Should the Netherlands shelter Boers/Afrikaners?

[Ruggery]

In South Africa there are around 4 million Boers, many of whom are in danger. The vast majority have Dutch ancestry, so I think they would adapt very well.

[Your Old Comrade]

We're full. Even if we deport every last migrant, we'd still be full, and most Afrikaners now care as much about us as we care about them.

[~Elizabeth~]

Yes, the Netherlands should welcome the Boers/Afrikaners.

And kick out all non-European "immigrants".

[Katarzyna]

We're full. Even if we deport every last migrant, we'd still be full, and most Afrikaners now care as much about us as we care about them.

Exactly, you are already occupied with your Arabic refugees...

[Your Old Comrade]

Exactly, you are already occupied with your Arabic refugees...

We should kick those out as well. Without those, we'd have 13.2 million people. Bring in the Afrikaners and we're right back at 18. But then again: some farmers here need to quit for lack of successors, and the language is similar.. They know the ropes, and they'd just have more water and no plaasmoorde, so they'd thrive. Parts of the North are currently seeing their rural population fall, so.. maybe ? But we'd still need to build at least half a million homes, so not all that much would change. Meh. For them, it would be better if they would just opt for Cape independence and give up the other areas. They'd be able to form a majority there.

[Your Old Comrade]

Let's just assume, for the fun of it, that we actually do it. I actually don't think it would make all that much of a difference. We'd need to reclaim whole areas from the sea or nature for agricultural use. Their birth rates are comparable to our own, so that would mean that the Afrikaner, would cease to exist as a separate ethnic group within the next century and their language merging back into Dutch… But only then through "intermarriage", so they would still have a lasting influence. We'd need to rip up so much of South Africa though. Whole city districts in cities like Jo'burg, Pretoria or Cape Town, towns like Franschhoek or Stellenbosch would need to recreated here. But where ?

They could kickstart a whole viticulture revolution in parts of the South-East (Limburg, Guelders) though, if global warming (a natural phenomenon btw) continues. That's a positive. If we do it together with the Belgians, it means that the Benelux is the next big thing on the global wine map.

[Ruggery]

We're full. Even if we deport every last migrant, we'd still be full, and most Afrikaners now care as much about us as we care about them.

Apparently the Dutch are not interested, and many of the Boers do not want to leave either, but it would not be bad for those who want to leave, the government offered them asylum, at least they would have a distant bond with them, unlike with mena immigrants.

[Ruggery]

Let's just assume, for the fun of it, that we actually do it. I actually don't think it would make all that much of a difference. We'd need to reclaim whole areas from the sea or nature for agricultural use. Their birth rates are comparable to our own, so that would mean that the Afrikaner, would cease to exist as a separate ethnic group within the next century and their language merging back into Dutch… But only then through "intermarriage", so they would still have a lasting influence. We'd need to rip up so much of South Africa though. Whole city districts in cities like Jo'burg, Pretoria or Cape Town, towns like Franschhoek or Stellenbosch would need to recreated here. But where ?

They could kickstart a whole viticulture revolution in parts of the South-East (Limburg, Guelders) though, if global warming (a natural phenomenon btw) continues. That's a positive. If we do it together with the Belgians, it means that the Benelux is the next big thing on the global wine map.

What are you talking about? Do you think that Afrikaners will find it difficult to adapt to the culture of the Netherlands?

[Your Old Comrade]

Religiously speaking, they would bring religion right back in the centre of Dutch political life. They'd probably end up supporting parties like Christen-Unie or even, heaven beware, the Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij and turning them into major parties. Not a real fan of that, but they would probably cool down after a couple of generations and become as lax as the rest of us. The Left would really be hammered, though, as there would be a shift to the Right.

Culinary-speaking: now the Afrikaners have an interesting kitchen, imaging that "fusing" into Dutch cuisine. It would be a revolution akin to the repatriation from the East Indies, when the Dutch "learned" to eat Indonesian or Chinese food. Within a generation, the dishes had been Dutchified and had become part of our everyday repertoire. But I can imagine Chinese restaurants (already unable to find cooks or successors) being taken over and turned into Afrikaner restaurants. With the same process repeating itself. The Dutch already have a BBQ culture, imported from America. I expect the Afrikaners to teach the local yokels how it's really done within five minutes of arrival.

[Your Old Comrade]

What are you talking about? Do you think that Afrikaners will find it difficult to adapt to the culture of the Netherlands?

At first, yes. But that was no different with the Indische Nederlanders when they were "repatriated" after Indonesia's independence. In 1950-1955, they were a distinct group, in 2023, between 2.5 to 3.5 million Dutch can claim Indies ancestry up to a degree, as they spread throughout the population, intermarried and seized to exist as a group. The Afrikaners will be no different.

There was an entire subset of Dutch literature called Indische Letteren, Indies Literature and I actually had it as my elective back in the day as part of my Dutch literature classes. It certainly was very productive up to the 1980s, 90s. There are still some increasingly rare publications, but it's literally dying off. It will be a dead branch by the next decade or so. Afrikaner literature would, likely, end up just the same if they were repatriated. Just later. By 2050, 2060 or so.

Afrikaans itself would go under as well, as the majority here just speak Dutch. I can imagine Afrikaans influencing pronunciation, grammar (leading to simplification), spelling (same) and a flood of loanwords, but that would go the other way as well. So with languages being so similar, and with Dutch being in the majority? Dutch would subsume Afrikaans within a generation or so.