Winners still lose

As many European countries struggle to maintain multicultural societies, brought on in part by relatively open asylum policies, a curious, and by some measures tacky way to examine the issue has surfaced in the Netherlands: a TV game show.

During a one-hour special, asylum seekers in the Netherlands become contestants and face questions testing their knowledge on the Dutch way-of-life. But the 4,000-euro ($5,680) winning prize was bittersweet: It was for them to spend back in the country of origin.

The show was called "Weg van Nederland," which can translate as both "away from the Netherlands" or "adoring the Netherlands."

Blessing Njohb was one of the five highly educated asylum seekers competing for a 4,000-euro prize. The 24-year-old aviation student left her native Cameroon nine years ago to make a new life for herself. But she, like all her fellow contestants, had her request for residency denied and has to leave the country soon.

"This is a program that actually gives us the opportunity to come out and show the world that we are actually like Dutch people - we're just like them," she said. "We live, we breathe, we know their culture, we speak their language.

"We just want to have a life. I mean, we've lived here for so long and all of a sudden they just expect us to leave everything behind and just go back," Njohb added.

The program had a humorous - at times even sarcastic - tone throughout, and the contestants played along. They answered several questions on all things Dutch and had to compete in challenges, such as carving a map of the Netherlands on a slice of cheese.

Those with the lowest points on each round were eliminated and left the studio as if they were boarding an airplane. Njohb was the first to go.

Truly Dutch?

The producers behind the show say they wanted to focus on the plight of over 250,000 refugees in the Netherlands. Many are left in limbo for more than a decade until a decision is made on their residency status.

The program has divided Dutch society with many people saying it is in bad taste. But Petra Schultz from the Amsterdam Refugees Solidarity Committee said she thought the questions challenged people on their assumptions about Dutch culture.

"Everyone thinks that windmills, tulips, Sinterklaas are really Dutch," she said. "But Sinterklaas is from Turkey, and everything else they mentioned was from another country. And later on we think it's really Dutch. I think it's good that they showed in the questions that we're just a multicultural country - like it or not."

A migration paradox

Kees Bleichrodt is the director of the Foundation for Refugee Students UAF, a group that advises and supports asylum seekers in gaining education and employment. He said the program shows how much talent the Netherlands is wasting because of its refugee policy.

"We realize that in the near future we need young, highly educated people to participate in the Dutch economy, but on the other hand, we are expelling these model-migrants after so many years," Bleichrodt said.

He added that the soon-to-be deportees had succeeded in acquiring an education and often a career.

Bleichrodt's organization has pushed for the government to establish a three-year time limit to process asylum requests. After that period, the asylum seeker would be automatically granted a residence permit.

He said he hopes the media attention surrounding the game show will contribute to a new debate, and that the asylum procedure of the five individuals be reviewed.

Longing for a home

That's a dream Njohb said she has too.

"I don't even know the way back to my hometown," she said. "I don't even know what Cameroon is like."

Instead, she said she would just like to get a job and go about her life.

"I'd just like live a normal life where I can walk in somewhere and say 'I'm Blessing' and where no one is going to say, 'Oh, we're sorry, we can't admit you here because you don't have an identity card' or 'you're illegal.'"

In the end, the winner of the 4,000 euro prize was law student Gulistan from Armenia, who left her country 11 years ago.

Once she's back in Armenia, she'll receive the prize money she won thanks to her thorough knowledge of the Netherlands - the very country that deported her.

Author: Cintia Taylor, Amsterdam / acb

Editor: Sean Sinico