So It Really Isn’t Just Me!

Found this on one of my yahoo groups that was posted from www.Expatica.com

23 September 2005

AMSTERDAM — At least 77 percent of the mainly expat staff of international agencies in the Netherlands want to leave the country.

And more than half of the Dutch employees think their organisation should relocate to another country, according to a report in newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’.

The daily paper based its story on a leaked internal survey carried out last summer by the International Organisations Staff Associations (IOSA-NL), which represents staff members of international agencies.

These include the International Criminal Court, the UN Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Court of Justice, the European Patent Office, the European Space Agency and Europol. The majority are based in and around The Hague.

Telephone calls to international agencies on Friday failed to generate much response to a report.

Some of those contacted by Expatica showed interest in reading the article and representatives of two organisations expressed surprise at the claims expat workers were unhappy with life here. They asked that neither they nor the organisations they work for be named.

The IOSA found 77 percent of the workers for these organisations don’t want to stay in the Netherlands. Some 3,400 people took part in the survey, amounting to 60 percent of the workers represented by the IOSA-NL.

The reasons for wanting to leave included unhappiness with the healthcare waiting lists and unsympathetic doctors; the tax system; dealing with bureaucracy; expensive childcare and the lack of suitable housing.

The conclusion of the report ‘Thuis in Holland’ (at home in Holland) states: “There is a widespread perception that international organisations and the people who work for them are no longer welcome in the Netherlands”.

The high population in the Randstad and the growing distrust among Dutch people of foreigners were other factors mentioned, ‘De Volkskrant’ said.

The list of grievances was topped off with complaints about the weather and the difficulties of speaking Dutch.

The local authority in The Hague and government agencies declined to comment about the report has it has not been published.

The IOSA-NL plans to discuss the findings of the survey with the official agencies.

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

So apparently it isn’t just me who feels this way. Many times I’ve wondered if it was something about me that made me unable to cope properly here. What was it that made me so unadaptable. Was it because I wasn’t working, I wasn’t meeting enough people, and so on. It’s sort of comforting to know that even these corporate workers who have family and friends here often can’t stand it in the Netherlands too.

The yahoo group I got it from is one about life in the Netherlands as a foreigner. The concensus seems to be that people are unhappy here because most don’t come here for the country. That it’s a loved one or job they come for that just happens to be in the Netherlands. It’s like jobs and relationships that come out of this country should come with some sort of warning label… “Warning: May cause irritability and depression”, like it’s some kind of side-effect.