If you have moved to Amsterdam and want to feel like a real Dutchie, it might be time to learn Dutch and become a part of the community.
The Mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, doesn’t want to limit the number of internationals in Amsterdam but thinks it is important that they integrate.
Middle-income and young families are leaving Amsterdam and being replaced by internationals, reports AT5. Why is this? High property prices, small property sizes and a lack of a sense of community are some of the main reasons, according to Rabobank.
Pop that bubble!
“If you are an international and come to live in this city for a longer period of time, really be here,” Mayor Halsema tells AT5. She believes that internationals should be a part of the community and that they shouldn’t “sit in their own bubble”.
People in Amsterdam DO speak English to any stranger on the street because there’s less and less Dutch-speaking people actually living in Amsterdam. There’s a good chance that no one else in this video is Dutch either https://t.co/sEjelYEp05
— Saskia (@saskiahhhhh) April 23, 2023
Amsterdam’s mayor also thinks it would be an advantage to speak Dutch, even though English is spoken a lot in the city. It may be an important part of becoming a true Amsterdammer.
READ MORE | What language level is the Dutch integration (inburgering) exam in 2023?
Mayor Halsema also wants Amsterdammers to take care of the less fortunate people in the city by donating and volunteering in food banks.
Middle-income groups are important
Nurses, police officers and teachers are part of an important middle-income group and, with them leaving, it’s not good for the city.
Wat een ongelofelijke naïviteit van burgm Halsema, alles in de stad is ingericht op #toeristen en #expats en nee die gaan zich echt niet inzetten voor de buurt. Amsterdam is het pretpark geworden waar ze zo lang naartoe gewerkt hebben. Bewoners hebben hier niets meer te zoeken.
— Mirjam Boer 🌱 (@MirjamBoer2) April 22, 2023
Translation: What an incredible naivety of Mayor Halsema, everything in the city is set up for #tourists and #expats and no, they are really not going to commit themselves to the neighbourhood. Amsterdam has become the amusement park they have been working towards for so long. Residents have no business here anymore.
In addition to this, gaps between people in the city are forming, which is something that none of us likes to see.
“Amsterdam has traditionally been a city with many different types of people,” says Mayor Halsema. “We want to keep that and also strengthen it.”
The housing crisis
Thousands of homes are built every year in Amsterdam, but we all know the struggle: houses are being built smaller for higher prices. Echt niet leuk!
Making units suitable for not only single people but also families is being discussed with housing corporations.
READ MORE | Student housing in the Netherlands: your guide to finding a room in 2023
Mayor Halsema believes that money should be made available to create good public spaces, youth care, and education. Growth doesn’t need to be stopped for this.
How have you integrated into your Dutch community? Tell us in the comments!
I think this statement from Mayor Halsema can have the ability to do more damage than good and shows that it’s easy to fall in your own bubble on the other side of the bale also. It enforces to Dutch readers this idea that they have have no role in the integration of expats – if that is truly something they desire – and places the whole responsibility of building the community only on the expats’ ability to speak Dutch.
While I wish this whole integration topic was as easy to resolve as just learning Dutch, unfortunately the reality it’s nowhere near that. It’s not even the top issue. Language is nothing but a means of communication and as long as the locals speak a great level of English, it really goes down to the lack of desire from both locals and foreigners to create a community together.
The Dutch language is really not an easy one to learn and it’s also not useful internationally, it’s a language that you learn because you have too… so the only way people will feel a connection to the language and a desire to learn it is by making a stong bond with the people who speak it. And I think that is the base of the problem and the beginning of the solution from my point of view.
I have friends who spent years learning the language and still hangout an expat only friend group. 4-6 hours per week for a couple of years that amounted to nothing, just being able to read their energy bills. All that wasted time and effort that would have eventually served the community better by investing In other skills. Learning Dutch might eventually have you included in dutch society but not accepted, and I think a lot of expats would identify with that and see it as a major discouraging factor to learn the language.
Amsterdammers keep a closed gate around their friends’ groups and don’t always have a desire to accept foreigners in their community, even less to help you in any way learn the language. I remember traveling for 15 days in Spain and I’ve learned more Spanish there from the friendly local people – who couldn’t say a word of english – than I learned Dutch in Amsterdam in my first year. It made me understand what a huge role people play in your desire to learn the local language. Just seeing their enthusiasm and hospitability made me want to learn Spanish more. And I think that’s where the Mayor should focus her attention: shifting this stigma of integration from blaming it on the language barrier (which doesn’t exist), to education locals that integration thrives in an environment where expats feel included and accepted as part of the dutch society.
As an expat living here for 7 years I found it quite difficult to make close dutch friends and I have rarely experienced any hospitable gesture or at least a genuine desire to be friends with you, no matter how many times I took the initiative. If anything, I’ve seen the locals less involved in creating a sense of community or a place where the expats are welcome to join and be part of. I’ve lived in 3 different neighbourhoods throughout the city and everytime I moved in… it was either the British, the indian, the polish or the Spanish neighbours who came by to say hi, never the Dutch ones. Somethines even having them say hi on the hallway was a rare sight. Was my lack of dutch the reason for that? I don’t know what to say. You could easily understand why an expat would continue living in their bubble…