Our first interviewee is James Collins Matthews, a 33-year old English businessman. After 9 years living and working in Rotterdam, he now owns a massage saloon and a cleaning company.

In the ongoing discussion about foreigners and integration, those who come from western cultures are hardly ever considered as part of the process. Nevertheless, the road is not that smooth for them either.

Here comes the first interview

1. When and why did you come to the Netherlands?

The first time I came to the Netherlands was in 1995 for a vacation and I had very nice experiences. A year later my family moved to Canada, i didn’t feel going there or staying in England either. Why not an adventure? I have a friend living here and just like that I came here with almost nothing.

2. How did you start to live here?

In the beginning it was very difficult. No family, no friends, no money. It took me more than a month to get a shitty job in a laundry company where i had to unpack all the bags of dirty clothes with all dust and terrible smell that you can imagine. And as the truth that i didn’t know any single dutch word at that time, i couldn’t follow what was going on there outside of my door. I felt like an alien who didn’t belong to the city. I started studying dutch at Albeda College 3 evenings a week. I took all the opportunities to speak dutch to my colleages although they laughed at me all the times because of my stupid dutch and funny accent. I learned things from mistakes. After 6 months I could speak dutch quiet fluently, people were surprised.

3. What kind of jobs have you worked at?

A lot. I have worked very hard. There was a time I had 3 jobs at the same time. Working at a laundry company during the days, delivering food for a Chinese restaurant in the evenings and at night I worked at Crazy Pianos as a waiter. People asked how i could keep up. I really don’t know. Many thanks to my parents for giving me a strong body.

The heaviest job I have had was ship building and maintaining. I earned a lot with that job but on the other hand it was killing me. I altered, converted, installed, cleaned, painted and maintained vessels. I had to work with heavy equipments such as welding fume, hammer...After a while i had some problems with my eyes and ears. My doctor suggested me to stop. And i quit.

The lightest job was at Van Hessen. I was in charge of customer services. Most of the time i sat in front of the computer and answered calls.

4. When did you start your own business?

3 years ago. Through a friend, i knew the former owner of The ultimate cleaning company. He wanted to retire. Using all the money saved up i took over the company. It ‘s a one-man company.

And i took over the massage saloon 93 (s’ Gravendijkwal 93, Rotterdam) since last October. All just begins. There are a lot of things that i have to learn.

5. Did you receive any support?

Yes. The huge one was from local banks. I presented my business plans and asked them to invest. They were interested and untill now they are my biggest investors. Besides that friends and colleages were another source i got support from. They encouraged and helped me a lot.

6. How is your business doing now?

It‘s doing well with the massage saloon. We have many regular customers who have come for years. From mouth to mouth, new customers get to know and come to us. I am renovating the saloon in order to make it newer and nicer. Although it costs a lot but i think it’s necessary to please our customers. That’s important to me.

7. Do you feel at home in Rotterdam?

Now? Yes. I have my own house, my own business and friends here. I am happy. I really feel home here.

8. Do you have any tips for foreigners looking to come to Rotterdam?

(Smile) Not really but from my own experiences, working hard is the best and only way to make dreams come true.