InterReg Borderless living and working in youRegion – Euregio Meuse-Rhine

youregion News

youRegion-School 7-11 + 25 March

Sign in for the exciting youRegion-school: one week to discover the EMR in a whole new way!

  • Excellent network opportunities: meet interesting students, (international) newcomers, small companies and young entrepreneurs
  • Interesting offline and online programme (in Hasselt, Heerlen and Aachen)
  • Free of charge (catering included)
  • Certificate at the end of the closing event on 25 March

More information and registration (for students): youRegion School 2022 – Euregio Summer School

Newcomers (not students) who would like to participate, please write directly to Jan Schliewert: janschliewert@euregio-mr.eu


YouRegion International Network (YIN) – new Facebook group

For internationals living in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine there is a new Facebook group: YouRegion International Network

„Welcome to YouRegion International Network (YIN, for short), a group for the expats of the Euregio Maas-Rhein. In this group, we will chat about the topics that are interesting for the newcomers. From the challenges of moving to a new country, to the difficulties of getting a job or learning the language(s).“


Start and prepare your career in youRegion

After the digital euregional spouse network sessions in October  and November and the „Start your career in youRegion“ workshop on 12 November, it is now time for you as an international spouse Living in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine to „prepare for your career in youRegion“ with the help of 5 workshops led by a professional Coach from Talent Interlock, starting 23 November with the first workshop.

You will get a cleare view on your skills and professional goals and you will be equipped with practical tools and advice for your job search and application process in the EMR.



Successful first youRegion digital spouse network meeting held on 8 October

An interesting dialog about arriving and settling in, exciting talents from twelve countries and above all: many great ideas from motivated initiators for the next activities came together at the youregion spouse network kick-off. The next digital event will take place on 27 October from 3.00-5.00 pm.This time Tanya Arler will talk about her experiences as Expat Spouse, which she wrote down in her book Unpacked. We are already looking forward to the next steps together with the numerous international talents from youregion!


Monitor International Employees Zuid-Limburg

In 2018 the Zuid-Limburg region had approximately 21.700 ‘international employees’. The number of international employees rose by 18% between 2010 and 2018. Some 6.300 of them are so called ‘knowledge workers’ or highly skilled workers, representing 29% of all international employees in the region, which is higher than the Dutch average level.

This shows that Zuid-Limburg (and the surrounding Euregio Meuse-Rhine) is an attractive region for highly skilled internationals. Especially Maastricht attracts internationals. Two thirds of the knowledge workers living in Zuid-Limburg live in this city. It also shows the importance of internationals (both migrant and knowledge workers) for the (eu)regional labour market, knowing that 65% of the knowledge workers are still active after one year and 38% even after 5 years (of the migrant workers 56% resp. 26%).

Of the knowledge workers, 27% are Belgian nationals; 24% are German and around 20% come from other EU countries. A little more than a quarter come from outside the EU. Of the ‘migrant workers’, 21% are Polish; 18% German and 10% Belgian. Of all the international employees (migrant workers + knowledge workers), 17% (3620) are cross-border commuters, of whom 2.800 live in Belgium and 820 in Germany. Most new international knowledge workers come from nearby Belgium and Germany as well as from Poland. Most of the knowledge workers who left the region in 2018 are from Germany and Belgium.

The ‘Stuurgroep Internationale Werknemers’ assumes that, despite the currebt Corona crisis, the number of international workers will continue to grow, firstly because of the expected quick economic recovery from the crisis and, secondly, because of the aging population.

The Zuid-Limburg labour market cannot be seen separately from its euregional context, because of the sheer fact that the region is literally surrounded by Belgium and Germany and quite a few Germans moved to Zuid-Limburg and continue to work in Germany (mostly Aachen). It would be interesting to have similar data for the other regions of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. Download the full report (in Dutch) of the analysis made by Decisio and Companen.


Expat City Ranking 2019 – Aachen best German expat city

Aachen ranks 11th place worldwide in the Expat City Ranking conducted by InterNations. Unfortunately, the other major cities in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, Liège, Maastricht and Hasselt were not considered in the survey. It would have been interesting to see where they stand. The same goes for neigbouring tech hub Eindhoven which has a considerable expat community. The only Belgian City in the report is Brussels (30). Dutch cities with a ranking are The Hague (9), Rotterdam (32) and Amsterdam (48). The report includes several German cities, such as neighbouring Düsseldorf (31) and Cologne (50) as well as the high-tech city of Munich (51).

Aachen ranks first place for urban work life! The city offers great career opportunities and most expats are satisfied with their financial situation, also because of reasonable cost of living, although it can be difficult to find suitable housing. Looking just across the border in the Netherlands or Belgium can help finding affordable housing close to the city. Getting settled in and feeling welcome is not always easy, also because of the experienced language barrier. The Maastricht International Centre – offering most information also in English both online and offline – could serve as a positive example. And of course, the welcome events that are organized as part of the youRegion project help newcomers feel welcome in the region. For more information on settling in in Aachen you can contact the Aachen Newcomer Service (stephan.schaefer@mail.aachen.de)


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