The housing shortage in cities such as Groningen is a hurdle both locals and expats have to face. Unfortunately, the latter group often comes across adverts for shared rooms that feature lines such as “No internationals” or “Dutch only”. Aside from making it harder for foreigners to navigate the accommodation market, such phrases can make someone feel unwelcome.
The anti-discrimination agency Discriminatie.nl recently warned students in Tilburg to stop ‘Dutch-only’ ads for roommates. While housemates looking for someone to join them can legally post such advertisements, landlords can’t as this breaks anti-discrimination laws. Despite this, the agency still wants to discourage this behaviour among students.
The Northern Times asked the local Discrimination agency for Groningen whether it also received reports about such ads.
The Discrimination Reporting Point Groningen told The Northern TIms that this year they haven’t received a lot of complaints about anti-international housing ads. They said it is likely that students might not be aware that they can complain about this. Another theory they have is that students would rather invest their time in finding housing rather than sending a complaint.
At the moment the agency doesn’t actively search for such advertisements itself. “
At the moment we’re very busy, but if people complain we do research to see if there’s discrimination by law,” a spokesperson for the agency said.
International student Jenna, who came to Groningen 3 years ago, told The Northern Times she encountered many ads like this when she started looking for a place for her second year of studies. In her first year, she already had to live in emergency housing.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy finding a place in a different country but seeing those words made me feel really isolated and unwelcome,” she said.
