Crossroads editor Sueli Brodin national expatriate of the Year!
March 24, 2010 4 Comments
Sueli Brodin, a resident of the Maastricht Region, born in Brazil, who lived in Pakistan, Japan and France today was elected ‘Expat of the Year’. The award was presented during the official awards ceremony at Nyenrode Business University by expat organisation Expatica. Sueli Brodin also won the award because of her work for Crossroads, an [...]
More than one tenth of the Netherlands covered by woods
March 17, 2010 Leave a Comment
More than 10 percent of the Dutch land area ((3,447 km²) is occupied by woods. This corresponds to the total land area of the province of Friesland. The area of woodland per capita is 211 m².
More woods
In the period 1996-2006, the wooded area in the Netherlands increased by 210 km². In [...]
Economic crisis slows down migration, fewer people moved in 2009
February 11, 2010 Leave a Comment
* Fewer emigrants, more immigrants
* Fewer house moves
* Number of divorces down
* Highest population growth since 2002
In 2009, emigration decreased and immigration increased. The net population growth was 92 thousand, an increase by just over 10 thousand relative to [...]
Dutch have little trust in parliament, government’
December 10, 2009 1 Comment
Compared with other countries, the Dutch have very little trust in institutions such as parliament, the government, the media, justice and large companies. This is one of the findings of the comparative study ‘How civilised is the Netherlands? A fiscal cost-benefit analysis’ commissioned by the Central Planning Bureau (CPB).
Sijbren Cnossen, guest researcher at the CPB, [...]
Kilometre charge for road users
December 8, 2009 Leave a Comment
Over the next few years, road users will have to pay a charge for each kilometre they drive. The average charge for a car will rise from 3 euro cents per kilometre in 2012 to 6.7 cents in 2018.
This measure is set out in the bill on the kilometre charge , which the cabinet has [...]
Search engine lists Netherlands’ 314,000 different surnames
December 4, 2009 Leave a Comment
The University of Utrecht and Amsterdam’s Meertens Institute yesterday opened the Netherlands Family Names Bank. The institutes have registered 314,000 family names occurring in the Netherlands.
The most frequently occurring surnames among the indigenous Dutch are De Jong, Jansen and De Vries. The three fast-growing surnames are logically those of immigrants: Yilmaz, Nguyen and Ali.
The databank [...]
Netherlands to step up exotic fruit checkups
December 2, 2009 Leave a Comment
The Food and Non-food Authority (VWA) is to focus its fruit and vegetables checkups on products from countries with relatively frequent infringements of health standards. “In 2010, fewer checkups will be carried out on products from the Netherlands. Products from countries like Thailand, the Dominican Republic and India will be checked more often.”
Infringements of the [...]
Dutch more worried about their culture than economy
November 27, 2009 Leave a Comment
The Dutch are more worried about their culture than about the economy. They are also much more worried about ordinary crime than about terrorism, according to a survey by the National Anti-terrorism Coordinator (NCTB) for the Government Information Service (RVD).
Respondents were allowed to say spontaneously what causes them the most concern at the moment. The [...]
Working unattractive due to inactivity subsidies
November 26, 2009 Leave a Comment
It is relatively unattractive in the Netherlands to start working more or to take a job from a position of unemployment. This is specifically due to the disappearance of subsidies and allowances for such groups, concludes the Central Planning Bureau (CPB).
Employees with a salary of up to 20,000 euros a year retain around 60 to [...]
Three quarters of all young people want to marry
November 26, 2009 Leave a Comment
Three quarters of all young people want to marry
* 72 thousand marriages in 2009
* Nine in ten young people expect to live together
* Share of unmarried parents rising
* More singles and single-parent families
* Half of [...]
CDA Irritation over Multicultural Sinterklaas
November 19, 2009 Leave a Comment
The Christian democrats (CDA) are put out that the Christian cross on the mitre of Sinterklaas is disappearing in more and more municipalities with the apparent intention of keeping radical Muslims calm.
Sinterklaas is the Dutch variant of Santa Claus. Tradition has it that the holy bishop arrives from Spain on his steamboat on around 20 [...]
Dutch taking more but shorter vacations
November 16, 2009 Leave a Comment
The Dutch went on vacation more often this year. But they did stay closer to home, went away for shorter periods and spent less, the Netherlands Bureau for Tourism and Congresses (NBTC) reported Friday.
About 81 percent have been on holiday one or more times this year. In total, over 36 million vacations were taken, up [...]
Advice: Classes with 75 pupils to cope with teacher shortage
November 16, 2009 Leave a Comment
The Education Council has advised Education Minister Ronald Plasterk to enlarge classes to 50 to 75 pupils. Also, pupils should help their teachers teach.
The council urges “education forms whereby teaching is offered to a bigger group of pupils (around 50-75) and is provided by more than one teacher” in order to reduce the teacher shortage. [...]
Quarter of a million east Europeans in the Netherlands
November 11, 2009 Leave a Comment
On 1 January 2009, a quarter of a million people from eastern Europe had settled in the Netherlands, nearly four times as many as during the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, twenty years ago to the day.
Number of people from eastern Europe in the Netherlands on 1 January by country of origin
Growing number [...]
Relatively little time needed to start a business in the Netherlands
November 11, 2009 Leave a Comment
Compared with most countries, it takes a relatively short time to start up a business in the Netherlands. How much time and how many procedures it takes to start up a business is indicative of the extent to which entrepreneurs are hampered by bureaucracy. The infographics ‘Starting a new business’ illustrates this for 20 reference [...]
