The Hague wants to be even more international
The Hague has appointed itself a centre for international organisations. But the foreigners that work there have many complaints about the city.
At the entrance to the shop there is a recommendation for ‘haggis,’ a typical Scottish product made from sheep’s innards, oats and spices. On the shelves lie English biscuits, crisps, marmalades and countless other British products. This branch of the Thomas Green’s chain is located on the Frederik Hendriklaan in the Statenkwartier neighbourhood, the centre of The Hague’s international district. About one in three residents is of foreign extraction, but there are hardly any non-Western immigrants here. The Statenkwartier with its Art Nouveau-style townhouses is the domain of ‘expats.’ That is evident on the street and in the shops, where English is often heard. Advertisements on boards in front of the shops and ‘for rent’ signs are in English. The neighbourhood bookshop has an extensive English selection.
The Hague, the Netherlands’ third largest city, is home to about 35,000 expats, of a total population of just over 475,000. A 2005 survey of the employee associations of a number of international organisations showed that these expats were very dissatisfied with certain aspects of life in The Hague. Almost eighty percent of the foreign employees of international organisations wanted to leave the Netherlands at that point. Living here is expensive, the tax system is complicated, there is a great deal of bureaucracy, service is poor and the healthcare system is no good, were the main complaints. Not very encouraging for The Hague, which is so intent on being the legal capital of the world.
Since then every effort is being made to meet the expectations of the foreign residents. The city hall has a special ‘Xpat Desk’ at its ‘The Hague Hospitality Center’; there is also a council executive for ‘city marketing’ who has launched a hospitality campaign. The regional television broadcaster, partly thanks to financial support from the municipality and province, started a weekly programme in English. At the insistence of the local council, in 2005 many employees of intergovernmental organisation were equated to embassy personnel for tax purposes. They too became exempt from paying taxes in the Netherlands.
Peace and justice
The international organisations and their employees are of vital importance for the city and region. A survey commissioned by the municipality shows that the international organisations create more than 14,000 direct and another 14,000 indirect jobs (for example in cleaning, security, IT and administration). That is an increase of about 8 percent compared to three years earlier. The international organisations are responsible for 6.4 percent of employment in the city of The Hague. The total effect of the international organisations on the Dutch economy is almost 2 billion euros. A little less than 1.6 billion of this benefits the region of The Hague.
With institutions like the Yugoslavia tribunal, the International Criminal Court and Europol, The Hague has distinguished itself for years as an international city of peace and justice. The Hague region counted 171 international organisations in 2008, 32 of which intergovernmental organisations. The Hague sees itself as the world’s fourth United Nations city, after New York, Geneva and Vienna. But with a little imagination, The Hague could also be regarded as the second UN city. After all, only one main UN body is located outside of New York: the International Court of Justice.
The city has a long history in the area of international peace. As early as 1899 at the initiative of the Russian tsar Nicholas II, the first international peace conference – including the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration – was held in The Hague. The Netherlands is one of the few countries in the world whose constitution states that it wants to promote international rule of law.
Wim Deetman, mayor of the The Hague from 1996 to 2008, is regarded as the man who really put The Hague on the map as an international city. In 1998 Deetman and the foreign affairs minister at the time went to Rome to get the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the city. The presence of international organisations lends the Netherlands prestige and increases its leverage in diplomacy. “Ministers are received abroad differently than if we did not have these institutions. It gives you a face,” says Wim Deetman. The Hague’s current mayor, Jozias van Aartsen, experienced this in practice during his term as minister of foreign affairs (from 1998 to 2002): other countries listen to the Netherlands.
Health problems
The average annual income of an expat amounts to 77,000 euros (gross), about 80 percent of which is spent in the Netherlands. The shopkeepers and merchants of The Hague’s ‘expat neighbourhoods’ clearly profit from this. That is also the case for other businesses. Thanks to the combination of high housing prices and the high turnover of residents – many expats move again after a few years – estate agents have done good business in the expat neighbourhoods over the past years. Rental agencies are also active on the housing market. In exchange for finding someone a rental the agency charges a month’s rent, which could easily be over 1,000 euros in these kinds of neighbourhoods.
