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Chapter 21 - Immigration and Diversity
- Edited by Emmeline Besamusca, Jaap Verheul
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- Book:
- Discovering the Dutch
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 07 January 2021
- Print publication:
- 18 November 2014, pp 275-286
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Summary
The prevailing self-image of the Dutch has always been one of a strong international orientation and an open mind towards influences from abroad: an open society with open borders. The Dutch prided themselves on their tolerance for other cultures and religions, and they were believed to welcome immigrants and refugees from all over the world. In the late twentieth century the Netherlands had become one of the countries in Europe with the largest share of foreign-born. Its generous and respectful policies of multiculturalism served as a shining example for other immigration societies. Since the turn of the millennium, however, the Dutch mind appears to have been closing at an unprecedented speed. Immigration is now seen as a major problem, as a threat to social stability and to Dutch culture. The murders of politician Pim Fortuyn (2002) and film director Theo van Gogh (2004), both of them outspoken antagonists of immigration, in particular from Muslim countries, shocked the nation. In the past years, Geert Wilders's anti-immigration and anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) has become a powerful force in Dutch politics.
Why this sudden change? Is immigration really undermining the country's stability and culture, as certain antagonists claim? Is it really challenging the country's identity, or would that identity have changed anyway, even without migration? What are the main arguments used in the current debate on immigration and how valid are they? These are some of the questions to be dealt with in this chapter. Before analyzing the current debate, however, an overview of the highlights of Dutch immigration history, with an emphasis on the past half a century will be presented.
A Brief History of Immigration
Already in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Republic was a safe haven for Protestants and Jews persecuted elsewhere in Europe. Particularly welcome were those who brought along entrepreneurial skills and money. Without immigration, the Dutch “Golden Age” would have been much less prosperous. Over many years, tens of thousands of migrant workers from neighboring countries came to work in agriculture, industry or shipping. Many of them settled for good. Numerous family names that now seem utterly Dutch, in fact have French or German roots.
10 - Repatriates and colonial auxiliaries
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- By Keith Sword, University of London, Valli Kanapathipillai, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Vaughan Robinson, University College, Maria Beatriz Rocha-Trindade, Universidade Aberta, Han Entzinger, Utrecht University, Peter Koehn, University of Montana
- Edited by Robin Cohen, University of Warwick
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- Book:
- The Cambridge Survey of World Migration
- Published online:
- 05 December 2012
- Print publication:
- 02 November 1995, pp 321-352
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Summary
The reason why the notion of a ‘repatriate’ seems distant to native English-speakers is that the relevant experience has been unusual in British and American history. However, repatriation has occasioned deep political traumas in other countries. Let me provide some examples. In 1960, the Belgians scrambled out of the Congo amidst scenes of chaos and destruction. Tearful nuns and frightened settlers fled on hastily improvised flights back to Brussels. The following year the UN secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjöld, was tragically killed in an air crash as he tried to intervene in the Congo crisis. The French in Indochina and later in Algeria had to evacuate many French nationals as their own imperial missions came to an end in those countries. Again, these events were of great political moment, as the French army lurched to the right in protest against what it saw as a betrayal by mendacious, weak politicians. The creation of the Fifth Republic in 1958 by de Gaulle was a direct result of the failures in Indochina and Algeria and the repatriation that followed.
In terms of the numbers of repatriates in relation to the natal population, the return of the Portuguese from their African empire is the most startling case. Rocha-Trindade numbers the retornados (as the repatriates were called) at 800,000 – a massive influx compared to the ten million locals. The Portuguese had had a dry run in the 1960s when they were forced to evacuate Goa, but nothing prepared them for the scale and speed (it all happened over the period 1974–9) of the African evacuation.
3 - The Netherlands
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- By Han B. Entzinger, University of Leiden
- Tomas Hammar
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- Book:
- European Immigration Policy
- Published online:
- 05 November 2011
- Print publication:
- 10 October 1985, pp 50-88
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Summary
Immigration and immigration policy
A brief historical overview
For many years the Netherlands has had a reputation for its strong international orientation. The country's favorable geographical location enabled it to become the seafaring nation of Europe. In order to insure commercial contacts it built up a colonial empire of surprising dimensions, given the modest size of the mother country. Since the Reformation in the sixteenth century the Netherlands has also been known as a tolerant country, and it became a refuge for those who were persecuted on grounds of religious or political beliefs. Jews from all over Europe, Huguenots from France, Roman Catholics from Germany, and many other refugees have contributed substantially to the country's economic prosperity and cultural development. During certain periods there was also a substantial immigration of temporary and permanent workers from nearby countries. Many of these were employed in agriculture, while others served as mercenaries in the navy and the army.
On the other hand, commercial and other interests in many parts of the world have led to substantial emigration. Dutch people have settled in many former colonies (North America, Brazil, West Africa) and in some cases their descendants may still be traced quite easily (Burghers in Sri Lanka, Boers in South Africa). During the nineteenth century large groups of Dutch emigrants moved to the United States and to the former Netherlands East Indies. Since the Second World War, and especially during the 1950s, half a million people have left for “New World” countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.