Henry van der Merwe

Henry van der Merwe arrived in the Netherlands in Januari 2026, together with his wife Emma. Read more about the first experiences of Henry.

Henry, why did you emigrate to the Netherlands?
My wife and I came for a new adventure and a fresh start to mark the start of our marriage. We did not see South Africa as something we wanted to run from. It would be more accurate to say that the Netherlands, with its culture, work opportunities and accessible travel, was something we saw as being worth running to.

Furthermore, we have a lot of friends and family in Europe. Living in Europe gives us the opportunity to spend more time with some people who are important to us.

A big part of the reason we wanted to come to the Netherlands, is also that it is a first-world country with a lot of excellent opportunities in both my and my wife’s industries.

This, combined with the good culture, the opportunity of seeing our European family, the ease of learning Dutch if you know some Afrikaans and the promise of our own new adventure seemed like an offer too good to decline!

Can you tell us something how you do like the Netherlands?
I like the Netherlands a lot. People are generally very friendly and welcoming. My wife and I were planning on spending most of my savings on furniture for our new house. Luckily, this was not necessary at all. The local community (as well as some fellow South Africans) showed up at our door with tables, closets, sofas, kettles and the works. We were very blessed by the generosity of those around us.

In terms of differences between the Netherlands and South Africa, there are many! Punctually has been forced upon us by public transport. If you don’t focus when crossing the street, you might get hit by a bike. People drive on the wrong side of the road and if you’re lucky, you might wake up to some snow on a winter morning! The language takes some getting used to, but after you get used to the accents, it just sounds like funny Afrikaans!

Even with all the differences, we are very happy and the social culture does feel very similar to South Africa. We feel lucky to be here and confident that we will make the most of our new home.

Please tell us something about the projects you are currently working on.
I am currently working on a C# server with an Angular front-end. I have been working on developing a data generation tool to make testing easier for our product. I am looking forward to diving into a possible front-end overhaul in the future.

Additionally, there are plenty of opportunities to dive into in my work: machines in the field need custom hardware solutions to integrate into our software. I look forward to diving into installing Raspberry Pi’s into our hardware, the FTP’s that are used in-field and much more.

Did the process of emigration go smoothly?
Emigration was not easy. Fitting everything you want to bring with you into a suitcase or two is not an easy task and deciding what to leave behind is not comfortable. That being said, a fresh start with only that we need has also been a rejuvenating experience. We have had the experience of building up our home from scratch, which has been rewarding in its own way.

We traveled from SA to our new home without too many hiccups and fell in love with our new apartment and town very quickly, so emigration went well.

I also have to say that we have met some unbelievably kind South Africans in our first while here, who have also really smoothened our transition and made the process of emigration a lot more comfortable!

Can you explain to the South Africans who are considering to go overseas how you did experience the support from us?
The support from summit developers has been great and has also helped us a lot in our process of emigration. From giving us a crate of groceries to start with on our first day here, to helping us with getting visa information, to recommending a hardware store, the summit developers team have helped us with so many different issues and have made it clear time and time again that there is no ask too big or too small.

We really appreciate the help and support we have received from summit developers. Thank you so much Ton, Paulien and Matthijs!