An international nation under pressure
Following a long historical tradition, the country has remained a welcoming land for foreigners. Many different nationalities live in the major cities. More than 180 nationalities coexist peacefully in Amsterdam, making it a truly cosmopolitan city. Not everything is rosy, far from it, and the tougher speeches have multiplied and have been embodied for more than 20 years by Pim Fortuyn, then Geert Wilders and Thierry Baudet, whose party Forum voor Democratie is a sort of Dutch Zemmour. However, the Dutch are fiercely committed to their model of integration and tolerance
Immigration. As in any country with a long history of colonialism, immigration contributes significantly to the population and economic activity. Net migration has always remained positive, mainly due to the settlement of workers from Mediterranean countries (especially Turkey). The Netherlands has also experienced a high level of immigration from the Netherlands Antilles (91,000 people now living in the Netherlands) and Surinam (approximately 190,000 people born in Surinam live in the Netherlands). There are also 35,000 Moluccans, 25,000 Chinese and 1,500 Gypsies. 700,000 foreigners live in the Netherlands, mainly in the large cities in the west. French can be spoken with French-speaking people, mainly Moroccans and Tunisians, who are present in large numbers in Rotterdam. Population growth will be slower during this century.
Some figures
In 2022, there will be 17.6 million inhabitants, including 871,873 in Amsterdam, for a density of 517 inhabitants per square kilometer. With a population growth of 0.6% in 2016, the population aged 65 and over represents 18.35% of the population. Finally, there are 25,000 registered members of the French Community of the Netherlands!
An important information
The Dutch are the tallest people in the world and a visit to the Netherlands will make you feel small, very small sometimes. On average, a Dutch man is 182.9 centimeters tall and a Dutch woman is 170.7. The situation is quite impressive and reinforces that constant cliché that associates the Batavians with the Scandinavians. Since 1980, the Dutch are not growing any more and even tend to shrink while remaining the tallest by far. The reason for this growth stoppage is said to be bad eating habits, but also according to others, it is due to a biological limit being reached. During your stay, you will not fail to meet very tall people and this size tends to contrast with the infrastructures (buildings, doors, sanitary facilities) which are often of modest size, especially in the center of the cities.
Spreekt u Nederlands?
Dutch, an Indo-European language very close to German, remains for most of us almost unpronounceable! Fortunately, the Dutch are polyglot and like to show their mastery of English and sometimes their (increasingly limited) mastery of French. In general, the practice of foreign languages is so developed in this country with a strong commercial tradition that we can take good lessons in applied cosmopolitanism.
The Dutch language dates back to the 8th century. It belongs to the Germanic language family (like English and German). Dutch is the mother tongue of 22 million Flemings and Dutch people. It is also the official language of Suriname (population: 550,000) and the Netherlands Antilles (population: approximately 285,000), which are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Dutch still plays an important role as a foreign language in Indonesia, whose population is estimated at over 230 million. A language closely related to Dutch, Afrikaans, is spoken as a mother tongue by more than 6 million people in South Africa (total population: 44 million) and is the first foreign language for 10 million people.
The case of the Friesian
In the northern province of Friesland, a dialect is spoken by the inhabitants in addition to the official Dutch language: Frisian, West Frisian to be exact. This language is only used in the northern province of the Netherlands, Friesland (Fryslân). The majority of Dutch people do not speak this language. In the region, Frisian has become the official language for administration and education. The Frisian authorities have required the translation of official documents into Frisian, some websites and street names are bilingual. There are approximately 500,000 Frisian speakers in the world.
Champions of English
English is very well spoken in the Netherlands and more than 90% of Dutch people consider themselves capable of holding a conversation in this language. Expats who try to learn Dutch are dismayed, as their efforts often result in answers in English. The reason for this is the linguistic proximity of the two languages, the communicative skills of the Dutch, and the subtitling of all programs, starting with youth programs. Many university programs are in English, allowing many international students to study in the Netherlands without any problems. The mastery of English is generally better in the big cities than in the countryside. Since there is no such thing as perfection, English that is fed with Batavisms is called "Dunglish".
An attractive country for the French
The Netherlands is attracting more and more French people, mainly in Amsterdam and The Hague and this is reflected in the new stores and a je-ne-sais-quoi in some neighborhoods. Officially about 20,000 French, probably more than double, the French community is constantly growing and it is an active community that goes out a lot. The French around you during your stay are not necessarily tourists! On the other hand, the Dutch speak less and less French, our language has totally lost the battle against English since the 1980s... If you don't speak English, don't hesitate to try in French, the Dutch have a natural talent for languages and no complex at this level. The French neighborhoods are often located in the vicinity of the French schools, so the neighborhoods of Pijp or Zuid in Amsterdam or Statenkwartier in The Hague.
