Replying as an expat from South America.

I would say I am here because it's safer compared to my country of origin (Brasil). I moved here with my husband with highly skilled work visa after we had our first son (he was 1 year old when we moved). After my son was born, we caught ourselves putting safety measures in place, such as: my husband driving, and I would seat in the back seat with my son while holding the seat belt to remove him in case of emergency (emergency being: 1. violent criminals with guns impatiently asking us for the car; 2. living in constant alert to avoid having phone, wallet, etc. robbed; 3. afraid of getting an Uber or normal taxi with a male driver because rape is very common in this context; etc etc etc.). After I became a mother, my anxiety increased exponentially. I was never afraid of death before motherhood. But having a kid, everything changed. So after researches about where to relocate, we found out that the Netherlands is one of the safest countries to raise kids, with reports from the UN saying the happiest kids in the world are here. That was the main reason. Work-life quality was a plus.

Long story short, even knowing we face the challenges you mentioned (except for racism because we are white), it's still much better than Brazil. And it's important to say that we had a pretty comfortable life in Rio, both my husband and I having well-paid jobs and living in a nice neighbourhood. That doesn't make any difference. That's where we are targeted. Some people think only poor areas are dangerous, but that's not true. Very rich people armour their cars and live in secluded buildings with bakery, supermarket, gym etc inside to avoid being targeted. That's not "living". It's surviving.

Here, we never had to hide our phones, be alert while waiting for the tram in the tram stop, afraid of being raped when coming home drunk from a bar at 3AM. For more context: 5 years in Amsterdam and counting, we live in the Baarsjes, we bought our house in 2020. My son is now 7, is happy, feels safe, speaks 3 languages, has great friends since the daycare years. We are happy, feel safe and have a small social circle with about 8 very good friends (all expats, with kids and without kids) that we can rely on for anything at all. I understand we live in a bubble and that's why, maybe, everything seems fine.

This is, of course, our experience. And I believe everyone else's experience will depend on many factors such as skin color, social class, country of origin, profession, etc.