Wanted: expats' stories of pandemic life

Expatriates' experiences during the current Covid-19 pandemic are to be collected by a Dutch-based archive and preserved for future generations.

David Sapsted

9 April 2020

The Expatriate Archive Centre (EAC) in The Hague is appealing to expats of any nationality and living anywhere in the world to send it their stories of how they have coped in their daily lives during the outbreak."To preserve material describing this historic crisis through the eyes of expatriates around the world, the EAC decided to launch the ‘Expatriate Life in the Time of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ initiative," said the centre."As an institution that focuses on the social history of expatriation, the EAC collects and preserves material about how expatriates and repatriates are meeting the challenges they face while living abroad."This mission is even more important during exceptional and unprecedented times. Social history gives necessary context to the nuts-and-bolts information gathered by historians and their institutions: how do people cope, connect, make decisions, etc? What was the local, lived experience of this global pandemic from day to day and week to week?"
The EAC said it wanted to receive submissions in any format - blogs, hand written recollections, emails, social media posts and exchanges - on expats' experiences during the pandemic, as well as stories of repatriation, 'third culture kids' and "other roles and situations adjacent to expatriate life"."If you are an expatriate or have moved back home — regardless of country of origin or residence — and you have written about any topic related to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are interested in preserving your story."Because of the global nature of the pandemic, we are open to receiving material in any language and any format." Inquiries on submitting material can be sent to welcome@xpatarchive.com.Meanwhile, a collection of expats' podcasts about pandemic living is being collated on the podchaser.com website.
Podcasts in the collection so far include an African student's reflections on months of forced isolation in Wuhan; an actress's "tumultuous" journey as she tried to return to Germany from Mexico; and an American mother's experience of the lockdown in Italy.And in Abu Dhabi, 10-year-old Jason Joseph - the son of expats - has found his own way to record life during the pandemic: he has penned a two-part comic entitled 'Perfect Pause in the Times of Covid-19'
The Khaleej Times reported that the GEMS Cambridge International School student looks at the brighter side of the outbreak: a world uniting in a fight against a common enemy, and home-working and e-learning resulting in more family cohesion."Why can't people look into positives?" Jason asked. "There is a pause on our routine stuff - a new order is here. Offices and schools have shut but online conferencing has increased. The world is working together to fight this virus. This is the perfect pause for mankind."