After Lunch Webinar: Jelle Lossbroek – “What is the savings behavior of young people with and without an immigration background?”

The number of migrants in the Netherlands is higher than ever before and is expected to rise further. The saving behavior of this group is different than among non-migrants, especially migrants from outside Europe. In this article we investigate: to what extent are these differences already visible in children? After all, previous research shows: learned young is done old – financial behavior in children influences their later saving behavior and their retirement preparation.

We compare young people of Dutch origin with young people from the four largest groups of non-European migrants: Suriname, the Caribbean Netherlands, Morocco, Turkey. We use the National Student Survey for this purpose, which has conducted surveys in school classes.

Compared to non-migrants, we find that migrant children save money less often, and when they do save, they do so relatively more often in cash. This difference is particularly large in the first generation (born outside the Netherlands), the difference is smaller in the second generation (one or both parents born outside the Netherlands). We also find differences based on the country of origin. If we take people’s socio-economic position into account, the differences become significantly smaller – but they do not disappear.

For retirement preparation, this means that as the group of migrants grows, there is also a growing group of people who are less inclined to save, and if they do, prefer to do so informally. In the second generation, the difference with non-migrants is smaller, but it still exists – so this difference will have an impact for decades to come.