Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Reason to worry?


Moving Day 08
Originally uploaded by NYC Stygian.
After the Verdonk-Hirsi Ali affair the Dutch Prime Minister, Jan-Peter Balkenende, expressed his concern of the incident's influence on the reputation of the Netherlands abroad. Is Netherlands still an attractive place to live in? Well, the statistics from last year (Centraal Bureau voor Statistiek CBS) show the following:

- The Netherlands is the only Western European country with more people moving out than in.

- in 2005 121.000 persons left the country. This is the highest figure ever. The number of people moving in (immigrants) was 92.000.

- During the first quarter of 2006 5.000 people more than last year decided to leave the country.

- Emigration rose most among the over 55-year-olds. A majority of the emigrants are 20-30-year-olds.

That's something to think about. In the article the prices of housing are mentioned as one reason.

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