Posted on 05/06/2005 12:18:01 PM PDT by aculeus
Europe's pioneer for much of the last century in social experiments, it seems the Netherlands may now be pointing to the next cultural revolution: the bourgeois exodus. Escaping the stress of clogged roads, street violence and loss of faith in the country's once celebrated way of life, the Dutch are quitting their homeland in droves.
More and more Dutch people are leaving the Netherlands to live abroad. In 1999, nearly 30,000 native Dutch moved elsewhere. By 2004 the figure had shot up to almost 50,000. Dutch people emigrating around the world is nothing new, but this time it's highly skilled people with degrees that are leaving, the kind of workforce you want to keep.
Well qualified
One place that's noticed a surge of interest in leaving the country is a migration consultancy bureau in Amsterdam. Grant King, director of the office, says he has seen a marked change in the type of people coming to see him:
"Most of our applicants are in high-paying, good, solid positions here - they are not the unemployed. They are mostly middle-class Dutch people with college or university degrees […] The problem for the Netherlands is that the ones that they don't want to lose are the ones that are leaving."
Claustrophobic
Better opportunities on the labour market and personal relationships are some of the main reasons why people are settling elsewhere. But unlike most earlier waves of migration, this one is not just driven by economics. Congestion, endless traffic jams, packed trains and overcrowding - a daily experience for many Dutch - seem to be part of the reason. Henri Beunders, Professor of history, media and culture at Erasmus University in Rotterdam says people feel claustrophobic:
"This general feeling of disappointment and uneasiness is of course aggravated by the fact that everybody has at least two cars. People who live in The Hague, work in Amsterdam and go to a disco in Rotterdam. So, Holland is like spaghetti that has been cooked for too long, it gets sticky. People are getting the feeling that they are being choked."
Lack of tolerance
Some migrants are also voting with their feet against what they see as a multicultural experiment gone wrong, and the increase in violence and social tension they believe has come with it. It began in May 2002 when populist anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn was shot dead by a left-wing activist - the country's first political assassination in over 400 years. Then, in November 2004, came the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, a fierce critic of fundamentalist Muslims. His ritual-style killing by an alleged Islamic extremist was followed by angry demonstrations and fire-bombings of mosques and Muslim schools. The violence shocked the country. Professor Beunders says:
"The assassin of Theo van Gogh released not only anger but a lot of fear of fanatic Muslims and random violence. It was new for Dutch people to feel physical insecurity, because we are living in a very small country where you can come across anybody."
Migration consultant Frans Buysse received more than 13,000 hits on his emigration website in the weeks after the killing of Van Gogh, which is four times the usual level. He believes that people see the murder of Van Gogh as a reflection of what is happening in Dutch society and that it is therefore time to leave.
Coming back
Some people do return to the Netherlands, but statistics show that more than half of these soon emigrate back to the country they first moved to or to another country, because the reasons why they first left are still the same or worse.
So should the Dutch government be worried about this flight of the well-educated middle classes? Professor Beunders thinks not. He says others who immigrate to the Netherlands will replace the Dutch who leave:
"It will make things a bit more complicated because you have to integrate an even greater number of foreigners into your own country, with all the very complicated regulation systems we have in this country. Growing mobility on the other hand is also a good sign of the growing unification of Europe and understanding of people - I hope."
© Radio Nederland
That's a good point. Where's a conservative Republican in California to go for a little respite from the liboweenies? Reno, I guess -- land of gambling and whores.
You've said it very well. They fail to realize and accept that they are very much a part of the original problem.
Yeah, I guess those are a little more deviant than lighting firecrackers or riding your motorcycle without a helmet!
That's the game plan ; you idiot. -Tom
Sure. The Dutch will be replaced by Muslims. People are people, right? All cultures are equally valid. No problem at all.
As Dennis Prager say, something that stupid could only come from academia.
BTW, had you had seen the guy who sponsored the motorcycle helmet law, you would have guessed that he'd fallen off his cycle a few too many times without a helmet.
This conservative Republican in California moved to New Hampshire for a permanent respite from the liboweenies and their taxes.
You can't blame all the Dutch for the problems their liberal gov't has allowed to foment. There are surely conservatives there, like anywhere else. Sometimes the only effective vote such a small minority is left with is that of their feet.
What Europe needs is it's own Free State project, where concerned Europeans of clear thinking and character can move to somewhere such as Poland or Estonia, which has an overall freer society and they can have some actual political influence. Much as the Libertarians are trying to do in New Hampshire.
-"...you have to integrate an even greater number of foreigners into your own country..."-
Seems to me the reason folks are leaving is because they weren't "integrating" what they had up to this point. Lefties never learn. When it's too late to learn, they just surrender.
I read somethign about this a few weeks back. IIRC, many are going to Canada, not so many to the US.
It's going exactly as planned.
What's amazing is that modern liberals have put feel-goodism over survival by welcoming people whose culture demands the downfall of everyone else.
There's three signatories to the Free State Project from the Netherlands.
There's 16 from Sweden, and 30 from the UK.
http://www.freestateproject.org/about/countries_count.php
Shallow question, are the Dutch women attractive?
What a laugh!!
I am disgusted to think of all American lives loss to save the EU-nichs from Hitler just so the Commies and the Muslims could thrive...the EU is long-term nothing more than a an enemy.
A lot of them are moving to Canada and Australia. Those countries are more open to legal immigrants than the U.S. because they have a sense of being underpopulated.
I read something about this as well. I seem to remember New Zealand and Australia being destinations for the disaffected Dutch. Let's hope they don't ruin those countries with their nutty socialist ideas.
I'll tell you one thing, both the Dutch women and the Dutch men are taller than their American counterparts. Your average Dutch woman is like 5'8".
You are right. We are only open for Illegal imigration. No legal imigrants need apply!
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