From a refugee camp to a working-class neighbourhood in small town Kollum, The Netherlands. Hamida from Somalia exchanged her mud hut for a three storey row house and can now send her children to school and learn how to read and write herself for the first time. But she has also been subject to racism and incomprehension.

Every year, vulnerable refugees from countries such as Iraq, Somalia or Ethiopia are selected and invited to the Netherlands to build a new life. That is a beautiful ideal, but how attainable is it in practice? In what way does the Netherlands take care of these people? And most importantly, what is it like to begin anew here?

Photographer Karijn Kakebeeke and journalist Eefje Blankevoort followed the selection and integration process of a group invited refugees, during a year and a half from spring 2009 up to the fall of 2010.

The Refugee Jackpot throws light on all sides of the story. Kakebeeke en Blankevoort address the opportunities and joy of the refugees but also the disappointments, the lives they leave behind and the (im)possibilities of the Dutch refugee policies.