Netherlands: Summary of Interview about Meta Evenbly

Meta Evenbly and her husband first immigrated from the Netherlands to Canada in 1957 and then to the United States in 1966. As an immigrant, Meta started a family and raised five children. She now resides in Dallas, Texas, and her eldest child, Caroline Evenbly Crocker, sat down in the Institute for Immigration Research office, in Fairfax, on November 7, 2023, to tell the immigration story of her mother and her father.

Life Before Immigration

Born to Dutch and German parents, Meta grew up in the Netherlands. Her early life was interspersed with World War II (WWII) and all the physical and psychological hardships that the event brought with it.

Her daughter Caroline explains:

“My mother was born in Scheveningen, a city that during WWII the Dutch made the Germans pronounce to determine whether people were masquerading as Dutch. You can’t pronounce it unless you are Dutch. Scheveningen is a town on the North Sea, near Den Haag or The Hague. My mother’s father was Dutch so they spoke Dutch together. My mother’s mother was an immigrant from Germany. So, Meta sometimes spoke German to her mother and her mother’s sister [her aunt].” 

“Meta’s education was disrupted by WWII. She went to a local Catholic school, where a lot of kids went then, and had to miss it during WWII because schools were closed. After the war, she resumed her school and went to the next grade. Once she recovered from starvation, she was found to be very clever and capable of doing more than the basics. She was recommended to attend a special school for kids planning to go to college. Her parents couldn’t afford the fees, but the church provided the tuition and her parents raised money for books, and my mom went to that school. Unfortunately, during one of the German classes my mother responded to the teacher’s question in flawless German. Because my mother didn’t have an accent, it angered the teacher. She was ostracized as a result, and after a year she had to leave that school. Mom went back to her regular school and graduated high school at the age of 18, but that meant she couldn’t go to college.” 

Motivations for Emigration

Caroline explains that Meta and her husband decided to leave the Netherlands and immigrate to Canada when Meta was 23 years old:

“As a result of WWII, a large part of the Netherlands was bombed, causing a shortage of housing. The priority of the Allies was to rebuild Germany first, to prevent the German unrest that might have led to WWIII. Also, the Netherlands was accepting immigrants from Indonesia because the Netherlands were there, though not as occupiers. The result was not enough housing. So the rules were that you couldn’t have a house or even an apartment unless the combined age of household members was 65 and a household had a child. Both of my mother’s sisters opted to live with their parents, but my parents didn’t want to do that. The government would pay back two years of your taxes if you emigrated to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, or the United States. Emigration was encouraged, and as a result there are a lot of Dutch immigrants around the world. Dad was conscripted to the army and received 0.49 cents per week, so it wasn’t a lot of money. They didn’t want to go to South Africa because of the unrest there; they had had enough of war by then. Australia and New Zealand were far away; there were no emails then and phone calls were expensive and the only way to stay in touch with family would be to send hand-written letters, so it wasn’t a comfortable prospect. My dad desperately wanted to move to the United States, but the rule then was that an immigrant had to bring enough money to employ at least two people. But Mom and Dad had no money, so they chose to immigrate to Canada in 1957.” 

Life in Canada

In 1957, Meta and her husband started their new life in Toronto, Canada, learned English, found their first jobs, and started a family:

“When they first moved to Canada, they landed in Toronto with Mom pregnant with me and $30 to their name. Mom overheard somebody speaking Dutch and was relieved. She asked that person about a clean and cheap hotel. That is where they spent the first night. Then another acquaintance of my father found them a basement apartment. Mom and Dad then went walking the streets looking for a job.”

My parents were motivated to learn English in Canada and didn’t speak Dutch to each other. They spoke English to each other, so they went to bed every day with a blazing headache.

Life in the United States

After living in Canada for almost 10 years, the family received a chance to immigrate to the United States, but Meta’s husband faced a setback as his entry approval was denied. Following Congo’s independence in 1960, the country became a battleground in the Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States aimed to establish a pro-Western government, but was met with opposition from the pro-Communist rebels (United States Department of State n.d.). This tumultuous period might have contributed to sensitivity toward Congolese citizens within U.S. immigration services. Despite the challenge, the family found a way around the obstacles, initially moving to Iowa and later settling in Texas. Meta finally was able to attend college in Texas and graduate with a degree in Liberal Arts.

