No room if you’re not Dutch
Sorry, no internationals
Door Alessandro Tessari
By Alessandro Tessari
‘Finally!’ Lorenzo Zambelli was over the moon when he was invited over for a hospi – the Dutch word for a group house viewing. But when he arrived, it didn’t take the Italian student of applied mathematics long to realise that he wasn’t really wanted.
‘I was the only international student out of the five people that were viewing the house. The hospi was basically all in Dutch, with short interruptions in English to tell me, this is the kitchen, this is the bedroom…’, he says. ‘They only asked me a few brief questions, and some of them were completely irrelevant, like whether I had tattoos or if I had any weed with me. Then they continued talking in Dutch with the others.’
After fifteen minutes he gathered his things, said goodbye, and left. ‘They didn’t show any interest in getting to know me. It was clear from the first second that they didn’t want any internationals. I went home even more disheartened and I felt more unwelcome.’
Fully booked
Lorenzo is one of the 11,000 international students currently residing in Groningen – 9,000 UG students and roughly 2,300 Hanze students. He’s been living in the Sugar Homes for the past year, but his contract is nearly up and he needs to find another place by July.
They asked me whether I had tattoos or if I had any weed with me
‘I started searching in late January, knowing that it was difficult,’ he says. But he hasn’t had any luck, and now time is running out.
Student housing corporation SSH’s 1,600 rooms and studios are fully booked for next academic year. The municipality, despite creating 230 new emergency beds for internationals, fears the worst for September. Meanwhile, the UG is telling prospective students not to come to Groningen if they haven’t found a room by August.
Unwelcome
But even though Lorenzo has been searching from Groningen, he doesn’t seem to have it any easier than those who haven’t moved to the city yet. He uses official housing websites and agencies – he’s paid around 200 euros in subscriptions so far – and looks at the most active Facebook groups daily. When scrolling through the ads there, on average half say ‘No internationals/Only Dutch’.
‘I understand that there’s a housing crisis, but what I don’t understand is this reluctance to open the house to internationals’, he says.
It’s not much different on the agencies’ websites. ‘A lot of them mention the “no internationals” policy. Some justify it by pointing out it’s the landlord’s decision, some don’t give a reason at all.’
And even when they don’t say openly they don’t want internationals, you can still end up at a hospi and feel you’re not welcome. ‘I think I was only there because I was among the first ten who reacted to the ad, and so according to the website they had to grant me a viewing. But clearly they had no intention of giving me the room’, Lorenzo says.
Language barrier
Why are students and landlords in Groningen so averse to internationals? It frustrates him to no end. ‘Is an international student unable to pay the rent, clean the house, be polite, be a good tenant and friend?’
If you come home after a day of studying, you want to switch off
It’s not that, Dutch students explain when asked. One of the main reasons they’re not keen on international housemates is the language barrier. ‘Having to speak English at home can be difficult’, explains Wies. ‘If you come home after a day of studying or working, you want to chill, to switch off. For some, having to speak English is a big effort.’
‘It’s a convenience thing’, agrees Anne-Lauren. But she also suspects there’s a cultural gap. ‘‘I think most internationals don’t know the student culture in Groningen, where you go to hospis and join a student association.’
Fraternity houses
A lot of Dutch students live in fraternity or sorority houses, like Wies, who’s a member of Vindicat. ‘Our student association is basically all Dutch, so our houses also don’t have any internationals living in them’, she explains.
Because internationals don’t usually join the traditional Dutch student associations, that puts them at a disadvantage. In addition, oftentimes Dutch students come to Groningen with friends they know from school. ‘They don’t need to get to know new people and want a place for themselves’, says Wies.
She’d advise internationals to join an association. ‘That would definitely make it easier to get a place in a big student house like ours. But obviously, seeing that the other members are mostly Dutch might deter them.’
Short stay
It doesn’t help that internationals often only stay for a short time. Many houses look for tenants who can stay for a few years, and so do the housemates, who prefer to have friends around who stay for longer.
Still, sometimes that short stay is to the internationals’ advantage. Jup lives in a fraternity house, but he currently has an international housemate. ‘We had to sublet a room for a few months and many internationals look for shorter stays, so it works’, he says. ‘We all love him, but we don’t have internationals often as we mainly search for new housemates within our association.’
And then there’s a practical reason why houses that have a room to let preclude internationals, explains Annyck. ‘Five hundred people have already responded to our ad. If we didn’t rule out internationals, that would have been even more.’
Distorted image
Groningen student union GSb believes Dutch students can be persuaded to welcome internationals into their houses, though. ‘We think that the image of international students in one’s home or safe space is a bit distorted among Dutch students’, says board secretary Ale Pieter ten Cate.
I think many Dutch students are not fully aware of the huge problems for internationals
Together with the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), and with the support of the municipality, they’re setting up the campaign Internationals Welcome to change that. ‘We’ve shot videos where we go to student houses where Dutch and international students live together, and we show how fun and great that can be’, says ESN president Hannah Jelkmann.
The videos will be published during the summer. ‘The situation will not change overnight; it’s a long-term goal’, says Ten Cate. ‘But we all want to see more mixed houses and create more awareness.’
Mix of students
It might just work, says Dutch student Tirza. ‘The housing situation is awful, for both Dutch students and internationals, but I think that many Dutch students are not fully aware of the huge problems for internationals. For us, it’s difficult to find a place, but definitely easier than for internationals.’
The municipality of Groningen is planning to tackle the problem on a more practical level, by making sure new student flats – like the building that’s being planned on Zernike Campus – have a mix of Dutch and international tenants. ‘We want this to slowly but surely become the norm in Groningen’, said outgoing alderman Roeland van Der Schaaf in his last press conference on June 1.
