I amsterdam - Diversity in the City

Ethnic Minorities
With over 170 different nationalities and a 45% ethnic minority, the population of Amsterdam is one of the most diverse in Europe. Over the last 50 years Amsterdam has known a new influx, this time people originating from other countries and cultures, mostly from Suriname, Turkey and Morocco. Within ten years it is expected that half of the Amsterdam population will be born abroad or will have parents or (great-) grandparents who were born abroad.

Population by ethnic origin, 1 January 2004-2007
ethnic origin	2004	2005	2006	2007
Surinam	70717	70446	69645	68878
Antillean	11503	11523	11360	11290
Turkish	37333	37943	38337	38565
Moroccan	62691	64370	65426	66256
other non-western foreigners	68159	70049	70401	71269
total non-western foreigners	250403	254331	255169	256258
western foreigners	102671	104723	105112	104742
native Dutch	385689	383897	382746	382104
total	738763	742951	743027	743104

Anti-Discriminatory Measures
As the City values the benefits that a diverse society has on city culture, it devotes substantial time, policy and sums to prevent the formation of ghettos in boroughs with an over-representation of ethnic minorities. Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution forbids discrimination on the grounds of a person's beliefs, race or sexual preferences and in 1996 the Municipality of Amsterdam added its own code of conduct for local authority staff to this Article, as well as a complaints scheme and an anti-discrimination office. The Municipality has installed five advisory bodies to assist it in its migrants' policy. Further, the ethnic composition of the civil service in the city must reflect the population of the city and various programmes are in place to realise this.

The Policy on Women
Support for the emancipation of women and of people who are subject to discrimination based on their sexual preferences is part of the city's policy. The city pursues a specific emancipation policy and in 1995 installed the Ombudsman Service for Women to deal with complaints relating to the legal and social position of 'black, white and immigrant women' in Amsterdam. Addresses of more than a hundred help, advice and contact organisations are included in the 'Yellow Pages for Women' (Gele Gids voor Vrouwen) published by the Multicultural Emancipation Bureau.

Homosexuality
The Municipality pursues an active policy to combat discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians. Gays and lesbians visiting Amsterdam find the atmosphere of tolerance there like a breath of fresh air. At the foot of the Westerkerk church is a memorial consisting of three pink granite triangles. It is the only monument to the victims of persecution and discrimination of homosexuals in the world. The city is listed by the International Gay Travel Association as one of the top destinations in East and West for homosexual travellers. 80% of American gays who visit Europe call in on Amsterdam, and 6% of all foreign visitors to the city centre visit places which are favourites with homosexuals.

Amsterdam's mayor, Job Cohen, acted as registrar at the country's first same-sex civil marriage ceremony at the Town Hall, held in the early hours of 1 April 2001. Four same-sex couples said 'I do' and placed their signatures on the Register, for the first time enjoying the same legal status as a different-sex married couple. In his previous post as State Secretary for Justice, Mr. Cohen was instrumental in ensuring that this legislation reached the statute book. The opening of civil marriage to same-sex couples was approved by the Dutch government in December 2000. The Netherlands had already introduced registration of same-sex partner-ships, another legal landmark, in 1998.

Jewish Amsterdam 
Amsterdam has had a Jewish community for over 350 years, which primarily lived in the quarter of the city near the Waterlooplein and Nieuwmarkt area. Initially, the quarter lay outside the city walls and was inhabited mainly by Jews originating from Spain and Portugal, including the family of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Rembrandt felt at home in the colourful Jewish environment, encountered wonderful models there and had his house built in Jodenbreestraat: Rembrandt's House. The 17th century also saw the start of an influx of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe to Amsterdam.

The city became their makum - Yiddish for town - and to the present, day Amsterdam is referred to affectionately as 'Mokum' by its older inhabitants. At the most Jewish point in the city, around the Jonas Daniël Meijerplein, stand four former synagogues dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, which since 1987 have together formed the Jewish Historical Museum, and the 'esnoga' (synagogue) of the Sephardic Jews from 1671-75, which is still lit by candles on the eve of the Sabbath and on feast days. 

Sephardic Jews from Amsterdam emigrated to Surinam in the 17th and 18th centuries, where they established sugar plantations. Others founded the first synagogue in the New World, in Willemstad on the island of Curaçao. Amsterdam holds the largest collection of Jewish books in Europe, the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana. The books were donated to the city in 1890 by the heirs of the German scholar Leeser Rosenthal (1794-1868); they were stolen during the German Occupation, but were rediscovered almost undamaged after 1945. They constitute a 'treasure of Jewish booklore', which forms part of the University Library. Further, the nearby the village of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel has since 1641 been home to the picturesque cemetery of the Sephardic community.

While this community was virtually - though not entirely - wiped out during the German Occupation in World War Two, their great influence on the city culture still remains.