East Europeans settling down

From today’s edition of Radio Netherlands’ press review:

De Volkskrant writes that an increasing number of East Europeans workers are settling down in the Netherlands. The Statistics Office reports that more than 70,000 Poles, Bulgarians and Romanians are now registered with local councils. If the trend continues, their number will have grown to 100,000 by 2010.

A spokesperson for the Statistics Office compares the new stream of migrants with the arrival of the Moroccan and Turkish ‘guest workers’ in the previous century. They were supposed to return to their countries of origin, but never did. He describes the latest wave of migrants as “demand-driven labour migration.” Poland joined the EU in 2004, Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. EU citizens are free to settle in the Netherlands if they have a job and an income, or go to school here.

Source: Radio Netherlands, 21 September 2007