Netherlands immigration?

Question

What are the largest immigrant groups in Netherlands and where are they from?

Also where do they situate themselves in the country

Answer 1

The Dutch population consists of a significant number of immigrants; i.e. groups defined by non-ethnic Dutch origins, rather than for instance, a non-Dutch national status. It's a sensitive issue in Dutch politics, and gov't officials as well as most political parties make it a point to emphasize that race or religion do not enter into the equation. Having said that, the Netherlands does have its share of right-wing parties that oppose equal immigration opportunities for certain groups based on origin and/or religion.

The two largest immigrant groups are formed by Turks (360,000 on a total population of 16.5 million - Census figures 2006) and Moroccans (320,000), the first generation of which came to the Netherlands in the 60s as migrant workers. Today, the third generation of these immigrants speak fluent Dutch and have a marked influence of Dutch society as a whole.

Although numerically speaking larger than any of the aforementioned groups, Indonesians (450.000), Surinamese (350.000) and people from the Dutch Antilles (Aruba, Curacao etc.) aren't considered to be immigrants technically speaking, since they migrated when their countries of origin were (or in some cases still are , i.e. Neth. Antilles) part of the (former) Dutch colonies or protectorates.

Other relatively large groups are formed by Africans (180,000 - mainly Somalis, Cape Verdians and Ghanese), South-Americans (110,000) and Chinese (100,000).

Signicantly smaller groups (often political or religious refugees, less than 50,000 indviduals per group) consist of those of Jewish, Vietnamese, Iraqi, Iranian and Afghan descent.

The Netherlands is a small (about twice the size of New Jersey) and densely populated country, and its immigrants can be found everywhere, but migrant workers and their offspring tend to live around the industrial centres in the west of the country with its big cities such as Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. Those groups that came over right after the second world war (Indonesians) have fully integrated into Dutch society and follow the same distribution pattern as ethnic Dutch.

Answer 2

Mainly Dutch, but huge numbers of tourists all year round. As with any other country, the immigrants tend to move to the larger towns and cities. Multilingual country, speaking Dutch, French, German and English. It is difficult to say precisely what the immigrant population is these days, it is so easy to travel from Germany, Belgium, England and France for the day or week to work.

Worth going, relaxed easy place to be, no real hassle and decent food and weather.