The council is increasingly talking about Eindhoven’s growing pains

Only English speaking everywhere – „English, please!” – took some getting used to. That wasn’t the case in the past. He uses his best English and “that’s not good.” The other day he had to have a straw somewhere. “Yes, one straw, now I know. But that didn’t work out, did it,” says Harrie Brands (73), in the Meerhoven shopping center. That is an Eindhoven district where many knowledge migrants live, who work at high-tech companies in the region, such as chip machine maker ASML and chip producer NXP.

Brands thinks they are “lovely people”, the knowledge migrants. And yes, he may have to wait longer for an appointment with the doctor, but these new Eindhoven residents need care just as much. He sometimes hears complaints at his billiards club. “But that’s just being cool with each other, old men among themselves, like: everything was better in the past.”

The Vinexwijk Meerhoven shopping center, which is about ten years old, looks as if it has just come out of the packaging: a large, clean square with little street furniture and sleek high-rise buildings in spotless brown surrounding it. There is a real estate agency on one corner. Brigit van Dijk (67) looks at photos of houses hung behind the window. SOLD is written in large letters over about half of the photos.

She lives in one of the apartments on the square. She says there are a lot of moves in her complex, and they are always internationals. Homes are often sold above the asking price. She has little contact with the internationals. “Everyone lives in isolation,” says Van Dijk. She is proud of Eindhoven and the successful ASML. “I think it is worth something that Eindhoven is so well on the map.”

Knowledge economy

Earlier this month, the State Commission on Demographic Developments 2050 met her report about the consequences of population growth. According to the committee, it is necessary to limit migration to the Netherlands. Without intervention, the population could grow to 22.8 million inhabitants in 2050. Then there will be “scarcity, nuisance and annoyance” in the EU’s second most populous country, and social inequality will grow.

The committee does not discourage knowledge migration. In fact, she writes that the Netherlands should opt for a high-quality knowledge economy and should therefore focus on knowledge migrants instead of labor migrants.

Many knowledge migrants live in Eindhoven who work in the high-tech industry of Southeast Brabant, the great economic success in the region. Many come from India. Last year, the Eindhoven population grew from more than 238,000 people to almost 244,000, according to Numbers from CBS. That growth was almost entirely due to immigration. By 2030, ASML alone expects to grow by another 70,000 jobs (including jobs at suppliers).

resident of MeerhovenBrigit van Dijk Everyone lives in isolation

The arrival of many knowledge migrants can be accompanied by growing pains, as can be seen in Eindhoven. In South-East Brabant, house prices rose by last quarter 7.4 percent compared to a year earlier, while that applies to the whole of the Netherlands 5.3 percent was, according to figures from the Dutch Association for Real Estate Agents (NVM). More than 60,000 homes must be built in the Brainport region by 2040. Brainport is the partnership of companies, knowledge institutions and governments in Southeast Brabant.

The pressure on facilities is also increasing. General practitioners and school umbrella organizations in the Eindhoven region expressed their concerns about this to Omroep Brabant last year. Public transport is very busy. And then there is the problem that knowledge migrants and original Eindhoven residents often live in different worlds, as can be seen in the Woenselse Watermolen, an Eindhoven neighborhood where NRC made a report last year. They wave to each other and then disappear back into their homes.

Also read
this report about the Indians in the Woensel district of Eindhoven

‘Brainport Balance Check’

The city council is increasingly talking about Eindhoven’s growing pains, and local administrators are also paying more attention to that problem. Last autumn, after one year as mayor of Eindhoven, Jeroen Dijsselbloem (PvdA) said in several interviews that he wants ‘ordinary’ Eindhoven residents to also benefit from the economic success of the region.

Just before the summer recess, the left-wing parties and the elderly parties in the municipal council came up with a motion calling on the board to make a ‘Brainport Balance Check’. Among other things, they wanted the council to look at how residents can be more involved in determining the city’s course, whether the council has buttons available to press the “accelerator and brake pedal” of the scale jump, and whether and how the council can make choices about the distribution of, for example, space and the electricity grid.

“Last year was the first time that ‘Economics’ was no longer the first chapter of the budget,” says Jannie Visscher, councilor for the SP, who, together with GroenLinks, most often addresses the city’s growing pains in the council. “One of the first sentences of the economics chapter was very beautiful: ‘Growth is not an end in itself’. But if you read on, it was about everything at the same time: broad prosperity, everyone must participate, but the business climate must also remain ideal and the economy must also flourish. Practice shows that not everything can be done at the same time.”

mayor of EindhovenJeroen Dijsselbloem I want the business community to cooperate on all fronts

That also seems to be the dilemma in which Mayor Dijsselbloem, who is also chairman of Brainport, finds himself. Although he has more of an eye for the broad prosperity of the city than his predecessor John Jorritsma (VVD), he also often stands up for large companies. This is how he expressed himself NRC most recently concerns about statements by politicians such as Pieter Omtzigt (NSC), who wants to scrap the tax benefit for knowledge migrants.

