Knowledge migrant (and other categories)

Immigrants may have varying motives for taking up residence in the Netherlands. Migration motives of immigrants outside the EU/EFTA have been derived from records of the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), which handles the residence permit applications. In this study, a distinction is drawn between:

Family migrants

Family migration applies to those Indian immigrants who came to the Netherlands for family formation or reunion. These are often the partner or other family member following an immigrant already residing in the country.

Labour migrants

Labour migrants settle in the Netherlands in order to perform economic activities. The present study draws a distinction between the following types of labour migrants:

- Knowledge migrants
Knowledge migrants are defined as labour migrants with an income at least equal to the IND’s salary criterion. As an indication, the amount of 4,324 euros gross per month excl. holiday allowance was applied to knowledge migrants aged 30 and over in 2017.

- Other labour migrants
Other labour migrants include all labour migrants with a different type of IND residence permit than the knowledge migrants.

Student migrants

Indian student migrants have come to the Netherlands to follow a study programme at an institution for higher education.

Other immigrants

The migration motive ‘Other’ includes internships and medical treatment among other motives.