"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..."
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.
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.
Some of the specific complaints include dissatisfaction with the Dutch bureaucracy, childcare, language and housing.The difficulty of getting the correct information from public servants drives many expats to despair.
ACCESS, an English-language organisation which helps expats adjust to the Netherlands, thinks organisations involved with sending expats to the Netherlands should paint a realistic picture of the Netherlands.
Part of this picture is the increasing Dutch wariness of immigrants since 9/11. The degree to which an expat is confronted by this distrust depends upon an expat's skin colour and the language an expat speaks.
"Many couples with one Dutch partner feel that Holland is less open and far less accepting or tolerant than the Dutch say they are. The level of disinterest, unhappiness or even rudeness is far beyond acceptable," says expat counsellor Rj Nuis.
According to Nannette, prospective expats perceive the Netherlands as an open, tolerant and friendly society, and are shocked to learn that the Dutch government is one of (unclear) rules and regulations.
from expatica
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