Dutch Diaspora

The Dutch diaspora is the movement, migration, or scattering of the Dutch away from the Netherlands.

Emigration from the Netherlands has been happening for at least the last eight centuries. In several former Dutch colonies and trading settlements, there are ethnic groups of partial Dutch ancestry. Emigrants from the Netherlands since the Second World War went mainly to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and until the 1970s South Africa. There are recognisable Dutch immigrant communities in these countries. Smaller numbers of Dutch immigrants can be found in most developed countries. In the last decade, short-range cross-border migration has developed along the Netherlands borders with Belgium and Germany. The main motive is the lower price of housing, especially single-family houses, in these countries: the buyers commute to work in the Netherlands, and the children may attend school there. Nevertheless, for official purposes they are counted as emigrants from the Netherlands, and as immigrants in Germany and Belgium.