The survey recently commissioned by the foreign affairs ministry entitled Be our guests showed that foreigners see the high costs of living (especially housing) as one of the greatest disadvantages of the Netherlands. Another long standing point of criticism is the healthcare. Expats especially have problems with the “egalitarian system” and the role of the family doctor (‘huisarts’).
Entrepreneurs saw this dissatisfaction as an opportunity. The International Health Centre The Hague (IHCH) was opened about two years ago. In addition to family doctors a few specialists also work at the health centre. The IHCH focuses specifically on expats: 6,000 of the 8,000 patients are foreign. The centre has doctors who are native speakers of English, French and Spanish. After all it is difficult to describe health problems clearly in a foreign language.
Bronovo too, the royal family’s hospital of choice, discovered the expats a few years ago and explains the egalitarian system to them. Surgeon Onno Guicherit: “In general expats are used to a system in which the more you pay, the sooner you’re treated.” Many foreigners think that healthcare in the Netherlands is a state responsibility and as such little money is spent on it, says Guicherit. He relays a joke about Dutch healthcare that foreigners often tell each other: ‘Oh, you have cancer. Here’s an aspirin.’
Healthcare plays a different role abroad than it does in the Netherlands. In the United States it is customary to get an extensive diagnosis even for relatively minor complaints. Bronovo has an English website and an English-speaking receptionist in order to clarify the differences with the Netherlands. There is no preferential treatment, says the surgeon. “The waiting time for an expat is the same as for a Dutch person.”
The extra efforts do not seem to be helping much. From the survey Be our guests it emerged that two thirds of the foreign employees of international organisations are (extremely) dissatisfied with the quality of Dutch healthcare.
Attitude
There also continues to be a great deal of dissatisfaction among expats about the cold and rude attitude of the Dutch, and the poor customer service. A survey last summer by Radio Netherlands Worldwide indicated that both foreign expats living in the Netherlands as well as Dutch expats working abroad find the Dutch to be rude. The website expatica.com is teeming with complaints about the Netherlands and its inhabitants.
American Courtney Smith van Rij, who devotes herself to making newcomers feel welcome on behalf of the municipality of Wassenaar – more than a quarter of whose inhabitants is foreign – says: “You have to go to the Dutch, they won’t come to you.” On the other hand many expats live in their own circles: they meet each other at special gatherings, they get together in (women’s) clubs and their children go to one of the many international schools. Smith van Rij: “I know plenty of people who have been living here fifteen to twenty years and still don’t speak a word of Dutch.”
That is a source of annoyance for some residents of The Hague. Like Wilma Marijnissen, for example, resident of the Archipel neighbourhood for almost twenty years. She lives in a pleasant old street where the people get together to eat outside in the summer. In the last years there has been a “big invasion” of expats, says Marijnissen. She has hardly any contact with them since many expats only stay for a few years. “It has become disproportionate, even the greengrocer speaks nothing but English anymore.”
Mayor Jozias van Aartsen wants to build a bridge between the international community and the ‘average Hague resident.’ He uses the economic benefit as an argument to persuade the residents of his city. “The Turkish baker profits from it as well,” says the mayor.
According to Kevin Cullen, industrial psychologist of the Yugoslavia Tribunal, the municipality and the state focus attention on attracting and promoting international organisations, but not enough on the problems of foreign employees. “An image is being created of: ‘We take care of our expats.’ But a great deal of discontent is lurking under the surface,” says Cullen.
Surveys have ascertained that The Hague and the Netherlands still have a great deal to improve with respect to accommodating foreign workers, though one insider puts the situation in perspective by saying that only dissatisfied people participate in such surveys. And, says surgeon Onno Guicherit: “Grumbling is certainly not a Dutch invention.”