Welcome Abroad

The challenge

We are both international students that had a lot of difficulties arriving in the Netherlands. We found that many internationals often struggle to feel at home and integrate. Many of the problems they face should not be big issues anymore nowadays if they were addressed properly and if support was offered. Examples of some of these issues include application at the municipality, safety at night, free parking spots, health insurance, GP selection, etc. We aim to help solve these problems by creating a program and welcome package that focuses on arrival, settling in, and lastly the integration process.

The solution

We want to develop programs that help internationals integrate into their new cities and give them a good start to their life in the Netherlands. Not only do we want to cooperate with local organizations and companies, but also do we want to create a networking function to connect new arrivals with people both from their home culture and their new one. To best tackle this problem we split our program into three sections: arrive, settle and integrate. For the arrival stage, our focus is on the basic level bureaucratic steps that every new arrival has to complete within the first few days. For example, find a GP, apply for the ov chipkaard and apply for reduced parking fees. The settle stage then focuses on helping the international get to know their country and city in order to start feeling a connection with the place and the people. For example, we want to share free parking spots, Dutch culture and where it's safe to walk at night. Lastly, the integration stage aims to help the person plan for the long term and aims to create the "home" feeling through networking and events.