AMSTERDAM TALKS - How Welcoming is Amsterdam?

In our October edition of Amsterdam Talks, we set out to explore how welcoming the city of Amsterdam is to newcomers, and to get a better understanding of how locals and expats connect (or don’t) with each other and why.

Our two speakers have both contributed to making it easier for newcomers to form connections and feel at home in this city.

“LAND IN A CITY SAFELY & MAKE NEW FRIENDS”

Our fist speaker was Hidde van Gelder, the community manager at Zoku, who told us more about the place that also served as the location for our event - similarly to several previous Amsterdam Talks.
Zoku is not only a hotel and an event space: according to Hidde, one of the important goals of Zoku is to enable people to “land in a city safely and make new friends”. Everyone, be it a tourist, expat or a local native Dutch person, is welcome in Zoku.

Hidde also gave us examples of the various ways in which connections among visitors and residents of Zoku are encouraged: firstly, the physical setting favors the shape of hexagon as it is ideal for promoting interaction among people. Secondly, Zoku hosts several events that attract also people from outside the hotel to mingle here. What is more, the staff of Zoku is trained to foster connections between people that go beyond small talk and reach a deeper level. In fact, Zoku has recently been recognized as B Corp (“business for good”) thanks to its honorable mission to decrease loneliness. The latest addition to Zoku’s ways to promote connection is introducing co-living into their repertoire.

A DUTCH WELCOME!

Our second guest was Summer Souleyman, the co-founder of the Amsterdam Expat Meetup group and the international community called Laughingatpotatoes, which posts information about the Netherlands and Dutch culture varying from funny observations to useful facts. The target audience is mainly expats, but it also welcomes the native Dutch as well as tourists/travelers.

Summer shared with us the story of Amsterdam Expat Meetup group, which he initiated in 2011. What began as a small meeting in a bar and has grown out to be a community with over 26 000 members on meetup.com that now also offers various other activities in addition to meetups in bars. Differently to perhaps most similar groups, the Amsterdam Expat Meetup group also tries to attract locals to mingle with expats and tourists, which is why the group name was changed to include “Dutch welcome”. However, Summer told us that the turnout of Dutch people - especially people from Amsterdam - has unfortunately remained quite small.

OPENING THE FLOOR FOR DISCUSSION

This notion paved us the way to the final, more interactive part of our evening – the fishbowl, where we wanted the guests to participate in the discussion and share their own experiences on the topic. After a somewhat stiff start and a suggestion from a participant, we all decided to sit in a large circle to make the discussion flow better.

OVERCOMING THE BARRIERS

We began by discussing some of the main barriers for expats and locals connecting with each other. One of the topics that were raised several times was the role of language – despite the Dutchies having excellent English skills, it was clear that the inability to speak the local language can cause a major barrier for forming (deeper) connections with the locals.

Furthermore, a local participant raised that some Amsterdammers, especially from the older generation, sometimes have a strong identity and pride in their city or neighbourhood and culture (including language), which can form a barrier to making connections with the newcomers.

WHAT MAKES A LOCAL AMSTERDAMMER?

We also discussed what makes one a local (Amsterdammer), and whether an ‘expat’ can fully integrate into this city - or any other given city, for that matter. Within these topics, it was raised that personal history – such as a local having experienced being an expat before – can have a significant effect on how connected people feel with the city and the community, as well as on how they interact with newcomers/foreigners. Some of us thought we should get rid of the words “local” and “expat” altogether and look beyond these categories, as it is not all that black and white. As for the integrating part, some participants thought that it depends largely on your own attitude and efforts to get to know the local culture and people.

As a conclusion, while there may always be difficulties in integrating into a new country and culture, everybody has an active role in making things easier for oneself and finding the opportunities. It is important to maintain an open mind and not give up – even when you miss the invitations to dinner parties by your Dutch colleagues or classmates. #acitymadebypeople

Words by Elina Pirhonen