 A cohort of Chinese from Qingtian celebrating the victory ofWorld War II in Holland with fish lantern procession (鱼灯舞), 1945 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 84,453 (2022) 0.48% of the population[1] Statistics for people born in the People's Republic of China or the Republic of China and their children only | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Rotterdam (6,500) Amsterdam (5,000) Eindhoven (3,200)[2] | |
| Languages | |
| Dutch Indonesian (inclJavanese andMalay) Sranan Tongo Chinese dialects (largelyCantonese andHakka among older migrants and their descendants; circa 2002 recent expatriates typically speakMandarin,Wenzhounese,Qingtian dialect,Eastern Min, andSouthern Min)[3] | |
| Religion | |
| Buddhism (~18.7%[4]) Chinese folk religion Taoism Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Overseas Chinese |
Chinese people in the Netherlands (Dutch:Chinezen in Nederland;Chinese:荷蘭華人/荷兰华人) form one of the largestoverseas Chinese populations incontinental Europe. In 2022 official statistics showed 84,453 people originating from thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) (includingHong Kong) andRepublic of China (ROC), or people with at least one such parent.[5] However, these statistics do not capture the whole size of the Chinese community, which since its earliest days has included not just migrants from China, but people of Chinese ethnicity drawn from amongoverseas Chinese communities as well.[6]
Early Chinese labour migration to the Netherlands was drawn primarily from two sources: peddlers fromQingtian,Zhejiang who began arriving in the country afterWorld War I, and seamen ofGuangdong origin drawn from among theBritish Chinese community; the latter had initially been brought in asstrikebreakers in 1911. During theGreat Depression, many of the seamen were laid off and also took to street peddling, especially ofpindakoekjes (peanut cakes); the Dutch referred to them as "pindaman" ("peanut man"). Their numbers dropped as a result of voluntary outmigration and deportations; byWorld War II, fewer than 1,000 remained.[2]
Another group of early ethnic Chinese in the Netherlands were students; they were largely not from China, however, but were instead drawn from amongChinese communities in the Dutch East Indies. From a group of 20 in 1911, their numbers continued to increase, interrupted only byWorld War II; in 1957, out of the roughly 1,400 ethnic Chinese from Indonesia in the Netherlands, 1,000 were students.[6] In 1911, these students established the Chung Hwa Hui, which was in contact with various Chinese organizations and political parties in Europe.[7] Largely ofPeranakan origin, the students tended to speakIndonesian local languages as their mother tongues, and had already done their early education at Dutch-medium schools.[2] However, with increasing tensions inIndonesia–Netherlands relations in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the number of students dropped off sharply.[6]
Though the number of Chinese students from Indonesia dropped off, tens of thousands of ethnic Chinese were forced to leave the country due to theviolent political situation in Indonesia in 1965. Most went to China, the United States, or Australia, but those who had been educated in Dutch preferentially chose the Netherlands as their destination; there are no exact statistics, but the migrants themselves estimate that about 5,000 arrived during this period. As with the students, these migrants tended to speak no Chinese, with Indonesian languages as their mother tongues and Dutch as their academic language.[8] In the late 1970s and early 1980s,Hong Kong also became a significant source of Chinese migrants to the Netherlands, with about 600 to 800 per year, falling off to around 300 to 400 per year by the late 1980s.[9]
Also in the 1980s, the Netherlands began to become a popular choice for students frommainland China. Factors which influenced this popularity included the tuition fees, which were relatively lower than those in the United Kingdom, and the ease of obtaining a student visa as compared to the United States. In the beginning, these were PRC government-financed students, consisting of top students selected by examination, and gained admission at prestigious Dutch universities such asLeiden University.[10] However, in the 1990s, more privately financed students, students on Dutch scholarships, and short-term exchange students began to arrive.[11] By 2002, embassy figures showed roughly 4,000 PRC students in the Netherlands.[12]
As of 2012[update], figures from theNetherlands'Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek showed:
Totalling 80,198 persons. This represents growth of 92.8% compared to the population in 1996, the earliest year for which statistics are available. However, the various groups within the population show sharply differing growth trends. The number of persons of mainland Chinese background grew by 152% over that same period, with both overseas-born and Dutch-born segments showing a similar level of growth. In contrast, the number of persons of Hong Kong background has shown only mild growth, entirely due to natural increase rather than additional migration; in fact the stock of Hong Kong migrants fell by 5.6% during the same period.[1]
There is also migration ofSurinamese Hakkas to the Netherlands who constitute about 10% of the Chinese population.
The Chinese in the Netherlands are not particularly geographically concentrated; more than half work in the restaurant trade, and because they prefer to openChinese restaurants where they have less competition, they tend to spread out to towns all over the country.Amsterdam has aChinatown, but it is purely a commercial district, rather than a mixed-use residential/commercial district as in Chinatowns in other countries.[9]Rotterdam andThe Hague also have similar districts.[13]
Chinese students themselves, comparing the Netherlands to the United States, state that the Netherlands offers a peaceful and not-particularly-challenging life, but fewer opportunities; one popular saying among them is that excellent students find the Netherlands too small to fulfill their ambitions, and leave of their own volition, while average and below-average students are forced out of the country entirely.[14]
Chinese in the Netherlands are often perceived to be "snakeheads", participating in smuggling Chinese migrants from Eastern Europe to the United Kingdom.[15] In the 1980s, the Dutch government, considering the poor Dutch language abilities and lack of integration by many members of the Chinese community, began to consider officially recognising them as a disadvantaged minority, similar toMoroccan orTurkish migrants.[citation needed] This proved to be extremely controversial among the Chinese community; the widespread discussions in Dutch media of the problems in the community led to public perception of the Chinese as illegal migrants working for low pay and incapable of solving their own community problems, strongly embarrassing members of older generations who had stressed "invisibility and self-reliance". In the end, the government did not grant the Chinese official minority status as the Chinese did not want government subsidies and minority status.[16] However, stereotypical mainstream views only strengthened, especially as a result of several heavily publicised tragedies such as the2000 Dover incident, in which 58 Chinese migrants suffocated in arefrigerated container on their way from the Netherlands toDover,England.[15]
There are also some intra-community tensions between recent expatriates, especially students, and the olderoverseas Chinese. The latter are largelyCantonese-speaking, while the former useMandarin as theirlingua franca. The divide shows up most clearly in the education of children; few international students send their children to the schools established by the old overseas Chinese, deriding them as low-quality schools "for the children of the restaurant families" and employing low-quality teachers. In contrast, the old overseas Chinese describe the students as arrogant, and view themselves as the "real representatives of the Chinese community in the Netherlands".[17]
The descendants ofIndonesian-speaking Chinese tend to stay out of such conflict; having largely entered the liberal professions they also look down on the "restaurant Chinese", but in return other Chinese often view them as not "really Chinese".[18] They rarely join any of the associations set up by other Chinese migrants or their descendants, instead preferring their own associations.[19]
Media related toDutch people of Chinese descent at Wikimedia Commons
