Serbs in the Netherlands

Serbs in the Netherlands or Serbian Dutch are Dutch citizens of Serb ethnic descent or Serbia-born people who reside in the Netherlands. According to data from 2022, there were 19,361 people of Serb ethnic descent or Serbian citizenship in the Netherlands, out of which 11,305 were Serbia-born.^[2]

Serbs in the Netherlands

Serviërs in Nederland Срби у Холандији Srbi u Holandiji
Total population
19,361 (2022)[1]
Regions with significant populations
North Holland, South Holland, Utrecht
Languages
Dutch and Serbian
Religion
Predominately Eastern Orthodoxy (Serbian Orthodox Church)

History

The first Serbian immigrants to the Netherlands arrived before the outbreak of the World War I. In 1925, there were 4,000 Yugoslavs in the Netherlands, mostly settled in the southern mining areas. After World War II, especially in the 1960s, a second larger group arrived, which was increased in the 1970s by a wave of business representatives from the socialist Yugoslavia, among which half were of Serb origin.

In the late 1980s, the Serbian immigrant community have had a dozen of associations.

Heritage

In the village of Garderen, municipality of Barneveld, Gelderland province, there is a monument to 29 soldiers of the Royal Serbian Army who died in the Netherlands from the Spanish flu after the end of World War I with the inscription in Serbian and Dutch: "Умрли за Србију" / "Gestorven voor Serbie" ("Fallen for Serbia") and "Благодарна Отаџбина Србија” / "Het Dankbaar Serbische Vaderland" ("Grateful fatherland Serbia").^[3][4]

• 

Notable people

• Kristina Bozilovic [nl] – media personality
• Dan Gadzuric – basketball player
• Irena Pantelic – model
• Igor Sijsling – tennis player
• Marko Vejinovic – football player

See also

• Immigration to the Netherlands
• Serbian diaspora
• Netherlands–Serbia relations
• Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Western Europe