They might be seen as driving up rents and overbidding locals – but many international residents of Amsterdam live in precarious housing. That was one of the subjects at a “your city, your voice” election event hosted by Volt on Tuesday night.

The evening – the first of a number to target internationals who may be able to vote in local elections – gave information about local politics and asked foreign residents for their ideas.

A number of the questions and concerns were around housing, with a shortage of some 40,000 apartments in the city. “What about renting without registration?” asked one man. “I see it on certain Whatsapp groups, but it becomes quite exploitative. Is this on the municipal radar?”

“It’s not allowed – it’s illegal,” said councillor and head of the local Volt party Juliet Broersen. “But it comes back to the question: there’s a housing crisis and people need rooms. It is very frustrating. When I look at my neighbour, they have an apartment with five empty bedrooms but they are only allowed to rent out two: the city makes it very hard to have multiple households.”

The meeting heard stories about locks to doors being changed after a man had achieved a rent reduction at a tribunal, people paying too much but feeling unable to complain for fear of losing their house, and sometimes being unable to vote at all because they were not registered as a city resident where they lived.

Making sharing homes easier is one of the initiatives that Volt recently put forward jointly, to help young people and students – a voter group that this liberal, pro-European party tries to represent. Improving safety on old single-glazed windows is another, promoting dialogue sessions between Palestinian and Israeli groups, and giving psychological help to vulnerable refugees in their own language.

The party currently has two seats in the 45-seat council and a local membership of 3,000 people and – because the council leadership is left/liberal – said it manages to pass the vast majority of its motions.

At the start of the last campaign, says retiring councillor Itay Garmy, an interview with local television station AT5 focused on the party’s friendliness to the international community – headlining an article with his quote that “expats enrich the city.”

It has a foreign-born candidate, Verena Kitowski, from Germany, who has lived in Amsterdam for six years. “Volt recognises not only the internationals but all migrants – Amsterdam is a city built on people who moved here at some point in time, and Volt really embraces that,” she said.

The party supports making language courses cheaper and easier, as well as more awareness on the part of Dutch people that it is is difficult to achieve fluency if people refuse to speak Dutch to foreigners.

“The moment you start talking, people switch to English,” she said. “It’s about awareness in people fluent in Dutch that they can help their fellow Amsterdammers.”

Get involved

The main message was to get involved. “Every city council meeting is open, there’s a livestream, and you have the right to speak,” said Garmy. “[Many] internationals are not showing up to vote – spread the word!”

A number of meetings and other events are being organised to spread the word among the Netherlands’ international population as political parties wake up to the expat vote.

Amsterdam
In Amsterdam, five parties of the biggest city parties will hold an English language debate on March 9, sponsored by Dutch News and IamExpat.

The PvdA in Amsterdam is holding a political cafe for international and Dutch residents on March 21 and everyone is welcome to come along and have their say.

The Hague
In The Hague, no less than three events are being planned:  The Hague Municipal Election Debate will take place on February 24, a second event is being held on March 10 at The Hague Tech while the Student & Stand Debate is on March 5.

Expaterience, the English-language talk show produced by and for the
international community in The Hague, is hosting an elections
special on February 27 featuring a debate in English between candidates from the
four biggest parties on the current council:  Hart voor Den Haag, D66, GroenLinks-PvdA and the VVD.

Eindhoven
University students have organised their own information guide for students and staff because “many of them had no idea they could vote”  Radio Brainport has a series of interviews with candidates looking at the big issues in the region.

Groningen
Groningen will host a debate featuring nine political parties on February 24.

Maastricht
Maastricht University is hosting two events aimed at encouraging internationals to vote, an information evening on March 3 and a debate featuring three of the biggest parties on March 10. Radium Bolders is also hosting a political cafe on March 4.

If you are aware of other events or are organising one yourself, please send details to editor@dutchnews.nl so we can include them in our round-ups.