Drop in immigration as fewer Ukranians flee to the Netherlands

Last year, 336,000 people immigrated to the Netherlands, 68,000 fewer than in 2022, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Tuesday. “The decrease is almost entirely because fewer Ukrainian refugees came to the Netherlands. The influx of other groups remained almost the same,” the statistics office said.

There was a 28 percent reduction in immigration from outside the European Union and the four European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. “The total number of immigrants from outside the EU/EFTA fell by almost 66,000 to 165,000 in 2023,” the CBS said. This was largely attributed to fewer arrivals from Ukraine. In 2023, 37,000 people came to the Netherlands using the Temporary Protection Directive for people fleeing the war in Ukraine, compared to over 108,000 in 2022.

Additionally, fewer people from outside the EU and EFTA moved to the Netherlands for the purposes of work last year. That total fell by nearly ten percent to 25,900. This was mainly offset by a 15 percent increase in asylum requests, which rose to 32,000. The number of knowledge migrants fell by nearly 5,000 to 21,500 last year. The largest group (21 percent) came from India, followed by China, Turkey, and South Africa.

Just like in 2022, more than half of asylum seekers who fled to the Netherlands last year came from Syria (55 percent). There were also relatively many asylum seekers from Yemen and Turkey (9 percent). About a third of last year’s asylum seekers came to the Netherlands through the family reunification scheme.

Last year, 41,600 immigrants from non-EU/EFTA countries came to the Netherlands to join family members already here. Seven percent involved asylum seekers, 42 percent involved labor migrants, and 4 percent joined international students. The other 47 percent joined family members who moved to the Netherlands for reasons other than work, study, or asylum.

Immigration figures from the EU and the EFTA countries also fell by 1 percent. A total of 171,200 people immigrated from EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Work remained the main reason for immigration from these countries, followed by family migration.

The number of Dutch nationals who moved back to the Netherlands last year remained the same as in 2022.