| Description |
This paper presents the past and present state of affairs regarding migration from India to the Netherlands. The Netherlands have never been a very popular destination for migrants from India. If we, however, include the Hindustanis in the so-called Indian diaspora, the Netherlands are home to the second largest Indian diaspora in Europe. The Hindustanis are the descendants of British-Indian indentured laborers who migrated to the Dutch colony of Surinam between 1873 and 1916, and who moved on to the Netherlands in particular during the 1970s and 1980s. At present, the "Indian diaspora" in the Netherlands includes approximately 160,000 Hindustanis and 21,729 Indians (first and second generation immigrants). This paper deals with all those with apparent (ancestral) connections to India. Two phenomena stand out and make the Dutch case particularly interesting for a study of Indian migration to Europe. Besides the presence of the relatively large group of Hindustanis, we are currently witnessing a remarkable increase in the immigration of Indian knowledge workers in the country. In practice, the two distinct categories of people of Indian descent have very little in common. This paper investigates these different categories of ("old" and "new") migrants and analyzes the implications of contemporary Indian and Dutch policies on Indian migration to the Netherlands and on processes of identity formation amongst these migrants of Indian origin.
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