A boy walking past the meadow where the shelter is to be located shrugs his shoulders about the Houten Hub. “I’ve heard of it, but I don’t care,” he says. Gloria Rijpma, who walks her dog, is more outspoken: “I’m in favor,” she says. “The world belongs to everyone, so everyone deserves a home base.” Rijpma had seen the signs along the ring road, she thinks that the opponents are afraid of the unknown. “They react out of fear. But the fact that there is a counter-narrative shows the beauty of Houten.”
In Houten, the proponents and opponents of an asylum seekers’ center are diametrically opposed to each other: ‘Just let them come’
