Dutch By Birth But A Allochtoon*

My student debt is there, because life happens. I was born on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, which gives me automatically a Dutch passport. I am Dutch by birth, but lived most of my youth in the Dutch Caribbean. This changed when I decided to go study in The Netherlands. I became an ‘Allochtoon*’, but still I am Dutch by birth and my parents too. This is a discussion I always had with my colleagues at E-Quality.

Student Debt

Back to my student debt. When I arrived here, I had to buy everything from scratch to have a place to live. Also I couldn’t shop my groceries at my parents during the weekends like most of the other students, which their parents lived in the European Netherlands. This resulted in having to grow up in an instant (I was 19 back than), because I had no immediate family to fall back on and had to get to know Society. Such as how to use public transport, opening a bank account, register at the municipal, etc. 

How I Accumulated My Student Debt

In the Graphs below my student debt is split between the three studies I did:

• Veterinary Study (Diergeneeskunde; 2,5 year)

• Business Economics (Bedrijfseconomie; 4 years)

• Urban Geography (Stadsgeografie; 2,5 years)

As I already told in my Schooling blogs, I finished the Bachelor Business Economics and Master Urban Geography. The graph of Urban Geography is a flatline because I was working fulltime besides this master. I paid this master with the money I was earning back than and had saved during Business Economics. Read more about the jobs I had during my studies in my CV blogs.

European Dutch Vs Caribean Dutch

Also the European Dutch society is very different from the Dutch Caribbean one. So it took a while to find my place in this society. Although I had lived in Almere-Haven as a child for 3,5 years. Although I am allowed to work in the Dutch Caribbean, because I was born there, I won't do that and choose to live in the European Netherlands and not the Dutch Caribbean one.

*Allochtoon isn't used anymore since 2016.  At the moment the term 'persoon met migratieachtergrond' ='person with a migration background' is used.

Update On My Student Debt I am Donating On

At the moment I am not obliged to pay back my student debt as I was till 2015, but I am paying back amounts I can miss. DUO can see this as a donation till I am obliged to pay back again or not! When DUO has to set the obliged amount, it will be less due to the voluntary paybacks I did till now. Now the interest is 0 percent for me, which means my student debt isn't growing. The 0 percent interest will be till 2024 for me. As DUO just announced that from 2023 the interest won't be 0 anymore, I will give an example of how much interest I would be paying If my interest was renewed in 2023. In 2023 the interest will be 1,78 percent. Which isn't much, but with my current student debt of € 26.814,70 it would be 477,30 euro (26.814,70*0,0178). Lucky me my interest period with DUO ends in 2024 when the interest would be even higher if inflation stays like this. For now I will keep on paying my 0 percent student debt voluntary!