Ministerie van Justitie, Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst

Collaborative Project between the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND)

On the morning of Thursday 26 June, State Secretary Albayrak received the first copy of ‘The Meeting’, the fourth edition of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Magazine (Gray Magazine), the Amsterdam art academy’s annual magazine. The magazine is entirely devoted to the meeting between 28 IND officials and Rietveld students of 60 different nationalities.

Last Monday 31 March, the IND were guests at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, where they interviewed Rietveld students. This time though, it was not a procedural interview between applicant (the student) and decision-maker, but a person-to-person interview, the person behind the IND official interested in the person behind the student, and vice versa. The detailed interviews together with photographs of all of these students and IND officials involved, are contained in the magazine.

The State Secretary received the magazine from one of the students, a member of the editorial team. In her word of thanks, she spoke of her regard for the mutual interest that had been shown: “Our colleagues at the IND must always bear in mind that there is a real person behind every document. Carrying out their work with the utmost care and attention is therefore very important. Fortunately, they recognise that. On the other hand, it is good that the students get to know the person behind the official. After all, IND officials are human beings too, who do important and difficult work, checking residence-permit applications against the rules which we have established in a democratic manner.”