would have tried... Two of the kids want to come (18 and 20) and a third perhaps in 2 years when she finish her studies. If I would leave, my mom of 77 who lives with us here in the kibbutz and has a pension from Holland would have to come too. She is to old to get any housing in Holland and I would take her in with me again (mantelzorg). But here comes the absurd. My husband can't come due to new immigration laws in Holland to curb marriages of convenience - and ONLY in Holland! Nowhere in Europe they have these laws. I would have to go by myself, my mom and the girls, get a job (yeah right away I"ll find something) and prove to the authorities that I earn 1600 euros a month and show a contract of a year in advance (who gives you a contract for a year nowadays?). Only than can I apply for a visa for my husband and it will take another couple of months. So all together with the luck of finding a job right away it will take months, years before he can join us (while he works the most hours). I am married for 27 years. I have worked for over 30 years and never claimed social benefits or unemployment benefits, neither did my husband or my children.
I was advised to go and live half a year together in Belgium or Germany and get him a five year visa there, as none of the other European countries have these crazy Dutch laws. How absurd is that?
Some one else advised to get husband a Lithuanian passport (EU) as almost his complete family was murdered there in the Holocaust and he can rightfully obtain a Lithuanian passport (but would loose his Israeli one, which he will never do..If only his family would have had a chance to flee to Israel 75 years ago...).
How can they call Israel an apartheid state when Israel took me in 27 years ago, just for being married to an Israeli. When Israel took in my mother because I lived there. When Israel took in my catholic Colombian son in law just for being married to my Jewish Israeli Dutch daughter?
In 2014 185.000 people immigrated/returned to the Netherlands. A total of 22.500 Syrian refugees now live there. I, a Dutch citizen (I have ONLY my Dutch passport), with four Dutch children and an elderly Dutch mother, can not return without leaving hubby behind. I used to be proud of Holland.....
"Blessed are you, Lord God, maker of all living creatures. You called forth fish in the sea, birds in the air and animals on the land. We ask you to bless this pet, Joey and return him home safe."
