Maastricht wants to make expatriates feel at home

“When I first arrived and found the theatre, I stopped looking at the weather so much”, Etta Christophides, a Greek expat said at a recent forum for the international community in Maastricht.

The forum got off to a promising start: Alderman Jean Jacobs announced a plan to open a welcome counter for knowledge workers at the municipal office: “At this welcome counter expatriates will get answers in English to all their questions and problems,” he said.

Alderman Jacobs recognised that Maastricht should make a tribute to the European Idea, namely the dissolution of borders: “It is high time for us to take these new steps together. Whichever way you look at it, it all starts with hospitality for our guests from abroad. You give this internationality a face.”

The expatriate forum, which took place on 14 April at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, was organised around the research report ‘Expatriates at home in Maastricht,’ carried out by Dutch consultant Lorraine Witteveen on behalf of the city of Maastricht.

The research report aimed at defining the needs and wishes of expatriates living in and around the city of Maastricht. “Up until now, the city initiated projects for expatriates on an ad hoc basis. Now Maastricht is realising that its international knowledge workers are important for the city, and shaping a good climate for this group of people has turned into a key policy-area”, says Witteveen.

Help!
There are about 7.000 expatriates working in South Limburg. Together with their spouses and possible families, they form a group of 16.000 foreigners trying to live in a country different from their own. Struggling with administrative hurdles, but also with the simple practical details of everyday life. Trying for instance to find out how, when and where garbage is collected. Little things can grow into huge problems, and newcomers need all the help they can get.

After briefly summarising the main conclusions of the report, Witteveen invited several stakeholders to talk about their role within the international community.

Speaking on behalf of the Province of Limburg, Raoul Bakkes made an appeal to the audience: “I would like to challenge all of you to enter into dialogue with us and show us how we can take this initiative a step further. We would like to know what we should do, and in particular what we should not do, and how we ought to go about attracting knowledge workers and their families into the region and keeping them here!” Bakkes also stated that the province is aware of the lack of skilled workers in the region, and agreed that it is in the interest of the province to provide an acceptable climate for international knowledge workers.

Professor Harry Hillen, representing Maastricht University, praised the importance of international staff for the university: “Without the international students and staff, we cannot maintain our quality.” Recognising this, the UM established a Knowledge Centre for International Staff in September 2006 to serve and make the international staff feel more welcome. Hillen also explained that the university is working on increasing the job offer for higher educated people. “We are setting up a series of partnerships with national, European and international companies, which can lead to the creation of more jobs.”

Making internationals feel welcome is what it is all about, emphasised UNU-MERIT‘s communications coordinator Wangu Mwangi: “What I’ve learned is that it is important to make people feel at home, so that they can come to you and ask for things, and contribute something themselves.” However, cultural differences and preferences can sometimes undermine well-meant efforts. Mwangi once offered to organise ‘borrels’ (Dutch word for ‘drinks’) for the staff at her research institute: “We picked 5 o’clock on Fridays as the time to go for a drink. However, our Dutch colleagues wanted to go home, and students preferred to study some more at that time and go out for a drink later. So one of my colleagues and I ended up in the café next door alone, and became known as ‘the drunks’.”

What can be done?
The question and answer time showed that good ideas are vibrant among the members of the international community in Maastricht. The suggestion of setting up a ‘Hyves-like’ social networking website was well received, although the concept of Hyves, which is more familiar to the Dutch than to foreigners, had to be explained to some. Such a website would allow international residents to keep in touch with each other, and make each other aware of existing initiatives and events coming up.

A recurrent concern among expatriates, which can directly influence their decision to stay in the region or not, is the quality and amount of jobs available for spouses: “Most knowledge migrants have spouses who are highly educated as well”, one lady said. “I see that the province is losing a lot of knowledge and capabilities with these spouses. Their time in Maastricht region is not productive at all.”

Paul Thomassen, manager of international assignments at DSM, agreed that international companies and businesses share the responsibility to take care of expatriate spouses: “We have made some arrangements within DSM. On the other hand we could possibly do a bit more.”

Carol Herman, a founding member of both the International Women’s Club of South Limburg and the International School Maastricht summarised the necessity of this effort in one sweeping statement: “See it like this: a happy wife makes a happy husband, and an unhappy wife makes an unhappy husband.” Her words were met with general applause.

Professor Chris de Neubourg, academic director of the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance and host for the evening, stressed the importance of public goods, a recommendation that was shared by many in the audience. Meuse-Rhine Journal editor Stafford Wadsworth, speaking as one of the seven stakeholders on behalf of the expatriate community, said: “I can think of four CEOs of major companies in Maastricht who didn’t stay because they couldn’t find education for their children. These problems were only solved when one expat took the initiative into his own hands.”

In this context, the prospective arrival of a United World College in Maastricht is of interest to many expats: “We heard from Mr. Jacobs about the United World College: we would like a commitment as to when it is here, and where it will be,” asked Etta Christophides. However, Bert Roona, head of the economics department at the municipality of Maastricht, was not in a position to give her a definite answer.

Another area of concern was public transportation. Wilfried Ruetten, the director of the European Journalism Centre , and Sam Welie of the Liof Industry Bank stressed that not only North-South connections are important, but that Maastricht also needs more and better direct train connections with Belgium and Germany, and in particular with the neighbouring German city of Aachen.

What’s next?
Dr. Roberta Haar, a US assistant-professor at the University College Maastricht, and co-organiser of the forum, concluded the official part of the evening by stating that it is “comforting and gratifying to know that we are valued by the community”. Yet, she did not end on a totally positive note: after sharing a puzzling experience with a Dutch civil servant who told her – in perfect English – that “she was not allowed” to help her in English, Haar reiterated her initial statement. The second time however, it almost sounded like a question.

The forum provided a good networking opportunity, and business cards were eagerly exchanged. The around 100 guests were a good mixture of the international community, businesses and institutes operating in Maastricht and the South Limburg area.

One visitor remarked that a forum like this is a good start: “I find this initiative very positive, people are listening which is the first step to finding solutions to the existing problems.”

Lorraine Witteveen is satisfied with the results of the evening. “I think this was a very ambitious plan, and we probably could not have reached a higher goal. Concrete promises were made, even if no time frame for their realisation was mentioned.”

Apart from the proposed welcome counter for expatriates, concrete promises included an English website for the city of Maastricht. Furthermore, city official Bert Roona agreed to reduce the administrative regulations and burdens for expatriates and foreign companies settling down in Maastricht.

“These are difficult tasks for the city council, and they can be carried out in many ways,” says Witteveen. “Take for instance the English-language website: how much will be translated, and when will it be online? Yet, I think the promises that were made were a good first step.”

Participants to the forum were invited to attend the follow-up meeting on June 9th and 63 among them immediately indicated their wish to do so. The goal of the next meeting is to formulate a concrete action-plan to improve the expatriate experience in Maastricht. If you would you like to join the next meeting, or have good ideas, feel free to contact Nynke Salverda.

By Nynke Salverda

An intern at the European Journalism Centre, Nynke Salverda is currently assisting Lorraine Witteveen with the “Expatriates at home in Maastricht” project . She graduated from the University College Maastricht, with a bachelor in international relations, and plans to study at the University of Uppsala in Sweden to get a masters in peace and conflict studies.

Photographs of the expat forum: Paul Rutten

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