Calling Holland home

 Up to 25 per cent of international students choose to stay in the Netherlands post-graduation and start their careers in the lowlands. The UK spoke with three former RUG students about what motivated their decision to stay.
By Nina Yakimova

Daniela Naydenova

Naydenova moved to Groningen in 2003 with her then-boyfriend – now husband – Konstantin Ignatov. She studied at the RUG and received a master’s degree in business and economics in 2008. ‘I fell in love with Groningen and its tranquility. I came here to visit a few friends who were already studying here and decided to relocate as well’, she says. Being able to study in English helped influence her initial decision, too. After graduating, Naydenova and her husband, who also studied at the RUG, found jobs and decided to stay in the Netherlands. She currently teaches at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences and recently bought her first home in Groningen.

She says that the idea of moving home was something that she thought long and hard about. ‘One of the crucial factors was the good work-life balance in the country’, she says. ‘We stayed because the opportunities to grow professionally and personally are bigger here than in Bulgaria. Salaries are more competitive as well’, says Naydenova. ‘My profession is in demand right now, so is my husband’s – he is a software specialist – and when you have the right education, the market is very welcoming anywhere.’

Living in the Netherlands has given her a sense of security and calm. And it is still fairly close to home: ‘Holland is only a two hour flight from Bulgaria, compared to somewhere like New Zealand. If I miss my relatives and friends back home, I could visit them during the weekend. But Sofia is chaos, like every big city, I suppose, and I feel the serenity that Groningen has to offer is priceless’, says Naydenova.

Bernd Warnders, originally from Germany

Bernd Warnders

Warnders moved to Groningen in 2008 to study arts, culture, and media – a similar bachelor was not available in Germany at the time. ‘The entry requirements at German universities are also ridiculous’, he says. ‘Here, I only needed to learn Dutch.’

He obtained his master’s degree in arts, culture, and media from the RUG in 2016. That same year, he found a job as the trustee of the RUG’s film archive and media laboratory. ‘My transition from student to work life was very smooth, and I decided to stay here’, Warnders says. ‘I love Groningen and was very happy to be able to stay after my graduation and work here. I did not have a strict economic reason to stay in the Netherlands, but Groningen grew on me’, adds Warnders.

Now living in Almere with his girlfriend and working as a lecturer at the Hanze, he travels to Groningen on a daily basis. ‘Commuting is not a particular problem. I can take the train or drive. The distance between towns is not as big as in Germany and travelling in general is very flexible here’, says Warnders. The close proximity to home is another reason behind Warnders’ decision to stay in the Netherlands. ‘If I move back to Germany and work in Munich, I would still be farther away from my home town than Groningen is. On the one hand, it feels like I am living and working abroad, but on the other hand – not so much’, adds Warnders.

Miranda Evering-van der Zeyden

Evering-van der Zeyden was a PhD candidate in 2005 at the RUG and received her doctoral degree in neuropharmacology in 2011. ‘What motivated me to come here was the ability to study a PhD in a first-world country in a field which is so interesting and also get paid to do so’, she says.

Family and the ‘less stressful living’ in the country tipped the scales in her decision to stay in the Netherlands. ‘I met my husband during my PhD. Also, it is easier and safer to live in The Netherlands than in South Africa’, says Evering-van der Zeyden. ‘I really appreciate being able to ride your bicycle and do anything at any time of the day or night without being scared for your own safety. It is not safe to live in South Africa, I do speak out of experience – I have been hijacked and my aunt was murdered for her laptop’, she says.

Moving back home now would prove to be difficult for Evering-van der Zeyden and her family. Due to the Employment Equity Act, she says that finding work can be a challenge for non-black people in South Africa. ‘It is very hard to get a good job where you can make a career in a leading position due to political preference for black women, and my husband as a white male would not have been able to find a job easily in South Africa’, she says. ‘I would love to live in Scandinavia, but seeing as how there is less sun than in the Netherlands, I have not made the jump.’

Sticking around

In the 2016-2017 academic year, 112,000 international students were enrolled at a higher education institution in the Netherlands – the highest number ever – according to a recent report from the Dutch organization for internationalization and education, EP-Nuffic.

Based on data from Statistics Netherlands, EP-Nuffic estimates that the percentage of foreign students who remain in the Netherlands for the rest of their lives is approximately 25 per cent. According to the report, students who stay and pursue a career (and family) in the Netherlands contribute up to 1.57 billion euros annually to the Dutch knowledge economy.

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