Last year, 171,000 immigrants came to the Netherlands without Dutch citizenship. This is 44,000 less than in 2019. This is evidenced by the figures released by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) on Wednesday. About 50,000 people with Dutch citizenship returned to the Netherlands in 2020, about 4,000 fewer than the previous year. It is the first time since 2015 that the immigration rate has decreased.
In particular, the number of immigrants from outside the European Union and from outside the countries of Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland decreased by about 30 thousand people to 61,700. More than a third of these immigrants came to the Netherlands as part of family migration. Other common reasons include study, work and asylum. The number of highly skilled immigrants from this group fell by almost half in 2020.
The number of immigrants from within the European Union and the countries of Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland decreased by 15,000 compared to 2019. With 109,000 immigrants, this number has returned to the level of 2018. Since 2013, work has been the most common reason for this group to migrate, more than a third of which came to the Netherlands In 2019 to work. The immigration motive figures for this group are not yet known for 2020.
