Going Dutch To Help Refugees Integrate

Britain is to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next four years, to help with the crisis in the Middle East. But how will refugees fair in a new country and how will they fit in to a different culture? One Dutch social landlord thinks he has an answer.

Thom Aussems, head of the Trudo housing corporation, based in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, is offering to cut the rent of current tenants if they help refugees to integrate. He says residents will receive a €100 (£80) discount if they agree to spend 10 hours a week helping new migrants navigate Dutch bureaucracy and guiding them through their host country’s rules and customs.

“We expect them to do two things,” he said. “First, they should help them settle into their new home, get to know their neighbours, and learn things like when to take the bins out. Secondly, they can act as a kind of liaison officer when they’re dealing with institutions in areas like learning the language, education, work and social security, so they can highlight any problems quickly.”

Trudo operates in some of the most deprived districts of Eindhoven. Aussems says the average monthly rent is around €435, so a €100 discount is a fair-sized carrot for tenants on low incomes. The housing corporation is funding the €250,000 scheme from its own resources, as part of a five-year €430m investment programme.

The idea came from a 2007 project in which young tenants were given a similar discount in return for helping local schoolchildren with their homework. “We wanted to prevent another lost generation,” said Aussems. “Within four years we had helped 350 children. It was a fantastic result. So then we went looking other areas where we could adopt the same strategy. We identified seven or eight, one of which was helping refugees settle.”

The refugee issue has caused social unrest in parts of the Netherlands, but Aussems said his incentive was designed to defuse tensions between local residents and refugees before they reached crisis point. “Tensions occur when people don’t know each other, can’t understand each other or can’t communicate,” he said. “If you give people the opportunity to connect with each other and work together, it’s a lot more effective and efficient than doing it via the bureaucratic route.”