Us perpetual foreigners, housing and our uncertain future

We didn’t move to Belgium to live here permanently. For the past few years, we have known that within the next few years we will leave this country and probably never come back. In some ways it’s reassuring, but it also creates a kind of perpetual state where we never quite settle in, however we actually do live here. In the meantime we rent a house, we’ve bought cheap furniture and we are probably not as integrated as other citizens in general.

Most of our friends, also foreigners, are in the same situation. Recently, our friends Texas-born M. and his wife, my best friend here; The amazing M., found out that they are going to have to move out of their house at the end of this year. Texas-born M. is at about the same stage as the Husband with regards to finishing his doctorate; let’s say a year away. The timing is bad. When you sign a contract to rent a house in Belgium you pay a deposit, usually 3 months rent, and a standard contract is for 3 years. If you decide to leave early, the landlord will keep a part of the deposit and your departure can turn out to be quite expensive. Hence, if you know you are going to leave within the next year or two, you are better off trying to get student housing, which they offer single students as well as families here. Student housing will, however, not quite measure up to the standards a civil contract carries; there will be no garden, no private washer & dryer and limited space.

Texas-born M. and his wife, The amazing M., have been approved for student housing, and should be able to move at the end of this year. Seeing that it’s possible they will leave Belgium in the fall of 2007, this is good news. However, when I talked to The amazing M. today she said they were going to look at a house tonight and asked if we would mind them dropping off the kids for half an hour. I told her I didn’t realize they were still looking at houses, whereupon she replied: “Yeah, we're not really looking. Well, we're kinda looking.” And then went on to explain that they had happened to spot this house the other day and it has made them think: they're not 100% certain that they will be heading back to North America in the fall of 2007.

Of course, after having finished our degrees, none of us will just pick up and move. There has to be something to move to, such as a great academic job somewhere acceptable.

“So, we're thinking.....thinking....” The amazing M. said.

We all do, honey, we all do. Even without the stress of having to find new housing, I wonder about these things all the time: When will we move? Where will we move? How will we arrange it? Where will our friends end up? What does the future hold for us?

By Lovain