Economic growth down in nearly all regions; Poorest results in North Brabant and Limburg
July 3, 2009 Leave a Comment
Poorest results in North Brabant and Limburg
Economic growth in four major cities above average
Economic growth slowed down in nearly all Dutch provinces last year. Growth in the Randstad provinces was at or above the nationwide average of 2 percent. The province of Limburg recorded the lowest growth figure. According to the latest figures published by Statistics [...]
Dutch labour participation rate one of the highest in the EU
July 3, 2009 Leave a Comment
The Dutch labour participation rate in 2008 was among the highest in the European Union (EU). In fact, the rate for Dutch men was the highest in the EU. The labour participation rate in the age category 50–65 was also above the average EU level.
Labour market participation 15 to 65-year-olds, 2008
Netherlands has second highest rate
Labour [...]
Dutch women among the most emancipated in Europe
July 3, 2009 Leave a Comment
Inequality between men and women in the Netherlands is relatively small compared to the other countries of the EU 27. The Netherlands has a relatively high score on the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). It comes fourth behind Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The new member states come in last.
The gender empowerment measure
The GEM signals inequality between women [...]
Museum’s Battle of Arnhem resolved
July 1, 2009 Leave a Comment
The location for the Dutch National History Museum has been resolved. A parliamentary majority has voted in favour of the new museum being located next to the current Open Air Museum in the south-eastern Dutch city of Arnhem.
Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk had wanted it built next to the famous John Frost Bridge. But this location [...]
Minister wants Europeans to integrate better
July 1, 2009 Leave a Comment
Integration Minister Eberhard van der Laan wants Polish and other European immigrants to follow obligatory integration courses. At the moment European immigrants are not required to learn Dutch or assimilate in any way, but the minister is backed by a majority of the Lower House with support from the Christian Democrats, Labour Party and conservative [...]
Netherlands increasingly tied in with global trade
July 1, 2009 Leave a Comment
The Dutch economy has become more and more interwoven with global trade in the last thirty years. This means that it has become more vulnerable to declining international demand. The strong recession in global trade, for example, is one of the main causes of the historic decrease in Dutch gross domestic product (GDP).
Trade economy
The increasing [...]
Start of Kingdom-wide internet consultation trial
June 28, 2009 Leave a Comment
Minister Hirsch Ballin of Justice today gave the start sign for the Kingdom-wide trial to have citizens, companies and interest groups contribute their opinions on new legislation and regulations, by means of the Internet, in the Communication Museum in The Hague. The Minister launched the www.internetconsultatie.nl website for this purpose. The experiment will be concluded [...]
Amsterdam local authority services to be bilingual
June 28, 2009 Leave a Comment
Amsterdam is to introduce English as its second language. The centre-left D66 proposal was supported on the city council by the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks), Labour (PvdA) and the conservatives (VVD).
The proposal was voted down last September, but a majority now supported D66 councillor Jan Paternotte’s plan. “Nowadays, everyone can get by in English in shops [...]
Over-65s with a foreign background growing fast
June 24, 2009 Leave a Comment
The population group in the Netherlands with a non-western foreign background will age strongly in the next few decades. According to Statistics Netherlands’ latest forecast of the foreign population in the Netherlands, the number of over-65s with a non-western foreign background will increase from just under 70 thousand today to more than 520 thousand [...]
Migration policy concerning knowledge workers, students and researchers leads to reduced administrative burden
June 22, 2009 Leave a Comment
Upon a proposal from Minister of Justice Hirsch Ballin and State Secretary for Justice Albayrak, the Dutch Government has agreed to the Modern Migration Policy bill. The bill comprises a modernisation of the Aliens Act 2000 and is based on the proposals contained in the Modern Migration Policy policy document presented last year by State [...]
The diaries of Anne Frank ‘come home’.
June 11, 2009 Leave a Comment
The diaries of Anne Frank ‘come home’
From 1 November 2009, all the diaries and writings of Anne Frank will be on display in the house in which they were written, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. The NIOD will permanently give all the writings on loan to the Anne Frank House.
The Netherlands Institute for War [...]
Christian schools allowed to dismiss homosexual teacher
June 10, 2009 Leave a Comment
Schools are allowed to exclude practising homosexual teachers if this behaviour is against their religious principles. So says the Council of State in as yet confidential written recommendations to the cabinet, Nederlands Dagblad newspaper reported yesterday.
The requirements that schools impose on teachers must not lead to discrimination. Specific requirements for behaviour in or outside the [...]
Record number of immigrants in 2008
June 10, 2009 Leave a Comment
According to population figures from 2008, the net migration rate in the Netherlands was positive for the first time since 2003.
This basically means that more people came to live in the country than left it. Last year saw a record number of immigrants - 140,000 in total. The number of “import brides” - young [...]
PVV most popular among newspaper readers
June 8, 2009 Leave a Comment
The Party for Freedom (PVV) is the biggest party among readers of national newspapers. But there are big variations per newspaper, according to pollster Maurice de Hond.
For the European elections, PVV was the most popular party among readers of De Telegraaf (43 percent), Algemeen Dagblad (25 percent), Het Financieele Dagblad (22 percent) and free newspapers [...]
EU: Dutch government acts against European spirit
June 6, 2009 Leave a Comment
The European Commission said on Friday it will ask the Dutch government to clarify why it released last night preliminary results of the European elections in The Netherlands.
The early release does not comply with the spirit of the European elections, said a spokesperson, speaking French.
Source: EUX.TV, 5 June 2009
PVV biggest winner in Dutch EU elections
June 5, 2009 Leave a Comment
In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ far right Freedom Party (PVV) appears to be the biggest winner of the European Union elections.
