I’m not a tourist!

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

Though you’ve already been able to spend almost a day here, I still want to welcome you on behalf of the City of Amsterdam. Not merely welcome to this event, but to some of you it may also be the first time in this city so that I can say to you: “Welcome to Amsterdam!”

The name of this event ‘I am not a tourist’ is excellently chosen. As you may know I am not a tourist either. At least not in Amsterdam, where I have the honour to be deputy mayor, mainly for arts, sports and city marketing. But in other cities I do in fact try to be somewhat of a local, and less of a tourist, because I’ve found it’s the best way to get to know the places I’m visiting. Sometimes this works. But unfortunately my efforts all go to waste when they ask me where to find the nearest bakery… Sounds familiar?

I am extremely pleased with this event and to see this large crowd here. This is the place where you meet interesting people, where you discover Amsterdam in brief and maybe and hopefully learn more about this city than you already knew so that you feel more at home than you hopefully already do. Because it is my hope that all the expats gathered here will see themselves not so much as expats but more as Amsterdammers. Hopefully I can contribute a bit to that goal by telling you about this city where I’ve been living since I left Groningen, where I went to university, and where I now live with my wife and 2-year old son by showing you how important it is to Amsterdam that you are part of it.

A bit of ancient history: in his prize winning book “Kinderen van Amsterdam”, meaning “Children of Amsterdam”, Jan Paul Schutten wrote that Amsterdam evolved through a storm, or a few great storms actually. The effect these had on land and water turned the swampy area that would later become Amsterdam into a liveable place. Though you may not always enjoy the Dutch weather, you can say we otherwise wouldn’t be here today. The first inhabitants of Amsterdam found this piece of land after losing their homes to the storms and soon turned it into a place of craftsmen and merchants; two hundred years later Amsterdam had become a small city of commerce.

Thanks to this mercantile urban life Amsterdam became an important focal point of migration. First from the surrounding agricultural communities, then, in early modern times from Germany or Scandinavia, and later of course the better-known examples of Jews and Huguenots. And through its extensive trading ties with other parts of Europe, Amsterdam became a haven for ideas and a site for intellectual debate. Publishers and artists like Spinoza and the cities bourgeoisie as patrons brought about the cultivation of arts and letters, something we can still see and enjoy today.

Evidently, the world has changed significantly since then, but centuries later Amsterdam’s cosmopolitan culture still attracts people, businesses and ideas from all over the world.

Amsterdam has never given up its leading position. Indeed, for years the economy in the Amsterdam region has always kept pace with the national and European average. To a great extent the acceleration in growth is due to the 1,750 foreign companies that have arrived in Amsterdam, bringing in their wake more than 50,000 new Amsterdammers. They not only provide new investment and employment opportunities: they also reinforce the multicultural character of the city – a city where 177 different nationalities feel welcome and at home.

In my opinion Amsterdam combines the strength of a metropolitan environment with the intimate experience of a village. A city where you can find all you need in one square mile, where you can cycle to the office, or to anything else for that matter. A city where you can truly work and live. I truly hope you will experience this if you haven’t already, and agree with me on this.

Because of the great value these international businesses, visitors and inhabitants have for Amsterdam we’ve been doing a lot to improve the city’s service to you in the past years:

– The Iamsterdam.com website was re-launched this January .The website is an ambitious co-production of the City of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Partners Foundation, Amsterdam Tourism and Convention Board (ATCB), Amsterdams Uitburo (AUB), amsterdam inbusiness, and the Expatcenter. The website is a comprehensive information source for all English-language information in Amsterdam that can be found under one “roof”.

– The City hosted the first “Expat Welcome Event” in June this year to welcome over 200 senior management level expats working in Amsterdam (35 different nationalities attended). This event will be held again next year in June.

– And last but not least, the Expatcenter opened last year and has been a very successful initiative for helping and welcoming newly-arrived expats to Amsterdam and Amstelveen. The Expatcenter’s procedures (permits etc.), website and Partnership Program offer great assistance to expats living in the Amsterdam Area, including the Haarlemmermeer and Almere. If you want to learn more about the services of the Expat Center drop by at stand 55 where The Expatcenter is on hand to help you to get answers to all your questions.

Finally, I like to refer to one of the much-respected expats here in Amsterdam, Paul Lavoie, cofounder of the advertising agency TAXI. When he was considering Amsterdam as the European base of TAXI, he noticed the city logo with its three X-‘s. Though they are not seldom mistaken for three kisses, which isn’t too bad, he learned that they represented the city’s traditional core values: courage, tenacity and generosity, or in Dutch: heldhaftigheid, vastberadenheid en barmhartigheid.

These are the values we strive for as a city, but which we also see in you. The courage to leave behind your own countries and cities for an unknown one; the tenacity to make this new city your own, despite the problems you might have with finding houses or schools, understanding the language, riding a bike or eating haring and kroketten. And the generosity you have in giving back a bit of your culture to Amsterdam and its inhabitants by representing one of the many nationalities that makes our city strong, interesting and open.

And this truly makes you into Amsterdammers.

The annual ‘I Am Not A Tourist’ fair is organised by Expatica.nl.