Reaction to Dutch settlers in the Caribbean dependencies assessed

ABC-islands not fond of European Dutch

TODAY

The Newspaper of Country St. Maarten

LEIDEN – European Dutch and foreigners are not always that welcome in Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. This appears from new data presented by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean studies (KITLV), John Samson reports on Caribisch Netwerk.

The researchers asked inhabitants of the Caribbean parts of the kingdom their opinion about the presence of immigrants and tourists. In Curacao, 54 percent says that there are too many European Dutch living on the island and in Aruba that percentage is 42 percent. In Bonaire the sentiment is the most negative: 73 percent. According to KITLV, this has mainly to do with the new constitutional structure that came into being on 10-10-10.

When it is specifically about Dutch tourists, the islanders are not that positive either. In Bonaire and Curacao, 45 percent says that there are too many tourists arriving from the Netherlands. According to lead researcher Wouter Veenendaal there are a remarkable number of complaints about the way Dutch tourists behave on the islands. In Aruba on the other hand, 58 percent is positive about the Dutch tourists that come to the island.