EU Expat Life & Political Participation in the Netherlands - The Trivia

EU Expat Life &

Political Participation

in the Netherlands

The Trivia Additional Results of a Master’s Thesis Research on EU Expats in the Netherlands.

By Kolja Siegmund | March 30, 2015

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About the data

This document is meant to illustrate several quantitative measures on EU expats’ life in the Netherlands. Of cause, the variables only present certain and sometimes unrelated aspects. The data originates from a research on voting behavior of EU immigrants and expats in the Netherlands. While it includes answers of 253 respondents, the sample was not representative. Furthermore, the research is based on data of predominantly academically trained individuals, which was collected in 2014. While generalizations based on the data should be made with caution, it is arguable that the results describe variables of the life of ‘typical’ EU expats at least to some degree. Please note that this data is not meant for any kind of unauthorized publication. For any requests or questions, please use the email address postbox.siegmund(at)gmail.com.

EU Expat Life & Political Participation in the Netherlands. The Trivia.

Please note that this data is not meant for any kind of unauthorized publication. For any requests or questions, please use the email address postbox.siegmund(at)gmail.com.

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Contents

Topics Page Language Abilities & News Media Consumption 4

Language Abilities 4 News Media Consumption 6

The Importance of Cultural Heritage, Social Contacts & Expats’ Love Life

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The Importance of Cultural Heritage & Social Contacts

9

EU Expats’ Social Contacts in Daily Life 10 EU Expats’ Relationships 11

Political Integration & Political Participation 12 Knowledge on Dutch Politics 13 Political Participation 14

Language Abilities

& News Media

Consumption Average language abilities Reading Dutch 4.48 Understanding spoken Dutch 4.22 Speaking Dutch 3.72 Measured on a 7-point scale 1 = not at all 7 = very well

Dutch: easy to read – hard to speak

Learning a new language is always complicated, especially if languages contain vowels that we are not used to. Today, almost everybody in the European Union learns at least a basic knowledge of English, - and maybe French, or Spanish, or German - at school. But Dutch? Dutch is often learned in the cities’ pubs, or for a study in the Netherlands, and some especially motivated expats might visit a language school. However, when it comes to the use of words that contain a G, CH, or UI many of us tend to produce funny sounds or just ignore the common pronunciations. Yet, learning a language and communicating does not only mean speaking; it also means reading and listening (and of cause writing, but that was not part of the survey). So what do expats actually think is the hardest of all three disciplines?



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On average, expats reported highest abilities regarding reading Dutch, followed by understanding

spoken Dutch, and the lowest abilities regarding speaking

Dutch. Yet, differences were small and average abilities in all three disciplines seem to be moderate. More interesting is another statistic, focusing on the distribution of expats in different levels of abilities: While the numbers of respondents that reported good, moderate, or almost none abilities to understand spoken Dutch were relatively even distributed, the group with almost none reading abilities (23.7%) was remarkable smaller than the groups of EU expats which reported moderate (38.4%) or good (37.9%) reading abilities. However, the trend reversed when asked for the ability to speak Dutch.

Only 28.1% or 30.1%, respectively, reported good or

moderate abilities, while 41.8% reported almost none abilities to

speak Dutch. Different levels of language abilities

29.6 23.7 41.8

36.3 38.4

30.1

34.1 37.9 28.1

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Listening Reading Speaking Well or very well Moderate Almost not or not at all

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Badly informed on Dutch news, but well informed on home countries’ news

It is not clear whether the trend depends on language abilities, if it is a sign of homesickness, or illustrates a sense of not belonging in the host country of EU expats in the Netherlands.

However, most EU expats seem to value news from their home country

as most important. Furthermore, even international news seem to be consumed more intensively than Dutch language news, or news on the Netherlands which are presented in English or other languages.

On average, native language news were followed on 4.8 days a week, international news on 3.4 days a

week, Dutch language news on 1.9 days a week and non-Dutch news about the Netherlands only on 1.4

days a week.