Early analyses of the results are saying that the PVV, which stood for the first time in EU elections, has won four seats. The Christian Democrats, which remained the biggest party, lost two of its [...]
Hotline and website for Poles
June 5, 2009 Leave a Comment
As of Friday, Polish workers in the Netherlands who believe they’re being exploited can call a free hotline staffed by native speakers. The hotline is in addition to a website where Poles can lodge complaints about low wages and inadequate housing.
Employers’ organisation ABU says about 5,000 crooked temporary job agencies operate in the Netherlands. [...]
‘Buddhism now third religion in Netherlands’
May 27, 2009 Leave a Comment
Buddhism has expanded in the Netherlands into the third religion after Christianity and Islam. The growth is so strong that as well as Islamisation, it is possible to speak of Buddhisation of the Netherlands, argue researchers Marcel Poorthuis and Theo Salemink in De Volkskrant.
The Netherlands now has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people who feel [...]
Albright in Dutch Institute for Global Justice
May 26, 2009 Leave a Comment
Former American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has accepted the invitation of the city of The Hague to join the supervisory board of the Institute for Global Justice, a new education and research institute in the city, De Volkskrant newspaper reported yesterday.
The intention is that the Institute for Global Justice, in collaboration with Leiden University, [...]
Amsterdam’s public transport to go bilingual
May 26, 2009 Leave a Comment
Amsterdam’s public transport information should be provided in both Dutch and English, according to the city’s economic affairs alderman, Lodewijk Asscher. The Labour alderman is to present his plans for bilingual transport announcements to the city council this week, ANP reports.
Mr Asscher says bilingual announcements are needed on trams, buses and metros to provide a [...]
Seeking 400 participants for the ING New York City Marathon
May 22, 2009 Leave a Comment
NY400, the city of Amsterdam, the ING bank, and Runner’s World magazine are seeking 400 enthusiastic marathon runners for the ING New York City Marathon on 1 November.
In New York, the city authorities have produced 400 extra starting permits to mark 400 years of friendship between the city and the Netherlands.
The ING New York City [...]
Asparagus slave-driver arrested
May 22, 2009 Leave a Comment
The police say they have arrested the owner of a controversial asparagus farm in the southern province of Brabant. The 46-year-old woman allegedly had 50 Eastern Europeans farmhands, many of them Romanian, working on the farm in circumstances approaching slavery.
The conditions on the farm came to light earlier this week. The SIOD - a body [...]
Nearly a quarter of immigrants transfer money to the countries where their families live
May 22, 2009 Leave a Comment
Nearly one quarter of households with a foreign background report to have transferred money abroad, predominantly to the countries where their parents, relatives or friends live. The share is highest among Surinamese households and they also transfer the largest amounts, as is shown in a survey on money transfers abroad conducted by Statistics Netherlands among [...]
Sales of cigarettes and rolling tobacco down
May 20, 2009 Leave a Comment
The amount of manufactured and hand-rolled cigarettes sold in 2008 declined 3 percent relative to 2007. At the same time, Dutch consumer spending on these products increased 4 percent. Since the turn of the century, sales of manufactured and hand-rolled cigarettes have dropped by 21 percent.
Sales down
Last year 14.9 billion cigarettes were sold, 2 percent [...]
Internet supplanting traditional media products
May 20, 2009 Leave a Comment
Just over half of internet users in the Netherlands listened to radio and/or watched television programmes online in 2008. Just under half of users read newspapers online or downloaded them. Media use via the internet is displacing traditional forms of published media such as printed newspapers.
Strong increase in online media use
More and more people in [...]
Dutch among most interested in EU elections
May 19, 2009 Leave a Comment
Some 57 percent of the Dutch say they are interested or very interested in the European parliament elections. This is the fourth highest score among the 27 EU countries, after Luxembourg, Ireland and Malta, shows a study for the French Political Innovation Foundation.
Eighteen percent of EU respondents said they were “not at all interested” in [...]
Koenders signs Dutch-South African higher education partnership agreement
May 15, 2009 Leave a Comment
Development minister Bert Koenders and Blade Nzimande, South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education, have signed an agreement on cooperation in higher education between South Africa and the Netherlands.
The Netherlands has set aside €13 million, for four years, for capacity development in higher education (NICHE) in South Africa. The NICHE programme aims to develop competencies in [...]
The IND issues the first residence document for exceptional foreign talent
May 15, 2009 Leave a Comment
Deputy General Director of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) Gert Versluis on 14 May issued, on behalf of State Secretary Albayrak, the first residence document for highly-educated persons for the Orientation Year at the IND’s Office for Labour and Highly Skilled Migrants in Rijswijk.
Gert Versluis issued the document to Ms Ima Shaista from Indonesia, [...]
Netherlands escapes unemployment rise so far
May 15, 2009 Leave a Comment
Unemployment is not rising as rapidly as expected, according to the latest figures released by the Dutch statistics office (CBS). In the first quarter of this year, the overall unemployment level is unchanged compared to the same period last year, at 4.4 percent,
Among young people, however, unemployment is on the increase. In the 10 to [...]
Increase in number of Eastern European workers slows down considerably
May 15, 2009 Leave a Comment
In February 2009, the number of workers from EU countries in Eastern Europe was 84 thousand, i.e. 10 thousand more than a year ago. The increase is much smaller than in prior years. In the period July 2007–July 2008, the annual increase averaged nearly 50 thousand.
Sharp growth Eastern European workers in 2007
In recent years, the [...]
