monDutch post-war migration to Australia is generally regarded as one of the major success stories of Australia’s mass immigration program. Yet migration was not always permanent. A frequently quoted figure suggests that around 25 per cent of Dutch migrants eventually returned to the Netherlands.
But how reliable is that figure?
In this research paper, Kees Wierenga examines the question through a particularly well-documented group of Dutch migrants: members of the Free Reformed Church who settled in Western Australia during the 1950s.
Drawing on church histories, genealogical material and Australian immigration records, Wierenga identifies approximately 800 migrants within this community, of whom only 29 are known to have returned to the Netherlands — a return rate of about 3.65 per cent. This is strikingly different from the commonly cited estimate of 25 per cent.
The paper does not claim that this particular community was representative of all Dutch migrants to Australia. Rather, it raises an important historical and methodological question: where did the 25 per cent estimate come from, and what exactly was being counted?
Wierenga explores some of the difficulties involved in answering that question, including incomplete immigration records, return visits that might be confused with permanent departures, internal migration within Australia and the challenge of identifying individuals correctly in passenger and migration records.
For the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre, the paper makes a useful contribution to the continuing study of Dutch post-war migration. It also demonstrates why accepted migration statistics sometimes deserve to be revisited through detailed archival and community-based research.
The paper below is published as a research contribution by Kees Wierenga and invites further investigation into the scale and nature of Dutch return migration from Australia.
