Making diversity bloom: Coping effectively with cultural differences at work

In 2006, 19.3% of the overall Dutch population was of foreign heritage, i.e. consisting of people of whom at least one parent was born abroad. This number was considerably higher in the larger cities in which more than 30% of the population was of foreign heritage. Nowadays, minority groups in The Netherlands consist almost exclusively of labour migrants from Turkey and Morocco and of people from the former colonies Surinam and the Dutch Antilles and their descendents. The other groups are the Southern Europeans and the new ethnic groups, such as Chinese, Iraqis and Afghans, most of who were admitted to The Netherlands as asylum seekers (Choenni, 2007).