Discrimination is a major issue for NL’s expats, survey shows
Robin PascoeDiscrimination is a problem facing many of the Netherlands’ international residents, whether or not they have lived in the country for years and whether or not they speak Dutch, according to the results of a Dutch News survey.
In total, 3,374 people took part in the survey earlier this year, in which readers were asked if they or their friends and family had been the victims of discrimination and what form it took.
Just under half the respondents said they had personally experienced racism or discrimination in the Netherlands and 43% said they had witnessed an instance of racial discrimination.
The survey is not representative of the international population because it was self-selecting. Nevertheless, over 1,000 people also detailed their personal experiences and what had happened to them. In total, 68% said they felt racism and discrimination are a moderate, or serious problem in the Netherlands.
In 16% of cases respondents said they had been told they should not be living in the country if they did not speak Dutch and 15.4% people said they had been told to “go back to your own country”.
In 15% of cases people said they had been made to feel like an outsider and 12% said someone had refused to help them because they did not speak Dutch. In 11% of cases people said others had made assumptions about their education and skills.
There was little different in the experiences of new arrivals or people who had lived in the Netherlands for at least five years. And even respondents who spoke Dutch – about half of those who took part in the survey – were sometimes told they should not be allowed to live in the country if they did not speak the language properly.
Several readers reported being told to speak Dutch in public places while out with friends or family and talking their native language.
“Biking with my children, talking to them in English, a man loudly said to us ‘Dutch, Dutch, Dutch’, One Canadian respondent said. “He was implying, I guess, that I should be speaking Dutch to my Canadian children. He was obviously annoyed at having to hear English on the street. I do speak Dutch, not that that should matter.”
On the street, at work
Half the instances of discrimination took place in the street or at work, but 9% of the respondents said they had faced problems dealing with officialdom and a similar percentage had faced discrimination in a shop or café.
“Even if I make an attempt to talk in Dutch, most shop assistants will still talk in English to me as I like a foreigner. However, at some places, people take offence that my Dutch is not good enough,” wrote one woman.
Applying for work was also a problem and several respondents noted that they had been turned down for jobs because they did not speak Dutch well enough, even though it was not a requirement.
Others faced assumptions about their skills and education levels. “I was looking for a job. I was sending my application replying to ads that required ‘good command of Dutch’ as stated in the ad, using my fluent Dutch. Many times I received a ‘no’ reply because ‘they are looking for someone who speaks Dutch fluently’ or ‘they are looking for someone who IS Dutch’ or ‘they are looking for someone who graduated from a Dutch university’,” another respondent said.
Skin colour
In 31% of cases, the respondents said they felt that they had faced discrimination because they did not speak Dutch, and in 29% because the other person “thought I was a foreigner”. Skin colour was considered a reason in 16% of cases, and religion in 12%.
Housing was another area where people faced discrimination, despite the widespread view that “expats” have an advantage when it comes to renting property because they are thought to have more money.
“I was trying to book a view of an apartment and I was told that the apartment was not in the market anymore,” one respondent said. “My then (Dutch) boyfriend called one minute after me and they told him that he could schedule the viewing as the apartment was still available.”
Jokes
Many readers’ experiences revolved around social occasions, stereotypes and “jokes” made about ethnicity.
“I was dating a Dutch girl and one evening her friends kept making jokes about my nationality,” one man wrote. “After they left I pointed it out and she said I was too sensitive ‘because Dutch people are very direct’. I said that this is rudeness from where I’m from, and she said that if I don’t like it, I can go back there. I broke up with her on the spot.”
Sometimes the racism was more blatant. “In friendly family environment, one of the elder members said ‘oh the foreigner has arrived’ and got up and left,” another respondent said.
“My partner, who was originally Thai but is now a Dutch citizen, is often asked which massage parlour she works in. People also frequently assume that she is my servant rather than my partner,” said one man. “It is not so much discrimination as offensive stereotyping.”
School pupils
One younger reader and an international school pupil wrote about an experience at the Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam, where there was a special performance for schools.
“At the end, the schools were announced over a speaker so that each school could stand and leave one at a time,” the pupil wrote. “When our school was called out and we stood up, many of the students from the other (Dutch) schools booed us.”
Dealing with officialdom presented its own particular problems. “My company went bankrupt so I went to the UWV [state jobs agency] and they told me to go back to my country when I asked for unemployment benefits. I spoke to them in Dutch,” said a reader.
One respondent reported being shouted at by an old lady in their local Albert Heijn supermarket. “She shouted ‘you fucking ASML Indians, go back to your fucking country, or fucking learn Dutch if you want to snatch away our hard earned money’,” the reader said.
“I’ve been here for 2.5 years and this was the first time I felt that I do not belong here. I have a house, I have a kid who was born here but I doubt whether my decision was correct even though this is supposed to be one of the best countries to live in.”
For more information about the survey and the results, please contact editor@dutchnews.nl
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