Multicultural society

People have been migrating to the Netherlands for centuries, from French Protestants (Huguenots) in the seventeenth century to twentieth-century immigrants from former Dutch colonies Indonesia and Suriname, and the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom. In the 1960s and 1970s a labour shortage attracted many migrant workers from southern Europe, Turkey and Morocco. The total Dutch population is close to 16.5 million, 19% of whom are immigrants and/or belong to ethnic minorities. People with a foreign ethnic background tend to live in the larger cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague. Here, they make up approximately 30% of the inhabitants.

Immigration and asylum

Since 2004, immigration policy has become more restrictive. Immigrants are admitted on only three grounds: if their presence serves an essential Dutch interest, if they are entitled to live here under an international agreement, or if there are compelling humanitarian reasons for admitting them. The government actively pursues policies to help immigrants integrate.

The Netherlands also has a long tradition of accepting asylum seekers, from Spanish and Portuguese Jews in the sixteenth century to asylum seekers from the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Many have also come from the former Soviet Union, Iraq, Ghana, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Iran. In the 1990s increasing numbers of people sought political asylum, reaching approximately 50,000 in 2000. That year, the Dutch government decided to change the law, making political asylum more difficult to achieve.

Muslims in the Netherlands

There are approximately one million Muslims in the Netherlands, which is about 6% of the population. Groups from Morocco and Turkey account for more than 75% of the Muslim population. A great many strands of Islam exist within the Dutch Muslim community. As well as Sunnis, there are Shi’ites, Alevis and Ahmadis, not to mention a number of Sufi orders.

Muslims play an active part in Dutch politics. The Muslim Democrat (Islam Democraten) Party, for example, has a seat on The Hague’s municipal council. Several members of parliament and the mayor of Rotterdam are also Muslim.

Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution says: ‘All persons in the Netherlands shall be treated equally in equal circumstances. Discrimination on the grounds of religion, belief, political opinion, race or sex or on any other grounds whatsoever shall not be permitted.’ Muslims have the same civil, social and political rights as other Dutch residents, including the right to practise their religion freely, to build mosques and to establish religious organisations. The Dutch Constitution also guarantees the right of Christian and Muslim schools to be fully financed from public funds.

Festivals and food from many cultures
The multi-ethnic make-up of the Dutch population also means festivals and special events from different cultures. Restaurants specialising in hundreds of cuisines from every continent can be found in most urban areas.

In Rotterdam, the annual Summer Carnival revolves around a huge street parade through the city centre, with hosts of marching bands and glittering dancers. Participants are predominantly of Latin-American, Cape Verdean, Antillean and Surinamese heritage. In 2007 the Summer Carnival started a brass- and steel-band exchange with the famous Notting Hill Carnival in London.

Pasar Malam Besar, the largest European-Indonesian (indo) festival in the world, has been held annually in the Netherlands since 1959. The 12-day event celebrates, preserves and develops indo culture. In The Hague, it attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year. It features music, food, dance, merchandise of all kinds (including antiques) as well as workshops and masterclasses.

Chinese New Year is celebrated in many Dutch cities with parades, dragon and lion dances, music played on traditional Chinese instruments, acrobatics and even kung fu.