Dutch migration history: Looking back and moving forward

Abstract

Since 1850, thousands of publications have been written about migration to and from the Netherlands. Migration is an important topic for political and social debates, now as well as in the past. The nature of migration changes continuously, as does the way in which migration and integration issues are problematized, and changes are a reason for migration historians to take a fresh look at migrations in the past. Over time, the focus has moved from legal, to demographic, economic, sociological and emancipatory, and back to legal and economic. In recent decades, the analytical and comparative approach has been strengthened: between categories of migrants, between men and women, and between countries. This is the way forward.