Italians, British people and Americans accounted for the biggest migrant groups to move to Amsterdam last year, according to new research by the city’s statistics office O&S.

Some 36% of Amsterdam’s population of 918,000 have roots abroad, and over half of them – 173,540 – arrived in the past 10 years. Turkey, Germany, France, India, Ukraine, Spain and Russia complete the top 10 immigrant groups, O&S said.

“The results of the research reflect what is happening on the world stage,” sociologist Roos Gerritsma told the Parool on Friday. “Amsterdam is traditionally a place where people feel free and safe and can do a job which is unavailable or not possible in their country of origin. In Italy, for example, a brain drain has been underway for some time.”

The tech and gaming sectors attract a lot of foreign workers, but many are also employed in the hospitality industry, said labour market professor Leo Lucassen from Leiden University.

“This sector has attracted people from abroad over the past 10 years,” he said. Fewer locals are available to do this sort of work and “so we are dependent on people from abroad.”

While most people moving to the Dutch capital over the past 10 years came to work, others came to study or are what O&S calls “lifestyle migrants”.

“Lifestyle migrants”, said Gerritsma, ask themselves where they would like to live. “The fact that almost everyone in Amsterdam speaks English makes the city very accessible,” Gerritsma told the paper. “And everything is nearby: you can reach restaurants, museums, parks, markets and cinemas very quickly, and that is unique.”

The survey also showed that over half the new arrivals are living in private rental property. Some 27% live in their own home and the rest live in housing corporation housing. Recent migrants also account for 27% of the city’s high earners, mainly through working in IT.

The arrival of so many newcomers is leading to friction and last month the city’s Labour party suggested expats in Amsterdam should undergo a course in “becoming an Amsterdammer”, which would include language, history and culture lessons, and meetings with people who have “lived in the city for longer”.

Blame the foreigner

Expats are currently being blamed for the shortage of housing, high rents and the increasing dominance of English in shops and cafes. Research by local broadcaster AT5 last year suggested 71% of the native population believe expats are ignoring Dutch society, don’t speak Dutch and do not make an effort to get to know their neighbours.

And last year, the city’s mayor Femke Halsema called on expats to “get out of their bubble” and become part of the local community.

However, earlier this year national statistics agency CBS said people of Dutch origin with high salaries are least likely to have people with foreign roots in their networks of friends, colleagues and neighbours.

The higher the income, the more likely they are to live in a segregated bubble, the CBS said in a new report.