I’m a Spanish person living in the Netherlands for already almost 9 years. In one hand at some point in these last years, I started to feel like I don’t belong in Spain anymore, and on the other hand the, I think I’ll never feel fully integrated in NL. Any thoughts? Advice? Someone feeling the same?


I’m dutch and I’ve lived abroad (EU) for most of the last 8 years. I’m now trying to settle down permanently in France. It’s been only 1.5 years but I think I will always be a “dutch person in France”, just because of my accent, name and the fact that some habits here are just not going to become mine comfortably. However, in NL I feel like an outsider sometimes and I started getting comments about my dutch sounding foreign. Being with my family is nice, but with foreign experience, you just see habits and customs in a different way.
That said, it doesn’t really bother me too much. I made the choice myself to emigrate knowing the consequences and being the goofy outsider fits me.