Twelve thousand children a year rejoin their families in the Netherlands

The number of immigrants to the Netherlands has risen strongly since 1995. In 2001 133 thousand people come to live in the Netherlands, 96 foreigners and 37 thousand Dutch nationals.

Motives for migration, 2001

One quarter of non-Dutch immigrants come to this country to get married or to cohabit. One in five arrive for purposes of family reunion. In addition 22 percent arrive as refugees and 19 percent to work. Smaller number come to the country as students, trainees and au pairs.

Motives for migration by age, 2001

Children rejoining their families

A total of nearly twelve thousand non-Dutch children came to the Netherlands to join their families in 2001. At the moment children are eligible to reunite with their families in the Netherlands up to the age of eighteen. Three quarters of these twelve thousand children were twelve or younger. About three thousand were aged between twelve and eighteen. Four hundred of them were Turkish and three hundred Moroccan.

Age distribution per motive for migration, 2001

Two thousand marriage migrants under 21

Marriage, or cohabitation, is another important reason to come to the Netherlands. One in every ten foreign marriage migrants is younger than 21. About two thousand arrive in the Netherlands every year, of whom about eight hundred Turks and three hundred Moroccans. Two thirds of these family formation migrants are women..

Han Nicolaas and Arno Sprangers