Fighting back with the Expat Center

Amsterdam aims to become an attractive place for expats with 'one-stop-shopping'

Frank Gersdorf Amsterdam

A service point like this should in fact have been created much earlier, stated Amsterdam’s Mayor Job Cohen on Tuesday afternoon during the opening of the Expat Center in the World Trade Center. 'We’ve needed this for years.'

The Expat Center is a service point where foreign workers can arrange all of their formal affairs in one place upon arrival in the Netherlands. Amsterdam created this center after the city had descended in the international rankings of the most popular cities for business relocation a few years ago. The service point is a pilot programme with the co-operation of the city of Amstelveen and the immigration authority IND.

'We often hear complaints that there is no structure for arrival in the Netherlands', says Pauline Genee, Director of the Expat Center. 'When you come here with your family to work, then you know that you’ll encounter a lot of hurdles, which is not very enticing. They’re all things that have to be done, but they cost a lot of time and cause a lot of irritation. Everything is present, but it’s scattered around and it’s hard to find for newcomers.' Genee has worked as a diplomat in New York herself, and is now detached from Foreign Affairs to run the Expat Center.

The Netherlands already has some service points for expats, but what makes the Expat Center unique is that foreign workers can actually take care of their paperwork there. The centers in Nijmegen, The Hague, Eindhoven and other cities only provide information.

During the test period, until September, the service point will arrange the formalities for foreign employees of sixteen large ‘information businesses’ in and around Amsterdam. After that, the center will offer its services primarily to smaller companies. Genee: 'Larger companies don’t need us as much. They often have their own relocation office.'

The Director hopes that after the summer she will also be able to arrange work permits. She is currently in negotiations with the unemployment benefit organisation CWI. Other options are medical insurance and education.

The center has contacts with the Cities of Haarlemmermeer and Almere to expand the services to those cities as well. Other places in the country also expressed their interest. ‘That makes sense’, says Genee. 'Because there’s a big demand for what we’re doing.'

Het Financieele Dagblad, 18 June 2008