Don't fear the foreigner! | George Arakel | TEDxHaarlem

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. George's leading role in the country is virtue of his opinion on racism, discrimination, enemy conceptualization and 'square' thinking models. In fact, the term 'legal alien' has become his trademark. In today's society the concept of foreigner or alien is avoided and no one wants to be referred to as such. George has turned this idea around. His goal is to create a concept by 2025 that all of us are foreign and alien.

George Arakel is 26 years of age and of Armenian origin. He came to the Netherlands as a refugee in 1997 in the company of his mother and sister.

Unfortunately for George, he quickly became marked as a 'problematic legal alien'. He lived on the streets and became acquainted with the police and the Dutch legal system. In his third year of high school, George was taken out of high school and was not allowed to finish education. George became an official dropout.

In the four years that followed he fought his way back into acceptability by educating and training himself. Nowadays George is a motivational speaker, expert on ethnic diversity, founder of the initiative 'voorbeeld-allochtoon.nl' (translated as exemplary-legal alien). And as if that is not enough, George is also a businessman, publisher and writer.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)