On the way up? Surinamese and Antilleans in the Dutch labour market

Abstract

The same data show that, at the time, an estimated 5 per cent of the population of Surinamese extraction consisted of second-generation people who should be considered as part of the potential work-force. Because large-scale migration from Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles is so recent, the absence of reliable, up-to-date, and longitudinal data on these people’s labour market situation is, to some extent, understandable. To understand the position of Antillean and Surinamese people in Dutch society in general, and in the Dutch labour market in particular, it is necessary to have some understanding of what lay behind their decisions to migrate. In 1979 58 per cent of the total Dutch population aged between 15 and 64 was actually part of the labour force; by 1983 this figure had risen to 60 per cent. For Surinamese, the 1979 proportion was 62 per cent and for Antilleans in 1984 it was 57 per cent.