“Non-Western” immigrants arriving in the Netherlands initially have more trust in public institutions, but the more time they spend in the country, the more they lose that trust, the Dutchnews news portal wrote on Thursday, based on a recent analysis by the Dutch National Statistics Office (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek or CBS).
The survey is based on CBS statistics for the period 2012-2019, which involved 4,892 immigrants. Research shows that, for example, 58 percent of people who came to the Netherlands from South America, Asia, and Africa less than five years ago trust Dutch public institutions, while this proportion is only 43 per cent of immigrants who have been living in the country for decades.
According to CBS, the same trend applies to the European Union. Immigrants’ confidence in the Union fell from 62 percent to 34 percent, compared with 40-44 per cent in the Netherlands. However, the analysis also found that the views of immigrants from European countries and the United States to the Netherlands have hardly changed in this area over time.
According to the statistical office, the difference comes from the countries of origin: people from less democratic or corrupt countries are likely to have higher expectations of Dutch institutions, and the longer they live there, the more they become disillusioned with them. According to researchers, discrimination can also play a role in this: people lose their faith in institutions if they are directly exposed to racism and discrimination.
CBS said in April that it would not use the “Western” and “non-Western” categories in its research on immigrants in the future because they are “divisive” and “separatist”. Previously, the statistics office used the term “non-Western” to mean those coming from Africa, South America, Asia, or Turkey.
Title image: Flickr.
