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You are here: Home Life in News Focus Is the Netherlands expat friendly?

29/09/2005Is the Netherlands expat friendly?

We ask whether expats are running up against an impenetrable barrier erected by a Dutch society which just doesn't want strangers around here anymore.

No people on Earth are such bad-mannered, rude, ultra-nationalistic, racist, tasteless and stiff pigs as the Dutch, and besides, the weather is awful, the country is too flat, healthcare is sickening, the traffic is like war, the Randstad is overcrowded, the streets are full of dogs excrement, one can buy drugs everywhere, there is legalised killing called euthanasia...
(from Expatica's Discussion Forum)

Some expats feel they are being closed out by the Dutch

Complaints by expats in the Netherlands are nothing new, but an internal survey by the International Organisations Staff Associations (IOSA-NL) set the cat among the pigeons recently.

One of the startling findings was that 70 percent of the expat staff of international organisations based here do not want to stay in the Netherlands.

The main messages were that the Netherlands is unwelcoming, too bureaucratic and not at all 'user friendly'. 

IOSA Secretary, Eva Ekstrand, said IOSA knew interest in the survey would be high (the results of which will be made public on 12 October) but was surprised that more than 60 percent of the workers represented by the organisation responded. 

IOSA-NL's members include the European Patent Office, European police agency EuroPol, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Complaints

Two experts have been asked to give their opinions on whether the survey results — which were leaked to the press — reflect a general attitude of expats living in the Netherlands.

Expat help Often difficulties can be overcome when you get the right information. Expatica runs an annual Welcome to the Netherlands fair. www.expatica.com/welcome/ ACCESS www.access-nl.org I (am)sterdam www.iamsterdam.com

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