Leiden is and is becoming increasingly international. The number of international residents has risen sharply in recent years. This can be seen in the numbers of Leiden residents with a migration background (32.9%), a non-Dutch nationality (11.6%) (2022) and in the increase in the various groups of internationals: knowledge workers, labor migrants, students and refugees.
For the municipality of Leiden, this means a different commitment in a number of areas; primary tasks such as service provision, but also fulfilling a stimulating and facilitating role. On September 17 2020, the Vision Internationalisation was therefore established by the Leiden city council.
As a result of this vision, the municipality of Leiden, in collaboration with the Expat Center Leiden, drew up the first Monitor Internationalisering in 2020. The current version is an update. The monitor contains relevant available figures about the diverse group of internationals in Leiden. Since there are different definitions in the Netherlands for classifying internationals, there is firstly looked at the Leiden resident with a migration background and then at the Leiden resident with a foreign nationality. In most of the monitor, 'international' will refer to someone who does not have Dutch nationality.
