Nearly Half of Moroccan Seniors in the Netherlands Live With Their Children
In the Netherlands, 40.23% of people aged 55 and over who were born in Morocco live with their spouse and children. That is nearly three times the share among seniors born in the country, according to a new official Dutch study.
The difference is even greater when single-parent families are included. With 7.84% of Moroccan seniors living alone with their children, nearly one in two shares a home with at least one child. Among people of the same age born in the Netherlands, the figure is no higher than 16.5%, according to 2024 data published by the CBS on September 29.
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The contrast is also evident in other living arrangements. Just 29.56% of seniors born in Morocco live only with their spouse, compared with 54.62% of those born in the Netherlands. Those living alone account for 21.28% of Moroccans aged 55 and over, compared with 25.72% of people born in the country.
Researchers point to two explanations. First, some of these parents still have relatively young children, since the study covers people aged 55 and over. Family habits also play a role. Children of Moroccan or Turkish parents generally leave home later than children of Dutch parents. They often move out when they get married.
At 33, he still lives with his mother
Cohabitation, however, is not always a choice. In Amsterdam, the case of a 33-year-old Moroccan man forced to stay with his mother highlighted the difficulties some young people face in finding housing. His mother, Hamida El Johari, who was 56 at the time of her account, explained that her son had been waiting for social housing for years, while earning too much to qualify for some allocations and too little to rent on the private market. “Living together is pleasant, but he needs to become independent,” she said.
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Even when children leave the family home, they generally remain close to their Moroccan parents. The CBS calculates that, among seniors born in Morocco whose children live in separate homes in the Netherlands, the nearest child lives an average of just 7.4 kilometers away. For seniors born in the Netherlands, the distance is 14.8 kilometers.
That proximity has nevertheless decreased over the past twelve years. In 2012, children who had left the family home lived an average of 4.8 kilometers from their Moroccan parents. By 2024, the distance had increased by more than 50%, a sign that generations are gradually living farther apart, while remaining considerably closer than in Dutch families.