State Secretary Albayrak increases fees for residence permit
November 5, 2009 Leave a Comment
State Secretary for Justice Albayrak increases the fees that have to be paid to obtain a residence permit in the Netherlands. This increase should lead to improved coverage of the costs incurred by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) for issuing residence permits. This was reported today by the State Secretary in a letter to [...]
Intercultural marriage remains a rarity
November 4, 2009 Leave a Comment
Over 90 percent of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands who got married in 2008 did so with someone out of their own ethnic group. Less than 10 percent married a white Dutch person, according to the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS).
Last year, 28,000 people of non-Dutch origin got married. Over half were non-Western [...]
Chinese employers body opens office in Netherlands
November 2, 2009 Leave a Comment
Chinese employers’ organisation Wecba is to open an office in the Netherlands. The agreement for this was signed at the end of a two-day conference of Wecba’s on Chinese investments in The Hague.
Wecba is the employers’ organisation for the top 500 Chinese companies. State Secretary Frank Heemskerk is pleased that Wecba wants to open an [...]
Foreign students to attend event in The Hague
November 2, 2009 Leave a Comment
At the invitation of Nuffic thousands of foreign students currently studying in the Netherlands will be going to The Hague to attend the Day of the International Student on Saturday 7 November. Prior to this event, a two-day working conference will also be held for alumni of Dutch higher education institutions who are now spread [...]
Dutch consider sustainable products less healthy
October 20, 2009 1 Comment
Dutch consumers consider sustainable food products of inferior quality compared to ordinary products. They also consider that food products with health claims should be cheaper than regular food, conclude researchers from the University of Groningen.
Supporters often argue that biological products have more taste, are healthier and are produced in an animal-friendly way. But most Dutch [...]
The Netherlands exports 1.3 billion euro worth of sweets
October 9, 2009 1 Comment
In 2008, the value of sweets exports was nearly twice as high as its imports value. Chocolate is by far the most popular type of sweets. Within the EU, the Netherlands occupies a prominent place as a manufacturer of liquorice sweets.
Sweets imports and exports
Chocolate most important type of sweets
In 2008, the Netherlands exported 400 million [...]
Population decrease in one quarter of Dutch municipalities
October 7, 2009 1 Comment
New regional population forecasts to 2040:
In some parts of the Netherlands, especially in the periphery of the country, the population will decrease substantially in the next thirty years. In one quarter of Dutch municipalities the number of inhabitants will fall by more than 2.5 percent by 2040; a total of one quarter of [...]
Participation rate Dutch youth in education above European average
October 2, 2009 Leave a Comment
Relative to other European countries, many young people in the Netherlands attend some form of education. The number of young people leaving school without a basic qualification is also below the European Union (EU) average.
Substantial part of young Dutch population still attend some form of education
A substantial part of 15 to 25-year-olds in the EU [...]
Wanted: young novelists, poets, playwrights and journalists
September 25, 2009 Leave a Comment
DutchNews.nl announcement:
The International Herald Tribune, DutchNews.nl and The XPat Journal are proud to launch the Netherlands’ first Young Writers Competition - a chance for budding writers, journalists, poets and storytellers to showcase their talents to the world.
The competition is aimed at the 20,000 children attending international schools in the Netherlands and bilingual streams in Dutch [...]
Unique book unravels the mysteries of Dutch abbreviations
September 25, 2009 Leave a Comment
Dutch can sound like a secret language… new book unravels the mysteries of 400 abbreviations, acronyms and weird words which can baffle not only foreigners but many Dutch people too
“The Dutch are very keen that everyone who lives in the Netherlands learns the language. But it does not matter how good your Dutch is, or [...]
Health care costs in the Netherlands just under EU average
September 23, 2009 Leave a Comment
In 2006, health care costs constituted 8.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), positioning the Netherlands just below the European Union (EU) average of 9.0 percent. France, Germany and Austria were the biggest spenders. They committed more than 10 percent of their GDPs to health care. In the new EU member states, the proportion [...]
Immigrants more intolerant of Dutch than vice versa
September 18, 2009 Leave a Comment
Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands are more intolerant of ‘white’ Dutch than white Dutch are of them, says Radboud University Nijmegen sociologist Jochem Tolsma. He will receive his doctorate with research on ethnic tolerance on 28 September.
One yardstick Tolsma used for measuring tolerance is how people view an inter-ethnic marriage. Among the white Dutch, [...]
Netherlands important provider of high-tech services
September 18, 2009 Leave a Comment
The importance of the high-tech services sector as an employment generator in the Netherlands has grown in recent years, also in comparison to other EU countries. In the medium and high-tech industry, on the other hand, the role of the Netherlands has diminished. Altogether, the share of these two sectors as employment generators has decreased [...]
2010 Tax Plan: More enterprise, and fewer barriers to enterprise
September 16, 2009 Leave a Comment
More enterprise, and fewer barriers to enterprise’ is the key idea underlying the proposals in the 2010 Tax Plan. ‘Entrepreneurs are the backbone of our economy. They are the engine that powers job creation, productivity and growth. That’s why my proposals are all about making enterprise simpler and more attractive,’ explained State Secretary for Finance [...]
Queen Sketches Economic Doomsday Scenario
September 16, 2009 Leave a Comment
The Speech from the Throne that Queen Beatrix gives annually on the third Tuesday of September was noticeably shorter than in previous years yesterday. With a lack of concrete policy proposals, the monarch had to restrict herself more than usual to a general assessment of the Dutch situation, in which she spoke almost exclusively of [...]