Meanwhile, Lorenzo keeps on searching, even though he’s overwhelmed by the whole situation. ‘I don’t know what will happen and where I will go. I feel anxious, frustrated, and unwelcome. It’s like a desperate fight for bread. Everyone is trying to grab the loaf before someone else takes it.’
As some people in the comments mentioned, this problem is widely present even within university classes. How is it, when on the first lecture of the class that is supposed to be in English the professor asks those who don’t understand Dutch to raise their hands? There are 4 hands raised in the class among a hundred of students, everyone looks at you, professor sighs and says “Okay well, I’ll speak English then”. Then when he announces the request to divide into project-groups, you find out that all of the Dutch students have already created the groups because they have a chat to which internationals are not invited, of course. Things that I’ve described are not too bad, it doesn’t make the whole exchange terrible. However, I haven’t seen even a slightest effort to create conditions for the internationals not to feel excluded. It’s like we’re studying in different universities but occasionally share a room.
A lot of Dutch people, especially university students, are just unfriendly and ignorant plain and simple. As a person who can speak and understand Dutch I was also turned away so the problem is not language like they claim. The university also doesn’t do anything to promote integration between students and in many cases makes the divide between students greater (for example by providing Dutch and English versions of the same course where the English one is substantially worse; see the faculty of arts career minor). Its also illegal to say no internationals so I don’t understand why the university or gemeente doesn’t crack down on it more? Don’t claim to be a tolerant country when you’re not.
Well… “international” is perhaps a big word in this contex. I think the problem is mainly focused on people from certain countries/areas with relatively lower levels of institutional, social, or/and economic development (Italy, Spain, Greece, Romania, etc). It makes a lot of sense, at least to me, to hear about landlords trying to protect the long-term value of their properties, right? It is just common sense. After all, I have never heard of a Swedish, Swiss, or Norwegian student being rejected by landlords on a regular basis. ;-)
This is such a joke of a reply. “Lower social development” 😂 and ending your comment essentially confirming that it’s simply to do with the false idea that Nordic countries are superior culturally, economically etc. The aryan supremacist myth truly has not died out it seems.
You surely can’t be serious with your xenophobic bs. Hope you enjoy being part of the housing crisis. ;-)
In reading you comment I can’t stop but wonder what drives this expression of blatant racism.
Are you just ignorant of history and unaware that the South of Europe has been the main hub of western civilisation since its very beginning? This tradition of thought is still carried along and manifests itself within current societies in a multitude of forms; to cite only a couple, Italian and Spanish researchers are among the best in the world and the cultural and material exports of these nations are eaten up lavishly by all those supposedly more enlightened societies.
Have you just never travelled or left you immediate cultural bubble? Then let me inform you that Italy, Spain, Greece, Romania etc. are all members of the EU and thus held to the same high institutional and social standards as the rest of the countries of the block. Some of the states you negatively call out as being underdeveloped economically are members of the G7 which – if you didn’t know – is a forum of the seven largest economies in the World.
Or – on the other hand – should I just think that you are instead malicious and driven by a misplaced sense of superiority in your trying to imply that there nowadays exists some kind of cultural superiority within “nordic” societies that somehow ends up making their citizens more morally fit people? I will not a similar pernicious stance, so I happily admit that it is true that many thing are more efficient and better organised within these northern societies you cite. Now, I would like to hear how you justify the logical leap implying that this somehow makes Southern Europeans less civilised and trustworthy. Do you have any idea about the level of institutional corruption that was necessary in Germany and Austria for the two North Stream ducts to be built? Or that The Netherlands is among the most criminally-infiltrated countries in the World?
If we were to take the position that a supposedly less “advanced” society necessarily leads to bad people, can we not take the next logical step and apply this to people of lesser economic means within our own societies? That, if you don’t know, is called classism and brings with it another set of morally repugnant issues.
And – to conclude long story short – do you consider yourself a product of one of these more “advanced” societies? Then the mere fact that you posted what you did, discredits any theory you expound.
We have all read you views on the south of Europe; I think to speak for everyone in saying that we never hope to hear your views on Africans.
Sincerely,
An “international” student from Italy
“The Netherlands is among the most criminally-infiltrated countries in the World”. OK, if you say that then it must be true. After all, every informed person knows that Cosa Nostra, Camorra, and Ndrangheta, all originated from Leeuwarden!!
Ferdi, Ukrant is not a place to express your childhood traumas. If you have a problem with internationals, better to go to a psychologist. Hopefully, you have health insurance, and they will pay for it. I understand that you are suffering from lots of mental problems, just take a deep breath and let it go. I hope you will get well soon.
Oh yeah, the famous nordic institutional and social superiority – and then Dutch people go to Italy for 2 days and destroy a 17th century masterpiece while doing the nazi salute. Legit.
Maybe it was Ferdi doing the nazi salute lol
As a Norwegian having had to find housing in multiple Dutch cities, I can safely say that everyone who is not dutch gets discriminated against in the housing market, regardless of the country you are from.
Guys, I think that your forced -almost fake- political correctness is hurting your ability to understand my comment: it is not an opinion, I am just describing reality. Just go and ask any makelaar! I myself have a mediteranean background and the makelaar who explained me this simple fact was Dutch-Arab… so if you believe this is just a biased opinion based on some old-fashion sense of nationalism or some extremist political ideology, then my advice to you all is: open your eyes!!!
You are very clearly stating an opinion. If you were merely describing an unfair reality that you disagree with you would have said so. In your initial comment you said and I quote: “It makes a lot of sense, at least to me […]”. You are taking this “reality” and you agree with it – this signifies an opinion. So allow me to express my opinion: I think you’re xenophobic.