ABSTRACT
In 1648 the Republic of the United Netherlands declared itself an independent state, in a move supported by the European powers gathered in Munster, in order to end a long period of religious wars. The migrant groups currently present in the Netherlands arrived predominantly after the Second World War. The first to arrive were about 180,000 Dutch-Indonesians and 40,000 South-Moluccans from Indonesia in the 1950s. Since the 1980s surveys on the perceptions and feelings of the Dutch about migrants, have generally found that about a quarter to a third of the Dutch population have negative attitudes towards ethnic minorities. Stereotypes were initially considered to be biased rigid and hostile images of one group about other groups. Stereotypes can in many ways extend to political beliefs. Behind the stereotype that migrants take away jobs and houses hides the politically charged image of foreigners invading Dutch territory to grab what belongs to the Dutch.
