Expats in Nijmegen

Currently, over a thousand expatriates live and work in Nijmegen. Expatriates -for short: 'expats'- are foreign employees who moved to our country to work for a (Dutch or foreign) company located here, on a temporary basis, varying from a few months to many years. Most of them are highly educated. In our city, most of the expatriates work at the Radboud University, the University Medical Centre UMC St Radboud and at NXP. Expats in Nijmegen originate from countries all over the world. Most are European, although an increasing number comes from countries further away, like the USA, China or India.

At this moment, more than 1000 expats live in Nijmegen. The number of expats is still increasing. Our main companies, hospitals and the Radboud University Nijmegen have an growing amount of international staff. Nijmegen works hard to become (and remain) an attractive city to live and work in, for all of its citizens. The city is currently developing its services and living and working conditions, in order to help foreign companies and expatriates choose Nijmegen above other Dutch cities to settle. Therefore, in 2007 Nijmegen developed its special 'expat-policy’. Read all about the countries of origin of our expats, and the companies they work for.

Questions?
Nijmegen offers support for expats to settle in Nijmegen. On these webpages in English you will find all basic information on living, working and business in our city. If expatriates have any questions about their stay in Nijmegen, they are welcome to e-mail us at expat@nijmegen.nl. As from March 1st, the municipality will open the new Expatdesk as a service to our expats in the 'Stadswinkel'. Our employees will gladly help you with any questions.

If you are not an expat, but do have questions about the city, please contact the municipal information centre Open Huis: openhuis@nijmegen.nl or call tel. 14 024 (from abroad +31-24-3299000).

Solving issues
Other Dutch 'expat-cities' have informed us about issues their expats were confronted with planning or during their stay in the Netherlands. Most of these issues were used as a basis for this website. The Municipality of Nijmegen will keep working on other expat-issues, such as finding appropriate and pleasant living accommodation. We are in deliberation with housing associations and other concerned parties to prevent this problems in our city. Another issue is the absence of an official international school for expat-children. Nijmegen is exploring possibilities to open an international primary school in our city (right now, children attend the international school in Arnhem, nearby Nijmegen).

Meeting Point
To show our hospitality, we arrange special activities in our city for expats, in cooperation with companies. Expats in Nijmegen can meet up 4 times a year at the so called Meeting Point events. On those meetings, the social aspect is combined with learning something about the city you are living in. Examples of activities: visits to museums, large companies or important places in our city. Usually, more than 100 expats visit a Meeting Point event.