What it takes to politically participate?

Political participation is a very broad concept, from voting in elections to holding a public office. In other words, political participation includes all forms of "making yourself count" and "getting yourself be heard" and "influencing public policies".

For a migrant, like me, political participation in the host country is very much related to ones integration process. In the more than 20 years that I've been in The Netherlands, I underwent a process of changing perspectives. (I'd rather call it changing perspectives than changing identities.) I started off as a Filipina who went abroad. I didn't then consider myself as part of Dutch society, but more as an outsider, observing with curiosity the new culture I was in. (I intentionally used the term 'curiosity', because when you are 'curious' you are not pre-judgemental and are not quick to give judgements to what you have seen. But rather you tend to look at new things with an open mind, trying to understand it, taking pleasures in the new knowledge you acquired.)

Going back to my process of integration, from an outsider observer I moved on to becoming a migrant. As a migrant you consider yourself part of the society, but also attributing to yourself the disadvantaged position of migrants. Due to language and cultural discontinuity, migrants are in general put in a disadvantaged position where opportunities are being missed.

The next turning point in my change of perspectives was when I started working. I worked as a coordinator of a parenting program for families in disadvantaged position. I was then exposed to working in the disadvantaged communities in the city where I lived, where the rate of unemployment, single parenthood, low educational attainment, is higher than average. I always thought that migrants as a rule are in the lowest level of the social ladder. But when I went to these communities I saw that there are also white Dutch people who are in disadvantaged position. And I stopped pitying myself as a migrant. And from this point on, I realized that I have a lot to contribute to the society where I was in. And I became an integral part of the Dutch society, bringing along with me my Filipino heritage and culture.

Going back to the question "What it takes to politically participate?", I guess it's important to realize first that you have something to contribute to the society where you are in. Then the rest will follow. And before you know it, you have already become an integral part of the society where you are in, carrying with you your own heritage and culture.