‘We prefer our Dutch’: International Students’ Housing Experiences in the Netherlands

Abstract

This article investigates how international students find and maintain housing and what constraints they have to deal with in the process. It reveals how the interplay between personal characteristics and housing-market features shapes housing biographies and unequally disadvantages certain international students over others. Eighteen in-depth interviews with international students were conducted about the housing situation for them in Utrecht, a Dutch student city. Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) of the interview data found that international students’ housing biographies differ substantially, both in progression and outcomes. Despite some students successfully finding adequate housing, many described living involuntarily in conditions of stress, instability and insecurity and a number experienced progressively worsening housing conditions. The students ascribed their difficulties to discrimination and structural disadvantages on the housing market. In light of these findings, this article calls for a re-evaluation of the Dutch student housing system.