Welcome To Our World


Welcome to Our World is an international partnership project between four organizations.; Letterkenny Community Development Project and the Letterkenny Youth Information Centre from Ireland and Argan and Combeat From Holland;. The partnership started at a contact making seminar for the Youth in Action Programme in Dublin.


The objectives of the partnership are to raise awareness of the effects that uncertain citizenships status has on young people from minority communities in Ireland and Holland. We were also concerned with understanding the impact on young people when they don’t feel accepted as European. We wanted to gain an understanding of the uncertain citizenship status and to lobby for change via democratic structures in both countries the young people came with the idea to record their stories in Ireland and Holland in relation to the obstacles they face due to their situation.

The Project lasted one year. With the highlights being a five days preparation visit in Ireland and a five day study visit in Holland where a core group of twenty young participants from Ireland and Holland learned from each others stories. The participants met politicians and other professionals in Ireland and Holland so that they could tell there stories and lobby for change. The project also got media attention on local television and radio stations, the newspapers and on internet. Through live talk shows the participants contacted each other and debated with politicians about uncertain European citizenship and the issues surrounding being accepted as European when you have dual nationality.

This project helped to raise awareness of the need for a uniform European policy concerning two important issues for young people.
The first issue relates specifically to uncertain European citizenship status. In the documentary young people explain the difficulties they face when making the transition to third level education with some of them being treated as foreign students though they have lived in Ireland for ten years. There is also a focus on young asylum seekers and their lack of rights in relation to education as well as the long bureaucratic procedures that they have to go through.

The second issue concerns young people from minority ethnic or cultural backgrounds who want to fit in to modern western society in Holland. These young people are second and third generation immigrants yet they still do not feel accepted. They struggle with their double nationality and face the difficulty of being forced to choose between one or the other. There is a lot of public debate in Holland with young people with a double nationality or a double passport being viewed with suspicion.

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