Report on minorities 1999

The profile of the Dutch population has changed radically since the 1960s. The labour migrants who settled in the Netherlands then have proved to be the precursors of a continuous migratory movement whose end is not yet in sight. The integration of these immigrants is anything but a smooth process. Over the last 30 years, the Netherlands has become a post-industrial society which places considerable demands on the skills and adaptability of each of its members. At the same time, the Netherlands has undergone a radical socio-cultural modernisation. Secularisation and individualisation have spread and collective emancipation of migrants through integration in the old social structures is no longer an obvious option; in order to establish their position, migrants today largely have to rely on their own individual adaptability. The majority of the first labour migrants were inadequately equipped for this. The ethnic minority population has grown rapidly in recent decades and is more diverse than in the past; migrants today come from a mix of countries of origin. The now familiar groups of Turks, Moroccans, Surinamese and Antilleans have given birth to a second generation, born in the Netherlands, who thanks to their participation in the Dutch education system are much better prepared for the demands placed on them by Dutch society, but who nonetheless lag far behind their indigenous Dutch peers.

The education level of old and new migrants, their position on the labour market and the participation of their children in education are the main topics addressed in the Report on Minorities 1999 (Rapportage minderheden 1999). Major new data sources were used in compiling the report. The position of the various minority groups is consistently compared with that of the indigenous majority. The comparisons cover a series of years and where possible are broken down into the different generations.
These analyses are followed by a discussion of the present minorities policy of central government, and a number of recommendations are subsequently formulated.

The Report on Minorities 1999 is the seventh in the series which began in 1993 at the request of the Minister of the Interior and Kingdoms Relations.