Mauricio Lange is a researcher who moved from Argentina to the Netherlands with his family for a job. As a EURAXESS Career Ambassador, he shares his experiences about coming to the Netherlands and living here. In this blog, he shares the lessons he learned when building a life here.
When I accepted a job offer in the Netherlands, I knew almost nothing about the country. In fact, at that point I was still calling it “Holland”, like many foreigners do before they arrive. I was moving for work, with professional motivation and curiosity, but without any real understanding of what daily life here would feel like.
In the months before travelling, I tried to prepare. I read about the country (I got a copy of The Low Sky: Understanding the Dutch. I really recommend it. For sure you will reflect on the title once you live here and experience dutch weather. I tried to learn Dutch (and “try” is a very apt term when you are trying for the first time to say “negen”!). I tried to understand how things worked. But that stage taught me an important lesson: preparing from abroad is useful, yet it has clear limits. Many things are difficult to understand until you are physically here.
A simple example is online shopping. Once you live in the Netherlands, using Bol.com feels obvious. It is one of those reference points that quickly becomes part of daily life. Before arriving, though, how would you know that? How would you know which supermarket matters, which payment method is standard, how healthcare registration works, or what “normal” looks like in the rhythm of Dutch life? The unknowns are often not dramatic. They are small, practical, everyday things. Yet those are exactly the things that define whether a place feels familiar or foreign.
That is why one of my strongest messages to internationals is this: expect the unexpected.
My very first impression of the Netherlands came during the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel. What struck me immediately was the neatness of everything. The roads, the buildings, the signage, the overall sense of order and flow. I noticed a quiet structure before I understood any of the systems behind it.
Later, I began to understand that this first impression reflected something deeper. The Netherlands, in my experience, is complex but easy. At first, it feels dense with rules, procedures, registrations, appointments, and formal expectations. That complexity can be intimidating. But once you understand the logic, life starts to flow. The rules are there. The system is legible. The effort is concentrated at the beginning, and later the structure supports you.
Coming from Argentina, I was used to experience the reverse. Argentina, for a foreigner, can feel easy at first, because there is more flexibility, more
improvisation, and fewer visible rules. But over time, that same apparent ease can become exhausting. Many things depend on unwritten codes, constant adaptation, and personal interpretation. In that sense, it is easy but complex.
For internationals building a career in the Netherlands, especially in demanding sectors like Life Sciences, this distinction matters. A new country brings much more than your new job environment. It brings a new way of doing things. Writing a strong CV and doing well in interviews remain important, and so does learning how to function in an environment where structure, predictability, and planning shape both work and life.
That process takes humility. It also takes patience. You prepare, you arrive, you observe, and then you slowly begin to understand what you could never have fully learned in advance. That is part of the journey. The unexpected is part of what relocation really is.
For me, one of the most valuable lessons of living in the Netherlands has been precisely this: understanding grows step by step. Openness, attention, and patience take you further than any checklist prepared before departure.
Listen to more experiences
Mauricio is part of the podcast series ‘Navigating the Netherlands as an international’. In three episodes, he and other internationals explain their journeys. They share experiences and tips for other internationals about coming to the Netherlands, finding a job, finding a house or appartment and building a home. You can listen to all three episodes op Spotify.
Navigating the Netherlands as an international | Podcast on Spotify
