Sitting down for a life story interview, I generally use the metaphor of the journey: a life journey through time and space from one’s past to the present and towards the future. Such journeys always include many encounters with people that carry the story towards its plot. The same is true for the journey that resulted in this book.
Most importantly, I encountered the people who agreed to tell me their stories. This book is about them, about you. Thank you for the time, the energy and most of all the trust it took to sit down with me for hours and hours and tell me about your lives. While we have rarely been able to meet in person after the interviews were over, your stories have been with me throughout the years of this journey. They have become familiar to me, and I love the idea that I can share at least something of that through this book. I wish it could contain all of your words, all the colourful, confronting, wise, lively, alarming, loving, fascinating stories about your own routes and roots and how they have made you who you are. You have inspired and enriched my research, but also my personal life journey, through the way you offered me a look into your lives and into your homes. Thank you so much.
The research for this work was initially carried out in the setting of a PhD track funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (nwo). The two people who accompanied me throughout were my supervisors, prof. dr Marjo Buitelaar and prof. dr Hetty Zock. I cannot imagine this trip without your unfaltering support, intellectual clarity and integrity. Thank you for letting me stand on the shoulders of giants. For the final version of this book, I am also indebted to two anonymous reviewers. Your feedback was of great help in many ways, especially in making this work more concise and to the point. Special thanks to the editorial staff at Brill publishers, and most of all to Nienke Brienen, for making this book possible.
Thanks to all colleagues at the University of Groningen and elsewhere with whom I had inspiring conversations about my project. Intensive exchanges about this project took place with Ibtissam Abaaziz and Fatima Ballah. I hope to be able to return the favour in the future. Special thanks to Annemarie Cottaar for encouraging me not to lose my own voice in the maelstrom of academia. Another inspiration on this journey were my encounters with Gerd Baumann, who challenged us to ‘make our informants look intelligent, not stupid’. How I wish that he could have judged for himself how I succeeded in this.
I am also particularly grateful to: the persons who helped me get into touch with potential interviewees; Johan Jorritsma for the painstaking transcription
Finally, I want to thank the people who accompanied my own life journey and constituted my home. My parents and sister, who gave me roots and wings. Friends and family, that make so many places around the world feel like home. And Jakob, Nuri and Martijn, whose love and laughter make my home the very best place to be.