Immigration up to over 100 thousand in 2006

In 2006, 101 thousand immigrants arrived in the Netherlands, nearly 10 thousand more than in 2005. The increase was mainly among Dutch people returning to the Netherlands, and immigrants from the European Union, especially Poland and Germany.

End of immigration decrease

The increase in immigration in 2006 comes after four years of decrease. The 101 thousand is still well below the top years 2000 and 2001, however, when more than 130 thousand immigrants arrived in the Netherlands.

Immigration

Dutch return migrants largest group

The number of Dutch people returning after a stay abroad rose by more than 3 thousand to just over 23 thousand in 2006. One reason for this is the substantial increase in the number of people emigrating. Some of them come back, either as planned or not. These return migrants include more than 5 thousand people with a second generation foreign background.

Immigration by country of birth

Many EU immigrants from Poland

Thirty thousand EU citizens arrived in the Netherlands in 2006, 4 thousand more than in 2005. This is related to the favourable economic developments and the more liberal legislation for labour migrants. 
The number of Polish immigrants rose by 2 thousand to 8 thousand. This makes the Poles the second largest group, after the Dutch return migrants. The number of male Polish immigrants is now higher than the number of Polish women. More and more (male) labour migrants are arriving, while the number of (female) family formers is decreasing.

Immigration by country of birth, 2005 and 2006

Fewer people from traditional immigration countries

The number of immigrants from the traditional immigration countries Turkey, Morocco and Suriname fell slightly in 2006. As family formation or family reunion is often the motive for these immigrants, they have been affected by the stricter legislation concerning family formation. The number of immigrants from the Antilles and Aruba did rise slightly on the other hand

Han Nicolaas