Demographics of The Netherlands - Migration and Ethnicity

Migration and Ethnicity

According to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.8 million foreign-born residents in the Netherlands, corresponding to 11.1% of the total population. Of these, 1.4 million (8.5%) were born outside the EU and 0.428 million (2.6%) were born in another EU Member State.

As the result of immigration, the Netherlands has a sizeable minority of non-indigenous peoples. There is also considerable emigration. In 2005 some 121,000 people left the country, while 94,000 entered it. Out of a total of 101,150 people immigrating to Netherlands in 2006, 66,658 were from Europe, Oceania, Americas or Japan, and 34,492 were from other (mostly developing) countries. Out of a total of 132,470 emigrants, 94,834 were going to Europe, Oceania, Americas or Japan and 37,636 to other countries.

A large number of immigrants come from countries in Western Europe, mostly from the bordering countries of Germany and Belgium. There were five subsequent waves of immigration from other countries in recent history.

1. After World War II in the 1940s and the 1950s people from the newly independent Indonesian republic repatriated or migrated to the Netherlands - mainly Indo-European (people of mixed European and Indonesian ancestry with Dutch passports) and supporters of the Republic of South Maluku.
2. In the 1960s and 1970s migrants from Southern Europe, West Asia, and northern Africa (i.e. Italy, Portugal and Spain), Turkey and Morocco came to work in the Netherlands as guest workers. They were expected to return to their own country and many did, but others remained and in the 1980s and 1990s were joined by their families. Until the 2000s their children usually married people from their home country.
3. In the 1970s and 1980s people migrated from the newly independent Surinam and from the Netherlands Antilles, which remained part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. These people migrated because these people still held a Dutch passport and saw a better future in the Netherlands.
4. In the 1990s the Netherlands saw increasing migration of asylum seekers. Most notably are Iraqis, Iranians, Thais, Burmese, Chileans and Argentines fleeing from political oppression and/or persecution.
5. And in the 2000s, migrant workers from new EU member states in Central- and Eastern Europe like Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, and non-EU states Moldova, Ukraine and former Yugoslavia in Southern Europe.