7 Even more striking, while 64% of all respondents reported to follow Dutch news never or rarely (never or 1 day a week), 64.5% reported to follow native language news frequently (6 or 7 days a week)

News sources followed during an average week

64

14.6 29.3

15.4

20.9

33.2

20.6

64.5

37.5

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Never / rarely Infrequently Frequently

The Importance of Cultural Heritage, Social Contacts & Expats’ Love Life



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The typical EU expat: An advocate of multi cultural societies?

What does multi cultural mean? Living together in one society, while striving for individual cultural values? Multi cultural was defined in many different ways, some more and some less positive. How ever, if multi cultural can be defined as stated above, the typical EU Expat in the Netherlands seems to be an advocate of multi cultural societies.

The survey shows that the majority of expats is highly interested in having positive contacts with Dutch citizens

(69.6%), as well as maintaining their own cultural heritage

(65.2%). Contrary, only a small minority declared that at least one of both issues is rather unimportant to them.

Importance of contacts with Dutch citizens and the own cultural heritage

7.1 4.4

23.3 30.4

69.6 65.2

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Positive contacts with native citizens

Maintaining cultural heritage

Important Somewhat important Unimportant

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Contacts on daily basis: Dutch tops, fellow countryman last

Interest in contacts with Dutch citizens is also evident in another statistic: On average, expats tend to have most contacts with Dutch citizens, followed by other expats.

Which whom do you have contact on a daily basis? (Answers in %)

Least contacts were hold with expats of the same origin. However, this effect might also be due to the fact that not all nationalities are evenly strong represented in the expat society.

Expats in relationships:

44 18

38

Dutch citizens Expats with same origin Other expats



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Dutch still tops, but the image changes Focusing on relationships changes the image. The largest group reported to live a single life and the second largest group reported to be in a relationship with a Dutch citizen (which mirrors the proportion of social contacts).

Yet, almost twice as much EU expats reported a relationship

with someone from the same home country (21%), compared to

relationships with expats from other countries (12%).

Are you currently in a relationship? (Answers in %)

This observation is almost reverse to the distribution of daily social contacts.

36

31

21 12

Single Dutch partner

Partner with same origin Partner from another country

Political Integration

&

Political

Participation

Average political knowledge compared to estimated average of local population Dutch politics 4.48 Home country’s politics 4.22 Measured on a 7-point scale 1 = far below average; 4 = average; 7 = far above average



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Low knowledge on Dutch politics - not due to general political disinterest On average, expats reported an average knowledge on political issues and parties of their respective home countries, compared to a below average knowledge on Dutch politics. More strikingly: About two third of all respondents reported a below average level of knowledge on Dutch politics. About one third reported an average knowledge on Dutch politics. Only 2.4% off all expats reported an above average knowledge on Dutch politics. However, this result does not seem due to general political disinterest, as about half of all respondents reported an average knowledge on their home countries’ politics, and numbers of those who reported a above average

knowledge were only slightly lower. On the opposite, only 7.9% of all respondents reported a below average knowledge on their home countries’ politics. Knowledge on politics compared to average knowledge of local population

60.9

7.9

36.7

49.8

2.4

42.3

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Dutch politics Home country's politics

Above or far above average Average Below or far below average

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Expats’ poor political participation in the Netherlands also not explained by political disinterest

Did you vote the following elections? *

*Note: Results are not based on a representative sample. Hence, obtained numbers cannot be seen as generalizable turnout measures

The results for political participation reflect results of political knowledge measures to at least some extent.

22.9 38.7

58.1

77.1 61.3

41.9

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Local NL Local home

General home

Yes No



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Only 22.9% reported participation at last local elections

in the Netherlands (first half 2014). However, 38.7% reported

participation at last local elections in their home countries.

While local elections are generally seen as second order elections, it is striking that more expats were willing to vote local in their home countries. While the only necessity for voting local in the Netherlands is visiting one

of many polling stations, voting local in home countries is arguably more costly, as absentee ballot must be requested or travel arrangements must be made. However, seen that more then one

third of all respondents were willing to vote local in their home country, and more than half of all

respondents voted last general elections in their home countries,

a generally high perceived importance of voting can be

assumed. As general disinterest in politics therefore hardly serves as explanation for low knowledge on Dutch politics and low turnout rates at Dutch local elections, expats’ low attention for Dutch news media might.

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EU Expat Life & Political Participation in the Netherlands - The Trivia