Why Did You Choose Antwerp?

My sister Sara lived here for six months during her studies for her internship. And when I came to visit, the idea of living here kept running through my mind. I lived and worked in Den Bosch and you don’t just give up your job, but I did want to move to a different place. I was lying in bed in the evening searching for apartments in Antwerp and there was actually quite a lot of choice. I told my sister and she said: “If you go, then I’ll go too!” and that’s how the ball started rolling. We visited various Belgian real estate websites and sent them messages. We also searched on Facebook for housing by typing “apartments in Antwerp.” And in 2 days we visited 5 apartments through real estate agents and 1 through Facebook. And that last one is the one we ended up with.

Did You Have to Arrange a Lot of Things after You Found a Place to Live?

You’re no longer a student so you’re really emigrating and I hadn’t fully thought about everything you need to arrange. For example, you have to cancel your health insurance because you no longer live in the Netherlands and then you have to apply for health insurance in Belgium. But if you want to apply for that, you have to be a citizen of Belgium and that took four months! Eventually it turned out that you were insured retroactively from the moment you applied for it. Fortunately, you could register online with the municipality very easily. Since I didn’t have a job yet, I had to prove through job application letters and registration as a job seeker that I was looking for a job. That process of registration and obtaining your National Registry number (Belgian BSN) takes 4 months. During those months you get a temporary number so you can start working if you’ve found a job. I recently received my permanent National Registry number and next month I can pick up my ID card at the town hall.

How Did the Job Search in Antwerp Go?

I really wanted to work in a clothing store and when you apply for jobs, you do it by handing in your CV. In the Netherlands that doesn’t happen anymore, printing out your CV, but here in Belgium it does. I looked a lot on Google and social media for companies but that’s not my way of job searching. So I started walking around the city and wrote down all the nice shops. At home I checked their websites to see if they had vacancies. That’s how I came across the store We Are Labels and I really felt at home in that store, lots of people my age and a beautiful building. You don’t experience something like that when you visit a website. It’s a big city and there’s plenty of work but it’s not necessarily advantageous that you’re Dutch. They’re not used to you being direct or honest. In Belgium you manage your staff with kid gloves, very nice and gentle and with compliments. In the Netherlands you just point out what’s not going well. Fortunately, I found a job as assistant store manager at We Are Labels where they appreciate the Dutch way of working, so hard work, honesty, energy and clarity. The application process took a while though, first I had an interview, then I had a trial day and shadowed someone in the store for a few hours and then a phone interview. My sister I think had more interviews and a test before she was hired.

What Do You Think is the Biggest Difference with Living and Working in Belgium?

People here really take the time to make use of their lunch break. In the Netherlands you sit at your desk eating a sandwich and here in Antwerp you really go outside to get a sandwich or take a walk. Everything feels more relaxed than in the Netherlands. Everyone is less rushed and has more patience. Even when there’s only 1 checkout open in the supermarket, nobody complains at all.

What Advice Would You Give to Young People who Want to Emigrate?

The way I did it seems most logical to me: first a house and then look for work. I had saved a lot so I could first settle into my new environment. There was also no pressure behind finding a job because I knew I could afford it for 3 months. It’s nice if you know the culture a bit and then look for a job, then you’re less likely to be surprised. Because you approach it step by step, it’s just like moving to another city in the Netherlands. People around you make it more exciting than it actually is and that makes it seem scary. You have to have confidence that everything will work out. The worst thing that can happen to you is that you just go back home!