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by Marciplan 2096 days ago
Ah, DAFT. The glorious deal where US citizens can work and live in the NL and the Dutch can.. welcome you to NL.
3 comments

I'm not Dutch nor familiar with the DAFT[1] scheme but from the wording I sense there is a hilarious insider story buried here somewhere?

[1] what a name

Bad for the individual but probably good for the country? They get US developers and don't lose their Dutch employees to higher paid SV jobs.

Brain drain in tech is a big issue in Europe due to salaries paid in SV, not everything bad for the individual is actually a bad deal for the country.

Brain drain is really not an issue at all in Western Europe. Sure, some people move to SV, but the majority likes sane working hours, streets without poo, and schools without metal detectors at the entrance.

Anecdotally, the amount of European programmers I know that moved to the US slightly exceeds the amount of American programmers that moved to Europe. I strongly doubt a different visa system would impact that significantly.

I don't see any brain drain from Belgium to US actually.

Everyone knows US pays more, but you are left in the dirt when something goes wrong.

People stay mostly here since there is work enough, friend & fault is here, travel between countries is easy, pay isn't bad and you get a decent healthcare.

Some people work in the US for a couple of years, but all the ones I know come back ( outside IT I have seen some friends going to the US)

What a scheme! Unfortunately, if that deal was being negotiated today I doubt the US would have the weight to get such a one-sided transaction done.
Why is that unfortunate? What would the US have to lose allowing (mostly) highly educated Dutch people into the US?
I meant more that the loss of US power is unfortunate (and was being a little glib, obviously upsides and downsides to the US not being the only superpower anymore) - I would love if more Dutch came to the US, maybe SF would finally get some bike lanes