Iraqis in The Netherlands - Demography

Demography

A recent study report, shows that two-thirds of the Iraqi community in the Netherlands are young and well qualified to work in the various fields of life. However, many of which are unemployed despite being well educated. The level of integration of the Iraqi community with the Dutch people is noticeably low. It amounts to a quarter out of the standards of social integration. The level of mastery of the Dutch language and of the participation in the social and political activities is quite low. The commitment to the mother culture with its Islamic, Arab and Iraqi references is quite high. Judging by gender of the Iraqi population, it has been assessed that 60 per cent are males and females account for 40 per cent.

Most of the Iraqi community are younger age groups and qualify for the labor market, the age categories are between 26-35 and 36–45 years, they were 28 per cent for each category. This reflects the new age of the Iraqi community in the Netherlands, which also means that most members of this community are first generation.

With regard to the marital status, the largest proportion of whom are married is at 58 per cent, this figure represents 53 per cent males and 68 per cent females. Due to a lot of Iraqi women coming to the Netherlands because of family reunification, whether married already or later. The (non or never married) was accounted for 25 per cent.

There is a good proportion of inter-marriage between members of the Iraqi community in the Netherlands and Dutch or others. The proportion is 12.5 per cent with Dutch people, that was among 13 cases of Iraqi men with Dutch women and 4 cases of Iraqi women married from Dutch men. The rest is refers to some cases with foreigners. While the highest rate of marriage represents 81 per cent of the same country (Iraq).

There is a high level of friendship relations between Iraqi immigrants and the Dutch people. There is no divergence for Iraqis in accordance with their religious background of both Muslims and Christians to build a friendship with the Dutch. Where equal ratio between them is 70 per cent for each part. While the proportion of the non-believers is 100 per cent, which reflects the overcome on some reservations expressed by some immigrants from religious background.