Refugee centers are waiting rooms of a different kind. In the Netherlands, they are often hidden from view—yet they are everywhere. Places of suspended time, where lives are placed on hold in uncertainty. Arrival here is not the end of a journey, but the beginning of another: a slow struggle for agency, recognition, and belonging.

I am Grateful (?!) is an installation born from these realities. Initially created by Nasma Alshutfa as a personal series of miniatures—each room a story, a fragment of experience—it has since evolved into a collective work. In the second phase, new voices joined, the team expanded, and the installation became a shared space of storytelling. Together, we invite you to step inside—to witness both the intimate emotions and the political conditions that shape the lives of asylum seekers. We ask you not to look away, but to engage—with curiosity, with understanding, and with questions.

What began as a personal reflection on Nasma Alshutfa’s own two-year experience has grown into a collective installation. New rooms have been added, shaped by the voices of others. Her story now sits alongside theirs - creating a shared space of testimony, memory, and belonging.

This work exposes visible borders, the ones that divide nations, as well as invisible borders: those embedded in laws, prejudice, and cultural barriers. These unseen walls leave profound marks on identity, belonging, and the possibility of home.

Through co-created narratives and testimonies gathered from people of diverse backgrounds who are living or have lived in AZCs across the Netherlands, I am Grateful (?!) makes the hidden visible. It gives form to the complex emotions of living in transit—where destinations are uncertain, control is lost, and comfort must always remain temporary.