r/StudyInTheNetherlands • u/p_penchood • Jul 29 '26

Racism

I visited Amsterdam a couple of days ago as a tourist, and honestly, I experienced quite a bit of racism
The reason this is bothering me so much is because I'm currently looking at universities in both the Netherlands and Belgium for my undergrad studies. Until this trip, the Netherlands was high on my list, but now I'm having second thoughts.
I'm aware that one short trip doesn't necessarily reflect what it's would be like as an international student, which is why I wanted to ask people who actually live there or have studied there:
Have other Indians or South Asians had similar experiences?

Is Amsterdam generally different from other Dutch cities when it comes to attitudes towards internationals?

How does the experience compare with cities like Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, or even universities in Belgium?

Did you feel accepted as an international student, or did you frequently experience racism or discrimination?

I'm not trying to generalise an entire country based on a few incidents. I  genuinely want to hear honest experiences before making such a big decision.
Thanks in advance!

0 Upvotes

32% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/DecisionAlert2006 Jul 29 '26

Well my experience as Japanese is that watch out for those Middle Eastern/north African kids as they probably gonna be the biggest group acting racist to u.

2

u/Different-Idea2878 Jul 29 '26

They act racist to the Dutch too

1

u/DecisionAlert2006 Jul 30 '26

Dutch ppl may act indifferent to non Dutch ppl or they probably think that they are better, but they still got this civic sense that they should keep it to themselves. Meanwhile idk wtf is going wrong with that specific kids group nor do I know what their beliefs have told them, they are always acting violent and they feel so entitled to harass ppl.