More Dutch Plan to Emigrate as Muslim Influx Tips Scales
Herman Wouters for The New York Times
Ruud Konings with his wife, Ellie, says Hilvarenbeek was once
"spontaneous and free," but now he says he fears his two
teenage children will be "roughed up" by gangs. He is moving
his family to Australia.
By MARLISE SIMONS
Published: February 27, 2005
AMSTERDAM - Paul Hiltemann had already noticed a darkening mood in
the Netherlands. He runs an agency for people wanting to emigrate
and his client list had surged.
But he was still taken aback in November when a Dutch filmmaker was
shot and his throat was slit, execution style, on an Amsterdam
street.
In the weeks that followed, Mr. Hiltemann was inundated by e-mail
messages and telephone calls. "There was a big panic," he said, "a
flood of people saying they wanted to leave the country."
Leave this stable and prosperous corner of Europe? Leave this land
with its generous social benefits and ample salaries, a place of
fine schools, museums, sports grounds and bicycle paths, all set in
a lively democracy?
The answer, increasingly, is yes. This small nation is a magnet for
immigrants, but statistics suggest there is a quickening flight of
the white middle class. Dutch people pulling up roots said they felt
a general pessimism about their small and crowded country and about
the social tensions that had grown along with the waves of
newcomers, most of them Muslims."The Dutch are living in a kind of
pressure cooker atmosphere," Mr. Hiltemann said.
There is more than the concern about the rising complications of
absorbing newcomers, now one-tenth of the population, many of them
from largely Muslim countries. Many Dutch also seem bewildered that
their country, run for decades on a cozy, political consensus, now
seems so tense and prickly and bent on confrontation. Those leaving
have been mostly lured by large English-speaking nations like
Australia, New Zealand and Canada, where they say they hope to feel
less constricted.
In interviews, emigrants rarely cited a fear of militant Islam as
their main reason for packing their bags. But the killing of the
filmmaker Theo van Gogh, a fierce critic of fundamentalist Muslims,
seems to have been a catalyst.
"Our Web site got 13,000 hits in the weeks after the van Gogh
killing," said Frans Buysse, who runs an agency that handles
paperwork for departing Dutch. "That's four times the normal rate."
Mr. van Gogh's killing is the only one the police have attributed to
an Islamic militant, but since then they have reported finding death
lists by local Islamic militants with the names of six prominent
politicians. The effects still reverberate. In a recent opinion
poll, 35 percent of the native Dutch questioned had negative views
about Islam.
There are no precise figures on the numbers now leaving. But
Canadian, Australian and New Zealand diplomats here said that while
immigration papers were processed in their home capitals, embassy
officials here had been swamped by inquiries in recent months.
Many who settle abroad may not appear in migration statistics, like
the growing contingent of retirees who flock to warmer places. But
official statistics show a trend. In 1999, nearly 30,000 native
Dutch moved elsewhere, according to the Central Bureau of
Statistics. For 2004, the provisional figure is close to 40,000.
"It's definitely been picking up in the past five years," said Cor
Kooijmans, a demographer at the bureau.
Ruud Konings, an accountant, has just sold his comfortable home in
the small town of Hilvarenbeek. In March, after a year's worth of
paperwork, the family will leave for Australia. The couple said the
main reason was their fear for the welfare and security of their two
teenage children.
"When I grew up, this place was spontaneous and free, but my kids
cannot safely cycle home at night," said Mr. Konings, 49. "My son
just had his fifth bicycle stolen." At school, his children and
their friends feel uneasy, he added. "They're afraid of being
roughed up by the gangs of foreign kids."
Sandy Sangen has applied to move to Norway with her husband and two
school-age children. They want to buy a farm in what she calls "a
safer, more peaceful place."
Like the Sangens and Koningses, others who are moving speak of their
yearning for the open spaces, the clean air, the easygoing civility
they feel they have lost. Complaints include overcrowding, endless
traffic jams, overregulation. Some cite a rise in antisocial
behavior and a worrying new toughness and aggression both in
political debates and on the streets.