ISAN started as an informal club for Iran TU students thirteen years ago, but has evolved into a professional social organization that helps Iranian professionals find jobs and advises Dutch organisations.
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“Integration is the heart of ISAN,” says Navid Otaredian, an engineer and spokesman for ISAN (Iranian Scientific Association in the Netherlands). Every foreigner must decide how to become acquainted with the Dutch culture, but ISAN thinks integration should be done through education and work. That doesn’t mean everybody must get a PhD degree. It%s more about being active in the society, and that’s why we believe learning the Dutch language is important.”
ISAN is a science club for all Iranians in Holland. Iranian TU students founded ISAN in 1989, initially meeting to talk about science, their studies or an interesting book they’d read. With their studies ending, the students became more interested in their opportunities out in Dutch society. “Back then, there was a lot of unutilised talent within ethnic minority groups. This is still the case today, but less so,” says Otaredian, a TU civil engineering graduate who now runs his own engineering consultancy firm. “Highly educated immigrants people couldn’t easily get jobs. My wife and I both faced a lot of problems getting a job, which made us unhappy. Problems, we reasoned, other migrants would face too. I therefore dedicate myself to helping Iranians and other high educated immigrants get suitable jobs.”
Radiation
Slowly but surely, ISAN grew from a purely science club into a social organization. “We still organize lectures about science and learning, but we try to find a balance between sociological, cultural, and scientific subjects,” says Dr. Behrad Rejaei, a member of ISAN%s executive committee and TU professor at the ITS faculty. “The focus depends on what our members request, or what we think members will find interesting, like a cultural evening about Shamloo, a famous Iranian poet and philosopher.”
Every two months ISAN organises a lecture in Delftstede. “Recently, I invited a colleague from my department who lectured on the risks of radiation from mobile telephones. According to him, nobody needs to worry about their health.”
ISAN isn%t only active in Delft; they also organise information evenings for new Iranian migrants all over Holland. “Iranian people who’ve just arrived in Holland have no idea how things are organized here,” Otaredian says. “We tell them about job centres and health-care in the Netherlands.”
ISAN also contributes to advisory bodies. “Next year the Dutch Ministry of Internal Affairs will monitor Iranian society in Holland. They contacted us, because we have much experience in these management matters,” Otaredian says, proudly. “And another club like ours, which represents the interests of another ethnic minority in Holland, asked us for help.”
Fifty
There are about twenty thousand Iranians living in Holland, of which one or two thousand live in Delft. “When we organize a cultural or information evenings, we contact about four hundred Iranians. But ‘friends of ISAN’ are always welcome,” says Rejaei, who is involved with educational affairs within ISAN and tries to establish relationships with universities in Iran. “Graduates from Teheran universities who are looking for a PhD jobs go abroad, but rarely to Holland. Yet there is severe shortage of PhD students in this country, which I see at my own faculty. I don’t know why Holland isn’t the first choice of Iranian graduates when there is such a need for educated people here. But I do want to know why Iranians prefer the USA above Holland.” ISAN will soon getting the attention of Iranians graduates, however, as the organisation is setting up its own website, which will advise Iranian graduates on how to get PhD places here, how to translate their diplomas, and so forth. Sadly, though, the last local council elections, in which right-wing parties won on an anti-immigrant platform, won’t make Holland a favourite place for foreigner students. “We want to get rid of the breeding ground for prejudices like, ‘Migrants don’t work hard’,” Otaredian laments, “Integration is important. ISAN believes that’s how it can fight prejudice. On the other hand, we don%t want to make propaganda for ourselves. We should not make things look better than they are.”
ISAN doesn’t meddle in political affairs. Because Iran is fifty times larger than Holland and has a population of seventy million people, the members follow many different political movements. “Some have very strained relations,” Otaredian explains. “ISAN is a non-political organisation, and that’s the reason why we still exist.”
ISAN started as an informal club for Iran TU students thirteen years ago, but has evolved into a professional social organization that helps Iranian professionals find jobs and advises Dutch organisations.
“Integration is the heart of ISAN,” says Navid Otaredian, an engineer and spokesman for ISAN (Iranian Scientific Association in the Netherlands). Every foreigner must decide how to become acquainted with the Dutch culture, but ISAN thinks integration should be done through education and work. That doesn’t mean everybody must get a PhD degree. It%s more about being active in the society, and that’s why we believe learning the Dutch language is important.”
ISAN is a science club for all Iranians in Holland. Iranian TU students founded ISAN in 1989, initially meeting to talk about science, their studies or an interesting book they’d read. With their studies ending, the students became more interested in their opportunities out in Dutch society. “Back then, there was a lot of unutilised talent within ethnic minority groups. This is still the case today, but less so,” says Otaredian, a TU civil engineering graduate who now runs his own engineering consultancy firm. “Highly educated immigrants people couldn’t easily get jobs. My wife and I both faced a lot of problems getting a job, which made us unhappy. Problems, we reasoned, other migrants would face too. I therefore dedicate myself to helping Iranians and other high educated immigrants get suitable jobs.”
Radiation
Slowly but surely, ISAN grew from a purely science club into a social organization. “We still organize lectures about science and learning, but we try to find a balance between sociological, cultural, and scientific subjects,” says Dr. Behrad Rejaei, a member of ISAN%s executive committee and TU professor at the ITS faculty. “The focus depends on what our members request, or what we think members will find interesting, like a cultural evening about Shamloo, a famous Iranian poet and philosopher.”
Every two months ISAN organises a lecture in Delftstede. “Recently, I invited a colleague from my department who lectured on the risks of radiation from mobile telephones. According to him, nobody needs to worry about their health.”
ISAN isn%t only active in Delft; they also organise information evenings for new Iranian migrants all over Holland. “Iranian people who’ve just arrived in Holland have no idea how things are organized here,” Otaredian says. “We tell them about job centres and health-care in the Netherlands.”
ISAN also contributes to advisory bodies. “Next year the Dutch Ministry of Internal Affairs will monitor Iranian society in Holland. They contacted us, because we have much experience in these management matters,” Otaredian says, proudly. “And another club like ours, which represents the interests of another ethnic minority in Holland, asked us for help.”
Fifty
There are about twenty thousand Iranians living in Holland, of which one or two thousand live in Delft. “When we organize a cultural or information evenings, we contact about four hundred Iranians. But ‘friends of ISAN’ are always welcome,” says Rejaei, who is involved with educational affairs within ISAN and tries to establish relationships with universities in Iran. “Graduates from Teheran universities who are looking for a PhD jobs go abroad, but rarely to Holland. Yet there is severe shortage of PhD students in this country, which I see at my own faculty. I don’t know why Holland isn’t the first choice of Iranian graduates when there is such a need for educated people here. But I do want to know why Iranians prefer the USA above Holland.” ISAN will soon getting the attention of Iranians graduates, however, as the organisation is setting up its own website, which will advise Iranian graduates on how to get PhD places here, how to translate their diplomas, and so forth. Sadly, though, the last local council elections, in which right-wing parties won on an anti-immigrant platform, won’t make Holland a favourite place for foreigner students. “We want to get rid of the breeding ground for prejudices like, ‘Migrants don’t work hard’,” Otaredian laments, “Integration is important. ISAN believes that’s how it can fight prejudice. On the other hand, we don%t want to make propaganda for ourselves. We should not make things look better than they are.”
ISAN doesn’t meddle in political affairs. Because Iran is fifty times larger than Holland and has a population of seventy million people, the members follow many different political movements. “Some have very strained relations,” Otaredian explains. “ISAN is a non-political organisation, and that’s the reason why we still exist.”
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