Fewer immigrant arrivals in 2023, particularly refugees from Ukraine | Statistics Netherlands (CBS)

In 2023, 37 thousand people entered the Netherlands under the Temporary Protection Directive issued as a result of the war in Ukraine. In 2022, that number was over 108 thousand. More immigrants with other reasons for migrating came to the Netherlands from outside the EU and EFTA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland), a rise of 5 percent, while the number of immigrants arriving from EU/EFTA countries declined by 2 percent. The number of people of Dutch nationality who returned to the Netherlands remained almost unchanged.

Most non-EU/EFTA immigrants come to the Netherlands to join other family members

A quarter of non-EU/EFTA immigrants came to the Netherlands as family migrants, making this the largest group. The number of asylum migrants and student migrants increased. However, fewer migrants arrived in the Netherlands with the aim of working than in 2022, due to a fall in the number of knowledge migrants.

The total number of non-EU/EFTA immigrants declined by almost 66 thousand to 165 thousand in 2023. This fall was entirely attributable to a fall in the number of refugees arriving from Ukraine.

As in 2022, over half of all asylum migrants came from Syria (55 percent). Relatively high numbers of asylum migrants also came from Yemen and Turkey (9 percent for each of these countries). In 2023, one third of all asylum migrants arrived in the Netherlands under the following family members option.

The number of knowledge migrants who arrived in 2023 fell by almost 5 thousand to 21.5 thousand. A large number of knowledge migrants came from India (21 percent), as in previous years. Other relatively large groups of knowledge migrants came from Turkey, Russia and South Africa.

A large number of family migrants accompany labour migrants

In 2023, 41.6 thousand family migrants from non-EU/EFTA countries came to the Netherlands. They came in order to accompany a family member who either arrived in the Netherlands at the same time or was already resident in the Netherlands. In many cases, this was a partner, child or parent. A large number of these family migrants were joining a labour migrant (42 percent), an asylum migrant (7 percent) or a student migrant (4 percent).

The remaining family migrants (47 percent) fell into the ‘other’ category. These include those joining somebody who was born in the Netherlands, or somebody who migrated for motives other than work, study or asylum.

Work was the main objective for EU/EFTA immigrants

A total of 129 thousand immigrants from EU/EFTA countries arrived in the Netherlands in 2022 (excluding those of Dutch nationality), 11 thousand more than in the previous year. Finding work remains the main goal for these immigrants, followed by joining a family member (figures on the motives that this group had for migrating are not yet available for 2023).

In 2022, 32 thousand family migrants arrived in the Netherlands from non-EU/EFTA countries. Of these, nearly 10 thousand came to be with a migrant worker (31 percent); the next largest number came to be with a student migrant (6 percent). The category of ‘other’ included 64 percent of migrants. Just as with non-EU/EFTA migrants, these include family migrants joining somebody born in the Netherlands or somebody whose assumed reason for migrating was other than work or study.

Return migration

Immigrants from EU/EFTA countries are more likely than non-EU/EFTA migrants to leave the Netherlands at a later date. Ten years after arriving, nearly half of non-EU/EFTA immigrants have left the Netherlands, but among EU/EFTA immigrants that share is nearly three quarters.