Family members accounted for almost a third of all non-EU and EFTA nationals moving to the Netherlands between 1999 and 2023, according to new research by national statistics office CBS,

Some 1.8 million immigrants from outside the EU and EFTA came to the Netherlands during that period, of whom 32% were joining close relatives. Of them, just 6% were related to a refugee.

Some 40% of people in the study had left again by the end of 2023, but 57% of people who came as family members were still here. Some 90% of those who came to study had gone, 45% of them within two years of arrival.

Of the 1.6 million EU and EFTA nationals who came to the Netherlands between 1999 and 2023, more than 60% had left by the end of the period, the CBS said. Family members accounted for 29% of EU and EFTA immigration.