Immigration Policies of the Netherlands

Abstract

The Netherlands has admitted (or coped with) immigrants of six types:

• (a) Migrant workers from neighboring Western European states—during the early twentieth century and then within the framework of the EEC/EC/EU;

• (b) Migrant workers from outside the EEC/EC/EU—first, during the 1960s and 1970s, most migrant workers originated from Mediterranean countries (and were followed by family reunion and marriage migration during the 1970s and 1980s). Later, during the second half of the 1990s, labor migration from various countries increased again;

• (c) Immigrants and refugees from Dutch colonies and former colonies in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, mainly between 1946 and 1980;

• (d) Asylum seekers/refugees—Jews fleeing Germany during the 1930s and later asylum seekers from the Third World and former communist countries since the mid-1980s;

• (e) Illegal/undocumented immigrants;

• (f) Returning Dutch nationals who had lived abroad.