Migration motive

A person’s main reason for moving to another country.

The source for information on migrants’ motives for migrating is the permit that is first granted to newly arrived immigrants; this information comes from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) of the Ministry of Justice and Security. The IND records one migration motive per immigrant.

This table shows the reasons for the first migration, starting in 1999. If a person comes to the Netherlands a second time with a different motive, this person will appear twice in the table with the same (first) migration motive.