Some Aspects of Migration Problems in the Netherlands

Abstract

This study is intended to give a limited survey of population problems in the Netherlands. In it, “overpopulation” is taken as the situation resulting from an increase in the population that has produced, temporarily or permanently, an unbalance between the nation’s labour force and its economic potentialities ¹). Or, in slightly different terms, a country may be described as “overpopulated” when “the means of subsistence are no longer adequate to ensure everyone a livelihood commensurate with the standard of living of the population as a whole or of similar populations” ²). The solution to overpopulation must be predominantly through political means, and the economic, social, technical, and cultural aspects of population increase may not be underrated; but this study is concerned primarily with migration as a solution to overpopulation.