The changing face of Dutch society
The Daily Telegraph carries a front-page report today about how an exodus of native-born Dutch in search of a new life abroad has reversed immigration flows for the first time since the post-WW2 era.
The report says that, last year, more people left The Netherlands than arrived as migrants or asylum seekers, even though unemployment remains low at 4.7 percent and per capita income is higher than any major country in Europe.
Lawyers, accountants, computer specialists, nurses, and businessmen are lining up for visas to the English-speaking world, looking to Australia, New Zealand and Canada as orderly societies where people have the space to breathe, the Telegraph said.
Requests for visa information have exploded since the murder of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch film-maker and acerbic critic of Muslim views on women. He was gunned down in Amsterdam on 2 November.
The Netherlands has been transformed in barely 30 years from a tight-knit Christian society into a polyethnic state, with three million people of immigrant background out of a total population of about 16 million.
The Daily Telegraph | Dutch desert their changing country (registration required)
I've lived in Amsterdam - a truly polyethnic city - for over five years. My neighbourhood, in the Oud-Zuid part of the city, reflects the multicultural aspects of life in this homogenous city. Just about every western European country is represented in this area as well as Americans and Canadians. Indeed, you hear more English spoken around here than Dutch, and not just by the foreigners - tram drivers, shopkeepers, the postman... they're Dutch and they all speak fluent English.
Of course, this is just my neighbourhood which isn't representative of the full cultural diversity in the city as a whole.
And, I'm talking only about Amsterdam which isn't the same as the rest of the country, particularly in the north and the east. Far more traditional there. What's been happening around the country since the murder of Theo van Gogh is indeed cause for deep concern: mosques and schools fire-bombed, demonstrations, other shootings.
(FYI, see this report by Radio Nederland re a Syrian connection to the van Gogh murder.)
I'm no sociologist, but it often does look as if the very fabric of traditional Dutch society is under seige. This is not to say that you go out in active fear for your personal safety. Far from it - this is still one of the most pleasant and safest places anywhere in the world in which to live.
Nevertheless, if you then consider the bleak economic outlook reported by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis a few days ago with what the Telegraph reports today, there is much food for thought - especially as there are plans to make a sequel of van Gogh's controversial film.
Related NevOn post:
Interesting comments on the departure of natives. Many of us here in the US have expressed the same sentiment and often look towards cities like Amsterdam as an escape from our own form of religious radicalism and its influence on the current administration. The difference is that we want to get away from our own intolerant people. With my wife's degree as an Advance Practice Nurse and with myself just a couple months from being an attorney maybe we can fill some of those empty spots.
Sincerely we love Amsterdam and will be visiting in March.
Posted by: brett | 30 January 2005 at 03:44
brett, I think the Telegraph's article paints a picture that's a bit bleaker than what's actually going on. From the article, you'd imagine that people are lining up in droves to get on plans to leave. It's not like that.
Amsterdam in particular is a phenomenal place, vibrant, lots going on that's very positive and encouraging.
Nevertheless, the statistics do look troublesome for the future.
Posted by: Neville Hobson | 01 February 2005 at 12:12
Maybe sometime you will share with us the story of how you ended up in Amsterdam. Be interesting to hear....
Posted by: Anita Campbell | 10 March 2005 at 01:18
Hi Anita. Maybe I will do that! Let me think how I can make that an interesting story...
Posted by: Neville Hobson | 11 March 2005 at 11:01