Deconstructing the Dutch

Demographic Change Threatens Dutch Survival

The Netherlands, much the same as any Western nation, faces a tidalwave of demographic change which sweeps over its cities, towns and villages. A wave that rapidly transforms life beyond recognition for the native population. The Dutch (and Frisians) face a serious challenge in dealing with this radical demographic change, though reversal is not impossible.

Much like the French, Germans, and Americans, the new neighbours which the Dutch have been told they must ‘tolerate’ are overwhelmingly recent arrivals. Comparatively few hold Dutch citizenship, many are poorly integrated, and third generation immigrants are rare. Repatriation, denaturalization of dual citizens, the cancellation of visas and the deportation of illegals would massively reverse the demographic damage which has been done to the Netherlands.

As in our previous pieces we are going to be using official data collected by national statistics agencies, universities and other credible institutions. Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek) reports that 4.4 million people in the Netherlands have a 1st or 2nd generation migrant background, of a total population of 17.6 million people in 2022.

Statistics Netherlands then goes on to break down these groups, stating that 2.5 million people in the Netherlands have a ‘non-Western’ background, though their classification of non-Western is unusual. For historic reasons Indonesians are counted as 'Western’, as are the Japanese. If we properly classify these minority groups into the ‘non-Western’ category we can more accurately see that just about 2.86 million non-Western migrants of the 1st and 2nd generation live in the Netherlands, making up 16.25% of the population.

This is far from the full story, however. Third-generation migrants, those who were born to the children of original immigrants, are a small but growing part of the Dutch population and must be mentioned. While the Dutch government classifies third-generation migrants as ‘Dutch’ in the same way it would an ethnic Dutchman, it rather helpfully still goes through the process of tracking this population of individuals.

The Dutch government indicates that there are 859,000 third generation immigrants in the country, 120,000 of whom have a ‘non-Western’ background. Many of the hundreds of thousands of Turks, Moroccans, Surinamese and others who live in the Netherlands arrived in the 1970s-1990s and therefore are only just finishing raising their (2nd generation) children. Those 2nd generation immigrants, overwhelmingly in their late 20s and early 30s, and are only just now beginning to have children.

As such 75% of the third-generation ‘non-Western' population is below the age of 18 and is only just beginning to emerge as a serious demographic group, though there is one exception to this.

There are several hundred thousand third generation Indo-Dutch persons in the Netherlands, but exact numbers on these persons are impossible to find as the Dutch state does not collect statistics on them. Some of these individuals are entirely Indonesian by descent, others are half, many are less than 1/5th Indonesian. Having Grandparents or even Great Grandparents who migrated to the Netherlands who already had an admixture of part Dutch part Asian.

It is not this publications place to adjudicate the ‘Dutchness’ of a group which is ill-defined and numerically unknown. Only the Dutch nation can make such a decision.

Much the same as in other Western nations, the non-Western immigrants and their descendants in the Netherlands are crowded into and around the country’s major cities. 40% of the population of Rotterdam is non-Western while both the Hague and Amsterdam have 35% non-Western populations which are rapidly growing.

These populations, being so heavily concentrated in the major cities of government, commerce and tourism, are going to make it seem like the already large non-Western population is larger than it really is. Though none of this is to say it is small.

The Netherlands, a country of roughly 13 million ethnic Dutch(and Frisians) hosts over 3 million non-Western foreigners, making up roughly 18% of the population.

In total roughly 32% of the population of the Netherlands has a foreign ethnic origin once European non-Dutch are also included.

These number may seem daunting, but much as we have outlined with America, France and Australia, the Dutch have a litany of relatively simple policy options which they could use to reverse the demographic transition of their nation. The vast bulk of the 1.5 million dual citizenship holders in the Netherlands are non-Western, half are Turkish and Moroccan alone.

It is entirely acceptable within international law to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals, as they will retain their original nationality and right to reside in their ethnic homeland. These citizens will also have to take their children with them, as family separation is rightly viewed as an immoral practice.

There are an additional 200,000-300,000 migrants who have arrived since 2015 who will have yet to qualify for Dutch citizenship and will be living on visas, which can be revoked.