Greetings from Europa

Greetings from Europa (Dutch: Groetjes van Europa) documents the town of Velsen-Noord, the Netherlands, from September 2022 to July 2023, after the docking of the MS Silja Europa, an Estonian cruiseferry repurposed as temporary housing for 1000 refugees.

The arrival of the ship sparked intense community debate, reflecting broader political shifts within the country, as evidenced by the increased support- and eventual victory for politician Geert Wilders' anti-immigration PVV party in the Fall 2023 General Election (source: NOS TK2023 results).

The circumstances surrounding the ship acted as an accidental microcosm for the overall Dutch response to the refugee crisis, with increasing community polarization, NIMBY attitudes, distrust in the government, and changing priorities of a country and people in times of economic uncertainty.

Owing to the project’s name, the photographs were turned into a set of postcards to reflect the contrast of the typical leisurely associations with a passenger ferry versus its actual purpose, as well as the temporary and ungrounded nature the residents on board found themselves in, writing about their new environments to friends and family still in their country of origin.