Most family migrants stay in the Netherlands

© ANP / Robin Utrecht
Migrants coming to the Netherlands to join other family members made up nearly one-third of all non-EU/EFTA immigrants arriving in the Netherlands between 1999 and 2023. Compared to labour migrants and study migrants, migrants joining other family members already in the Netherlands are more likely to remain in the country and to stay for longer. As a result, they constitute a relatively large share of the Dutch population from outside the EU/EFTA. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of new figures regarding the reasons why people migrate.

Between 1999 and 2023, 1.8 million immigrants came to the Netherlands from outside the European Union or EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland). The majority of these migrants (32 percent) arrived as family migrants. Six percent of them came as family members of asylum migrants. Asylum migrants made up the second-largest group (23 percent), followed by migrants who came for work or study (both around 15 percent). Ukrainian refugees who have come to the Netherlands under the Temporary Protection Directive since 2022 made up 8 percent of non-EU/EFTA migrants. A further 5 percent migrated for some other reason, such as to receive medical treatment in the Netherlands.

Family and asylum migrants stay the longest

By no means all these immigrants have remained in the Netherlands. By 31 December 2023, 737.5 thousand non-EU/EFTA immigrants had left again, which was over 40 percent. Whether and how long immigrants stay in the Netherlands depends partly on their reason for migrating.

Family migrants are the most likely to stay in the Netherlands in the long term. Among non-EU/EFTA family migrants who arrived between 2005 and 2010, for example, the majority (57 percent) were still in the Netherlands after 13 years. A relatively large share of asylum migrants also remain in the Netherlands. Study migrants are the most likely to leave and to spend the shortest time in the country: 45 percent of student migrants leave within two years, and nearly 90 percent leave eventually. Labour migrants are almost as likely to leave and to do so just as soon. Ukrainian refugees have arrived relatively recently, and the great majority were still resident in the Netherlands on 31 December 2023.

Most non-EU/EFTA migrants are family migrants

Both the number of immigrants in the country and how likely they are to leave affects the composition of the population in the Netherlands. Because family and asylum migrants are less likely to leave, they make up a relatively large proportion of the total number of non-EU/EFTA migrants resident in the Netherlands. They made up nearly two-thirds of the group resident in the Netherlands on 31 December 2023, even though they only accounted for just over half of non-EU/EFTA immigration since 1999. Study and work migrants, by contrast, are more likely to leave and to do so sooner, and therefore they make up a smaller share of the population. Among non-EU/EFTA migrants who were resident in the Netherlands at the end of 2023, around 20 percent came to work or study, but since 1999 around 30 percent of non-EU/EFTA immigration was made up of work and study migrants.

EU/EFTA migrants more likely to leave

Of the 1.6 million migrants from within the EU/EFTA (without Dutch nationality) who have arrived in the Netherlands since 1999, 944 thousand had left again by 31 December 2022. That was over 60 percent. This group is therefore more likely to leave than migrants from outside the EU/EFTA.

Most EU/EFTA immigrants who came to the Netherlands between 1999 and 2022 were labour migrants (33 percent), followed by family migrants (29 percent). As with non-EU/EFTA migrants, labour migrants tend to leave sooner and are more likely to leave than family migrants. Family migrants therefore make up the largest group still resident in the Netherlands (37 percent). EU/EFTA study migrants are less likely to leave than non-EU/EFTA study migrants (60 versus 69 percent).

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