Caroline details:

“My family moved to Urbandale, Iowa, in 1966 because my father worked for Massey Ferguson and his company wanted to transfer him to the United States. He was very excited about this prospect because he really wanted to come here. But the States still didn’t want him because Dad was born in Africa, in Belgian Congo where his parents, who were Dutch, were at that time. His parents moved back to the Netherlands when he was three, and he never bothered to do anything about his passport, so he was Congolese, and America didn’t want him. So the company came up with a roundabout and made my mother the head of the household which was wonderful; you would have to know my mother to know how excited she was about this arrangement. She was able to bring her husband, and that is how we moved to Iowa.” 

“We moved to Texas in 1993 because my dad lost his job at Massey Ferguson because the company …eventually went bankrupt. My parents moved to Iowa briefly and Dad worked for Greyhound, which moved him to Houston. Then Greyhound laid him off. He got a job with IBM in Dallas, which is where my parents lived the past 35 years; my Dad passed away, but Mom has been there ever since.” 

“My mother wanted to go to college, so when she moved to the States, for the first two years she attended Des Moines Community College in Iowa. She took it very slowly because Mom had five kids, so there wasn’t a lot of time for her education. She eventually went to St. Thomas University (Houston) and in the last two years of her education she was a full-time student because we all left by then. When she graduated, she was in her 60s.” 

“Mom…was a beautiful hostess and eventually became active in her church. She is 88 now …. She helped her children a lot. When my brother started a company, she worked a bit at the front desk. She also worked for a temp agency - Office Overload - for a year.”

Challenges of an Immigrant Life

Along with finding a new life and the joy of raising her children in Canada and the United States, Meta endured a range of hardships as an immigrant. Among them were missing her relatives she had left behind in The Hague, trying to find a job with limited English, and hiding her pregnancy until she gave birth. Meta also struggled with receiving compassionate medical care while delivering her children. Overall, healthcare proves to be one of the most challenging areas for immigrants navigating life in the United States. Recent research indicates that individuals whose primary language is not English face disproportionate gaps in healthcare access, leading to poor health outcomes (Haldar, Pillai, and Artiga 2023).

Caroline details:

“My mother missed her parents a lot. She told me that her father cried for a year after my mom moved to Canada. She didn’t visit her relatives until I was three years old, so that would be four years later, and then not until I was 14. Her parents used to come to see us every other year.” 

“At that time, if you were pregnant, you could not work, so my mom had to lie. Her English was limited then and people assumed she was stupid and that helped. During a job interview, she was asked when her last menstrual period was and she pretended not to understand the question and they went on to the next question. Because my parents didn’t have much money and therefore, little food, her pregnancy didn’t show and she worked at Bell Telephone until the day I was born.”

“Medical care is something with which my mother struggled constantly as an immigrant. When doctors use a complicated language that is hard to understand or she is not receiving an adequate treatment, she rarely speaks up for herself. When I was born, my mother was put in a hallway even though she was in labor. Finally, a nurse noticed that I started to come out. And then I was taken away and Mom didn’t see me for 24 hours and till this day she doesn’t know why. She was speaking Dutch because she was in extremis. When my twin brothers were born the same thing happened; the doctor didn’t know my mother was delivering twins. She delivered the first baby, who was not even 3 pounds, and they left her there. She couldn’t say she was still in pain because she was in extremis and speaking Dutch.”

“My theory is that when she was a child there was no food for a year and the part of the Netherlands where she lived wasn’t liberated because “it wasn’t of strategic importance.” I heard my mom repeating that phrase many, many times throughout life. So I assume she thinks she is not important because of that. But I am not sure 100%. There is the trauma of being told “you are so unimportant that you don’t deserve food.” 

Summary

Meta and her husband belong to the earlier, post-WWII immigration waves to North America. However, their immigrant journey, marked by both challenges and joys, mirrors the trends faced by immigrants today. The decision to leave their home country was a response to the aftermath of conflict, and they successfully navigated the hurdles of learning a new language, job hunting, and entering a workforce with limited language skills and gender discrimination. On a positive note, Meta and her husband began their family, eventually becoming parents to five children. Their subsequent immigration to the United States provided an opportunity to establish a permanent home where their children grew up, and Meta had a chance to pursue a college education.

Bibliography

Haldar, Sweta, Drishti Pillai, and Samantha Artiga. 2023. “Overview of Health Coverage and Care for Individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP).” KFF. Retrieved January 23, 2024 (https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/overview-of-health-coverage-and-care-for-individuals-with-limited-english-proficiency/).

United States Department of State. n.d. “Milestones: 1961–1968 - Office of the Historian.” Retrieved January 23, 2024 (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/congo-decolonization).