Marijn and Arjan van den Akker moved to Haugesund from The Netherlands, after discovering the region at the Emigration Expo. The Norwegian work-life balance made them decide to stay.
A good family life
In the spring of 2021, Arjan van den Akker and Marijn Van den Akker went to visit the Emigration Expo in The Netherlands. The fair´s purpose is to attract workers and encourage recruitment all over Europe. Arjan and Marjin are both doctors and were on the hunt for a new adventure.
– We wanted to travel and started looking for a nice country to live in with our children, Marjin says.
They had already been travelling in Africa together, but had to come back to The Netherlands so Marjin could finish her studies.
With two small children right in the middle of Amsterdam, they both had a dream about something different, a life with a better balance between their work and their spare time.
– We met recruiters at the fair from the hospital of Haugesund, and what they told us about the Norwegian lifestyle really grabbed our attention! The work-life balance is really important here. They found jobs for the both of us, and now we´ve bought a house and have a new baby on the way! It is so nice. We leave work together at 4 pm and get our children in the kindergarten, together. Then we have the whole afternoon together as a family.
At the hospital of Haugesund, Marjin works as a gastroenterologist. After the summer, she will be home with their newborn son. Arjan is a general practitioner and is currently working as an emergency physician at the same hospital.
– People here are very polite. I can even feel some gratitude from my patients, which is not very common where we come from. We still struggle a bit with the language, but we´re hoping to stay for a very long time, says Arjan.
We love that we can spend more time with our children here. Norway has an amazing family culture!
The recruiters at hospital of Haugesund are now searching for more people in the health staff. They went back to the emigration expo this year, hoping to recruit more nurses and doctors for the hospital.
– We both went there to help the hospital to talk about Norway. We met several who were interested in moving. Maybe we get lucky, we don´t know yet, Marjin says.
