Weird, was just talking about this few days ago!

I met a really lovely intelligent educated Romanian man selling Straat newspaper outside AH this week and he had to get a permit.

His rent is 400 a month and he makes on average about 20 euros a day selling papers! He says it's far better than what his life in Romania was.

I know another young Romanian man who sleeps on the streets all over Holland as he cannot get a place in homeless units as they tell him to get rid of his dog if he wants to come in but he has no place to safely leave his dog ,, which in his case is his best friend.

By Gerard | March 19, 2010 9:15 AM

to be fair, most of the existing EU member states placed restrictions when Romania and Bulgaria entered the union back in 2007.

I believe only the UK, Ireland and Sweden didn't place any restrictions.

By John | March 19, 2010 2:22 PM

John these restriction have been lifted beginning of 2009 in most of the countries

By kos | March 19, 2010 3:20 PM

I am a Romanian living in the Netherlands, working as a translator for Romanian companies, paying taxes in Romania, and I would very much welcome this decision. You have no idea how unfair this is: I am supposed to pay health insurance, but I am not allowed to work in this country. Even if I am a EU citizen, I feel like I am a second-class citizen in the Netherlands.

By stingo | March 20, 2010 1:35 PM

We have to legally pay Netherlands Health Insurance to live in Netherlands.

It doesn't matter to the Dutch Government if you are not allowed to work here to have an income to pay this insurance that you are forced to pay or you become a Criminal for not being able to pay.

Once you become a Criminal in Netherlands you are then entitled to absolutely nothing, unlike the real criminals!

In 2007- 2008 I had Dutch Nationals saying to me that Holland wanted to be part of the Global Market and International Community

...

Made feel like a 2nd class citizens - it's lower than that!

I've had many Dutch shout, "We don't like F@(&!^% Foreigners in our F@(&!^% country, please F@(& Off back to your own country!!!",
...
even Doctors in Leiden, who know that it is a Death Sentence for me to go without a prescription and license to cross international borders, have said it to me - but without the F@(&s.

By Gerard | March 21, 2010 5:23 PM

I am a romanian girl. 24 years old. Close to finishing my international study here (HBO).

It was never a secret the fact that my(our) presence as foreigners is accepted, needed for basic labor but never desired.

I give a point to the article which states an obvious truth and a bit more. That when the EU needs our markets for their products we are good but we should stick in our own land and unfortunately that for good reasons...

We are not bad people but our attitude and mentality makes us who we are to be seen.

Every month i get a bill i struggle to pay and when i can't even though i am a regular student i share the same faith of having to go through a pretty nasty process which only adds size to the debt like any other person who can't afford to pay them. On a debt side i am sure i will never be discriminated.

I gave up the will to learn dutch because i did realize that no matter how much i will try i will still be a foreigner and i am quite ok with that.

I am given the possibility to study here at almost impossible conditions but the simple stupid fact that i do have an option takes any possibility to actually nag about those conditions which require me 10.000 euro to prove i can take care of myself for a year in order to get a student residence permit and in order to get that all desired study financing i must work 10 hours a week but in order to work those then hours i still, apparently, need that work permit which because i am a student limits me to 10h a week.

Now which manager, who must go through the typical "first a dutch person, than any other EU member, proof of "x"weeks advertised add" procedure would be so dumb to hire a romanian under such conditions?

I wish I would have chosen a different country for my illusion of freedom feeling because at least i would have no expected it as much as i expected it from NL....

NL should check with its marketing department their sales strategy

By Cris | April 5, 2010 11:45 PM

@John - UK and Ireland do have work permit requirements for Romanians, the UK system is however much less complicated while the Irish one mirrors the Dutch system. As of now, France still has work permit requirements as well.

By Andrei | April 7, 2010 3:15 PM

thank you very much europe. im white im from europe romania and i see all kind off people from asia , africa south america working here and having a nice life and we romanians we are rejected like dogs.

By aramis | April 11, 2010 12:35 AM

I FIND ARAMIS's email very racist. being European is not about colour. So if Eastern Europeans believe that being white entitles you for a better treatment, perhaps you should not have been pertmitted in Europe in the first place !!!!!!

By Bahadir | May 17, 2010 5:11 PM

I am a 25 year old bulgarian woman living at the moment in the Netherlands. I have finished my studies in the US and even though there they have so many rules about foreigners working, it still is very possible if you follow them, especially if you are very skilled in what you are doing and have lots of enthusism as well. Now here I see a different story - there are rules for obtaining a work permit, but only so somebody gets as frustrated so he/she gives up!!! Plus, all the paper work that the employer has to do, just makes it even less possible that they will decide to do so!
I believe in equal rights and also in fair treatment! When Bulgaria joined the EU market and was flooded with the goods from the huge companies, they did not just put taxes back there as a protectionist thing, did they? On top of that smaller companies went under, because they simply could not keep up with the established giants that came on our market and started to sell their products without having to go through any paper work, without anyone saying lets first sell all we produce in Bulgaria and then we import! Now the workers for those companies that went under are unemployed and are not allowed to find a job outside of Bulgaria??? How unfair!
Still I don't think its anything to do with the citizens, it's more to do with the government being forced to fix such mistake!

By Annie | June 28, 2010 6:58 PM

I am a 30 years old woman married with a dutch citizen since february 2010 and I am forced to stay home because my residence application was rejected for the reason that my husband's contract was only 10 months available from the application date. I am living every single moment with the fear that maybe one day my husband's income will not be enough to sustain our family and I cannot do anything about it. I left a good job in Romania with the hope that I could continue my life normally with my husband in this country. And guess what? I was wrong.

By Valentina | October 4, 2010 8:45 AM

I am in Nl for 3 years i come from Romania,i am merried with a dutch woman and now we expect a baby,i cant have a working permit because my wife doesent have a at least 1 year contract for working.I WANT TO ASK DUTCH GOUVERMENT:how i am gonna support my family,my future child if you dnt give me the right to work.Maybe is a good ideea to start do illegal stuff???Because i want to work and dutch gouverment dsnt allow me so........maybe i will start still and do illegal staff....

By Gabriel | October 27, 2010 2:34 PM

This is a severe violation of human rights, and European agreements, wich is not gone be tolerated, by UN. What is the corruption in other European countries got to do with farmers in Netherlands? The truth is that no farmer will hire a Polish or Hungarian, if he is not forced to. Why? because they ask for too much money and don’t do a good job. And also the true is that most of people in Netherlands don’t like to do this type of labor and prefer stay home and get the benefits, unless they are paid very well, witch farmers can’t afford, yet. European economy and that include Netherlands…is under severe recession….and those type of measurements, will certainly paralyze, the agriculture in Netherlands’s. I keep wondering…who can afford that, and who is gone take the blame for? What is more important for a country, to bring money in, or to vote nationalist socialist measurements? Is a war against Netherlands farmers, or against workers?
…..socialism, nationalism…..those words…are too familiar for all east European countries……in the past….we know the story well..Arian pure race…..others….must die…or maybe the past was forgotten, and the history will repeat

By Monica Schwarz | July 1, 2011 10:15 PM