What’s it like to immigrate to the NL? American opens up. 

Welcome🎉 Freedom of religion means also Freedom from religion.

Great to hear you talk so enthusiastic about the Netherlands and the Dutch. I wish you good luck here!

Article 1 of the Dutch constitution: All persons in the Netherlands are treated equally in equal cases. Discrimination on grounds of religion, belief, political opinion, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation or on any other basis is not permitted.

not rooms but chambers. And the members of both chambers are elected, not appointed (but the first chamber is elected not directly by the people but by (elected) provincial representatives.)

As for working your way through the immigration process and assimilating use the buddy system. Avoid the stress, For those who prefer to be freelancer, there are several excellent payroll companies. For a small fee they save you all the hassle of administration. Go Dutch and make sure you have proper work/life-balance. Evaluate if the last earned Euro was really worth the time and effort. Cutting the work week short by one hour and having a cool glass on a terrace in the sun is priceless.

Welcome to Europe. Good luck.

Welcome. Great to have you here. Wishing you and your partner the very best.

The powers that the Monarch has have been curtailed since the establishment of the Kingdom in 1813. This came about because the first Monarch of The Netherlands (William I) abused his powers in such a way that Belgium split of and formed its own country in 1830. So in 1848 the constitution was changed and a lot of the powers of the Monarch were stripped away and passed over to the elected representatives in the parliament. After that, every so often the remaining powers of the Monarch were steadily reduced through constitutional reform. So while the Monarch is technically the head of state, his representatives in the Prime Minister and the other Ministers are the actual people running the country. And they are responsible to the representatives in the Second Chamber of Parliament, who have the power to write new laws and introduce them for voting on. If the law passes the votes in the Second chamber, it will pass to the First Chamber who can either pass the law up for signature by the King (which he is obliged to do) or fail the law, in which case the Second chamber needs to rewrite it and try again. The 150 members of the Second chamber are elected directly by the voters, while the 75 members of the First chamber are elected by the Provincial parliament (who's members are directly elected by the voters).

It is not on personal rights but on the judicial system. The judicial system is completely independent from our political system. Judges are not appointed by politicians or the government but by their peers and on their merits. It is called trias politicas. Separation of powers, church state end judicial.

In the Netherlands your rights can never infringe on the rights of somebody else. You may be a super religious person, but you can't harass people to be just as religious. When your religion dictates that you can't eat out on a Saturday, that doesn't mean that all restaurants have to close on that night because it's your belief. A lot of religious people are quite angry about that.

Great to have you! Welcome!

When I watch the horror show that is the USA, I just cannot fathom why it's called a "developed" country. The USA is: * one of only three countries that don't use metric (the other two are Myanmar and Libya) * the only country to have pulled out of the Paris accord * the country that spends more on their military than the next 6 countries _combined_ * the only developed country in the world that does not have mandatory maternity leave * the developed country with the highest rate of obesity * most covid deaths of any country * number 45 in the World Press Freedom Index * 15th in the Quality of Life index * the country with the highest level of debt - more than _double_ the second highest country (Japan) * 25% of all incarcerated prisoners live in the USA * school exams are run by for-profit organisations * the only developed country in the world still exclusively using archaic imperial measurements And, of course, they had President Plump, and will probably have him again. What a nightmare. Last Week Tonight really highlights how many issues the USA is. It's a backward country TBH.

I think I understand your man, you don't have to overthink medical insurance. It is easy if you're healthy; get the cheapest and you're done. Maybe a bit extra for the dentist insurance.

The Netherlands started of as a republic and became a monarchy later. Nowadays the King and/or Queen are just ceremonial without any political and/or judicial power. An American who calls herself an immigrant, which is what you are, rather than the expat nonsense deserves my respect 👏🏻, you're welcome. The human and political rights are protected even from the government by the European Convention of Human Rights enforced by the European Court of Human Rights en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_Rights Euthanasia is a lot more limited and/or complicated, it's certainly not a matter of an appointment with your gp. It is only a possibility in the very last stage of someone life to prevent unnecessary suffering and even than multiple specialist must have stated so in writing not only about the physical but also mental status of the patient and no gp can be forced to assist.

Welcome to the Netherlands, Alison. In general it's okay to live here. There is good and bad everywhere. The average person doesn't have to fear gun violence, for example. So enjoy your stay. The biggest challenge is the weather. Always be prepared for anything from the sky 👍

If you're sixty or 70 you're expected to use email. Some 80-year olds might struggle. I'm 67 and I built my own first computer in 1977. Spent years programming.

This is technically how it's supposed to work in the US as well. But it's never gotten quite as "perfect" as in the NL, and recently fascism is taking over and more and more and our rights are unfortunately peeled back one after another. Sad state of affairs, really. Just like in NL, in the US your rights end where they infringe upon the rights of others. Until you have party operatives planted in the highest court who don't really give a ... about our constitution.

Happy birthday 💐🌺🌼🌸🌻🎆💖

wait, you work as ZZP and don't have a tax advisor? Please please get a belastingadviseur

I lived in NL for 2 years. It wasn't a good fit for me. The overbearing and incessant bureaucracy and the fact that every single decision ever had to be made by committee just made life far more difficult than it needs to be. A good example is that for my immigration the govt demanded I prove that I wasn't married. Just let the absolute stupidity of such a demand sink in for a moment and you'll come to understand the frustration with the utter jobsworths that seem to make up the majority of the NL workforce.

2:38 Small correction here. Covering your face with clothes is not allowed.

Plz just say girlfriend or boyfriend...partner is almost always the word gay people use 😄