Turks in the Netherlands
| Total population | |
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| (395,302a (2013 CBS estimate) Other estimates 400,000 to 500,000) |
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a This figure only includes people whose origins are from Turkey. 197,107 people had a first generation background and 195,816 had a second generation background. The CBS has not provided any figures for further generations. |
Turks in the Netherlands (occasionally Dutch Turks or Turkish-Dutch) (Dutch: Turkse Nederlander; Turkish: Hollanda Türkleri) are the ethnic Turks living in the Netherlands. They make up 2.4% of the population.
During the 1950s, successive Dutch governments strongly stimulated emigration from the Netherlands, while at the same time the economy grew rapidly. The Netherlands began to face a labour shortage by the mid-1950s already, which became more serious during the early 1960s, as the country experienced even higher economic growth rates, comparable to the rest of Europe. At the same time, Turkey had a problem of unemployment, low GNP levels and a high population growth. So the import of labour solved problems on both ends. The first Turkish immigrants arrived in the Netherlands in the beginning of the 1960s at a time when the Dutch economy was wrestling with a shortage of workers. On 19 August 1964, the Dutch government entered into a 'recruitment agreement' with Turkey. Thereafter, the number of Turkish workers in the Netherlands increased rapidly.
There were two distinct periods of recruitment. During the first period, which lasted until 1966, a large number of Turks came to the Netherlands through unofficial channels, either being recruited by employers or immigrating spontaneously. A small economic recession began in 1966. Some of the labour migrants were forced to return to Turkey. In 1968, the economy picked up again and a new recruitment period, which was to last until 1974, commenced. In May 1968, new European Economic Community rules forced the Netherlands to instate a travel visa system to regulate labour immigration and from then on, the state recruited foreign workers. The peak of Turkish labour migration occurred during these years. The Turks eventually surpassed other migrant nationalities in numbers and came to represent the Dutch image of guest workers. Due to the 1973 oil crisis, the Den Uyl cabinet ended labour immigration in 1974. Because from then on re-entry into the Netherlands was impossible, Turkish remigration strongly decreased. A system of family reunification had been arranged in the 1960s and gradually Turkish workers after 1974 brought over their wife and children. The latter predominantly married partners from Turkey. In the early twenty-first century the Second Balkenende cabinet imposed much stricter conditions on unification, to a large extent ending Turkish "marriage immigration". This coincided with a drop in birth rates, leading to a gradual levelling off in the growth of people of Turkish descent. Since 2003, there have often been years with a emigration surplus.
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