Access to Citizenship for Aliens in the Netherlands

Abstract

This paper will deal with the access to citizenship for aliens in the Netherlands. Traditionally the Netherlands are liberal in respect of granting residence rights and finally citizenship to foreigners. Already in the sixteenth century the Republic of the United Netherlands granted residence rights to a large number of Sefardic jews, who had to leave the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) because of the measures of persecution undertaken by the Kings of Spain. At the end of the seventeenth century many Huguenots coming from France went to the Netherlands; in the beginning of the eighteenth century a considerable number of Mennonites had to leave Switzerland and went to the Netherlands. During both the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many migrant workers went to the Netherlands, coming mainly from the different German states. During the same period a lot of Jews from Middle and Eastern Europe arrived in the Netherlands. At the end of the nineteenth century again a considerable number of (Catholic) Germans arrived in the Netherlands as a consequence of the so called ‘Kulturkampf’ in Germany.