Dutch migration

In this series, we follow the emigrants who left the Netherlands around 1900 for Canada, America, and Argentina. What drove them? Where did they end up? How did their integration go? And how are their descendants doing; do they still feel a little bit Dutch?

In the early 20th century, young countries like America, Canada, and Argentina were desperate for laborers. People were lured from Europe with attractive promises and even commercials. Rotterdam grew into a city of emigrants, where ships of the Holland America Line provided transport across the ocean. But not everyone was welcome in the new country.

Dutch emigrants start in their new country with virtually nothing. As pioneers on a totally empty Canadian plain, as ‘slaves’ of large landowners in Argentina, or as factory workers in America, they try to make ends meet. They find solace primarily in each other and in the church. Only Hendrik Meijer seeks his own path.

 Dutch emigrants seek love on familiar ground. Marriageable men travel from Canada to the Netherlands to return with a bride. Marrying within one's own community is a matter of course in Argentina. And after five long years of waiting, Hendrik Meijer's fiancée from Hengelo is allowed to come over to America

The Dutch school in Argentina keeps the language alive for a long time. But in America and Canada, knowledge of Dutch is lost after just one generation. The bond with the country of origin fades. Although unexpected traces of the homeland still surface: chocolate sprinkles in the kitchen cupboard or proud oyster farmers near New York.

Part of the Zandstra family from Argentina returned to the Netherlands in the 1960s. It took some getting used to the land of their ancestors, but eventually they felt at home there. In America and Canada, on the other hand, families of Dutch origin have settled in completely. Not I, not you, but us. Hank Meijer inherited that saying on a tile from his grandfather Hendrik. And as an American citizen, he cherishes it to this day.