Why I'm leaving the Netherlands

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- You're either Dutch, or you're not Dutch, and there's no in-between. (gentle music) This was our first view of Maastricht. About five years ago, my husband Rob and I came here for a vacation for a month to the Netherlands, and we loved it so much that we decided to move here. We sold everything or gave away everything that we had in Australia. And within two months of our vacation, we moved here for good. Maastricht in the Netherlands is my new home and has been for the last five years. I came here on a skilled migrant visa. And actually I could have chosen to go to any city in the Netherlands. I chose Maastricht because I wanted the real Dutch experience. This is Douwe Egberts. This is Dadawan. This is Bomb Ass Burritos. This is Burgerlijk. This is Luna Rossa. This is Quattro Mori. Moge Tee. The language is a big part of why I came here. That is actually why I got the job: because I could already speak Dutch. When I told them that it was my intention to eventually get citizenship here, they said that I shouldn't get to be able to keep my Dutch citizenship and my other citizenships, which are from the Philippines and from Australia. (bright music) This is the street that we lived on for almost a year. We didn't have the best first experience. Our landlady was very judgmental. Essentially, she made it so that it was such an unpleasant experience that we actually ended up paying 4,500 Euro to get out of that lease early. This is one of the main streets of Maastricht. This is where all of the parades happen. So even after we eventually moved out of our apartment, we would still come back here to celebrate holidays like Carnaval or Koningsdag, or a variety of parades that have come by here. We really wanted to celebrate everything that there is to celebrate in Dutch culture. We did end up buying a new house. A few days later, almost two years after we'd first gotten into the Netherlands, the tax arrangement that I was on as a skilled migrant was shortened from seven years to five. One of the best parts about Maastricht is how multicultural it is. It's three kilometers from Belgium and about 30 kilometers from Germany. So walking down the street, you can hear Dutch, the local dialect of Dutch Maastricht, and also French and German, and a little bit of English here and there. This is the town hall. This is where I officially became a Dutch citizen, but it wasn't that easy. I really think that I can feel equally Filipino, Australian, and Dutch. And I don't feel like I have to choose, and whether or not people agree, I feel Dutch. But it would be nice if they agreed. (bells ringing) One particular incident of note happened a couple months ago when my husband and I were just playing Pokemon. And there was a guy that came out, apparently he thought we had gotten too close to his house or something, but was very aggressive about it. And that confrontation ended with him saying, "Well, if you don't like it, then go back home!" When you do all of these things and you have these experiences, the reality is that you're just not going to feel like you belong. While I don't regret any of the experiences that we've had here, I think it's time to move on. In the next few months, my husband and I will be moving to another country and we don't know what's going to become of our house here in Maastricht.
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Channel: Nicole van der Hoeven
Views: 22,413
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: moving to the netherlands, life in the netherlands, dutch culture, the netherlands, expats in the netherlands, living in the netherlands, is the netherlands a good place to live, dutch life, dutch people, working in the netherlands, living in the netherlands as an expat, living in the netherlands as a foreigner, dutch culture explained, disadvantages of the netherlands
Id: wfPLkNA2Ha8
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 5min 12sec (312 seconds)
Published: Wed Jan 26 2022
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