And last November, Dijsselbloem clashed with the municipal council. Almost all factions were critical of his initial initiative for the Brainport Balance Check and his City Vision (‘How do we see Eindhoven in the future?’). The council thought they were too abstract and visionless. A few council members were also critical of the growth of the companies in itself. Should we still want that rapid growth if we cannot handle it?

Mayor Dijsselbloem responded strongly: “Let us never talk ugly in the council chamber about the role of our business community.” He said he has a “very large neon sign from Philips” in his office because “we have history and tradition.” He acknowledged that the proposals submitted could have been better. Ultimately, both were adopted, but with an amendment that called for certain matters to be specified.

International competition

When asked why slower growth of high-tech companies is not actually an option, Dijsselbloem says on the telephone that these companies must continue to grow so that the Netherlands can maintain its international competitive position in this sector. And this requires knowledge migrants with “very specific knowledge”. And can’t ASML continue to grow elsewhere in the Netherlands? “ASML assembles machines in very small numbers. It is not a standard production process. The science surrounding it must be present on site.”

“But we also have problems in Eindhoven,” Dijsselbloem acknowledges. “And I want the business community to cooperate on all fronts.” The plan is to build 40,000 more homes in Eindhoven before 2040. So far this has not gone so smoothly. For example, real estate developers want to build fewer ‘cheap’ homes than the municipality has in mind. “ASML is working with us to set up a housing fund to accelerate the housing construction task. We have already started with eight projects that are stuck for various reasons. For example, ASML will then provide a guarantee scheme for the project developer.”

There is also the Brainport Accessibility Fund, for fast bus lanes and fast cycle paths. And there is Brainport Voor Elkaar. “We call on companies to help with the social task, for example by offering debt assistance to employees who need it,” says Dijsselbloem. There is still work to be done regarding the pressure on facilities. “We are now looking at what the growth means for the hospitals and general practitioners in Eindhoven.”

knowledge migrant from IndiaRohan Tare In India we simply turned everything around and started building

The question is whether all plans can keep up with the rapid growth of the city. And there is criticism of the way in which the municipality tackles housing construction, for example from the Better Eindhoven Foundation, which mainly consists of residents with expertise in the field of urban planning.

When building, the municipality mainly opts for densification of the city center. That is a bad choice, says secretary Peter Struik. “You see that all kinds of high-rise plans are being realized, without looking at the impact on the quality of life and the environment. There are neighborhoods that are in need of major maintenance. If you densify it, it will be better for social cohesion and it will also make it easier for people to move to different types of housing. Moreover, you spread the pressure on facilities throughout the city.”

Philips and ASML

There are also Eindhoven residents who are critical of the growth of the city itself, but they have not united in a club. For example, MBO teacher Bob Leenhouwers (53) recently wrote one blog post on the discussion platform Digitale Stad Eindhoven, in which he is critical of the analogy that local administrators often draw between Philips and ASML. Philips, unlike ASML, built houses itself for the employees that the company then brought from the north of the country, writes Leenhouwers. “I worry about the future of my three teenagers and their peers in my classes,” he says on the phone. “I was able to buy a nice house in the city, but it will be very difficult for them to do that.”

In the Meerhoven shopping center, Rohan Tare (38) says that he has heard about the problems Eindhoven is facing due to the rapid growth of the city. Tare is a knowledge migrant from India, he does not want the company he works for in the newspaper. “I hear about it at the coffee machine, but people don’t talk to me about it. And I understand the concerns. I myself come from Mumbai, where many migrants also come. As a result, the pressure on the facilities is high and it is always very busy in the city.”

But, says Tare, if the Netherlands wants to maintain its strong economy, it will have to continue to welcome knowledge migrants. He does not have a ready-made solution for the growing pains. “It strikes me that it is difficult to build in the Netherlands, because you want to take everything into account, such as nature and animals. In India we simply turned everything around and started building.”

Tare feels welcome in Eindhoven. He previously lived in Amsterdam and Utrecht. “But the people in Brabant are warmer.” He also easily connects with the Dutchies. Then he tries to speak Dutch. “I can always try. With Denglish [een mix tussen Nederlands en Engels] it’s easy for me to mingle.”

Harrie Brands also accidentally speaks Denglish when he says again that he is not bothered by the expats. „No problems hear! Oh yes, haha, now that you mention it, that’s English too, yes!”

To share





Email the editor