Fewer immigrant brides from Turkey and Morocco

Most Turkish and Moroccan men in the Netherlands marry a woman of the same origin, either one already living in the Netherlands, or one who migrates from the country of origin. In 2006 around one quarter of brides of Turkish and Moroccan men in the Netherlands who married came especially from Turkey and Morocco to marry. This is significantly down on five years previously.

Turkish men marrying in the Netherlands, by bride’s origin

Few marriages with native Dutch women

Only one in ten Turkish and Moroccan men marrying in 2006 married a native Dutch woman. This is the equivalent of about 150 marriages a year.

By far most Turkish men who married in 2006 chose a Turkish bride who lived in the Netherlands (54 percent) or who migrated from Turkey (27 percent). In 2001 as many as 56 percent of Turkish grooms still married women who immigrated especially to get married. The number of migration marriages has thus dropped sharply in recent years: from around 1,100 in 2001 to only 400 in 2006. The share of marriages to a Turkish partner already living in the Netherlands has risen in recent years.

Moroccan men marrying in the Netherlands, by bride’s origin

Similar pattern for Moroccans and Turks

The pattern was similar for Moroccan men. For them, too, there was a noticeable decrease in the number of immigrant brides: in 2006 23 percent of Moroccan grooms married a woman from Morocco (360 marriages), compared with 57 percent in 2001 (1,000 marriages). In this group, too, there was a strong increase in the percentage of marriages to a partner of the same origin already living in the Netherlands.

Stricter regulations

The decrease in the number of migration marriages may be the result of measures introduced in 2004 which tightened the requirements for such marriages..
 
Other factors have probably also been of influence, such as integration and the changing generational composition of the population with a foreign background. Second generation Turks and Moroccans, for example, are probably more likely to choose a partner who has grown up in the Netherlands like themselves, rather than one from their parents’ country.

Mila van Huis