| Amsterdam has a high proportion of ethnic minorities | | | | on the Amsterdam TV Broadcasting Association for |
| compared with the rest of Europe, currently 45%. | | | | Immigrants (MTV). The Municipality has installed five |
| The population register now contains over 150 | | | | advisory bodies to assist it in its migrants' policy.The |
| different nationalities. In ten years' time half the | | | | policy on womenSupport for the emancipation of |
| population will be of foreign origin.The City spends | | | | women and of people who are subject to |
| substantial sums to prevent the formation of ghettos | | | | discrimination based on their sexual preferences is |
| in boroughs with an over-representation of ethnic | | | | part of the city's policy. The city pursues a specific |
| minorities. A Social Diversity Policy paper published in | | | | emancipation policy and in 1995 installed the |
| the summer of 1998 will give new impetus to the | | | | Ombudsman Service for Women to deal with |
| City's minorities strategy. It will deal with any groups | | | | complaints relating to the legal and social position of |
| who might suffer social discrimination. Article 1 of the | | | | 'black, white and immigrant women' in Amster-dam. |
| Dutch Constitution forbids discrimination on the | | | | Adresses of more than a hundred help, advice and |
| grounds of a person's beliefs, race or sexual | | | | contact organisations are included in the 'Yellow |
| preferences. In 1996 the Municipality of Amsterdam | | | | Pages for Women' (Gele Gids voor Vrouwen) |
| added its own code of conduct for local authority | | | | published by the Multicultural Emancipation |
| staff to this Article, plus a complaints scheme and an | | | | Bureau.Jewish AmsterdamAmsterdam has had a |
| anti-discrimination office. The ethnic composition of | | | | Jewish quarter for more than 350 years. The district |
| the civil service in the city must reflect the population | | | | was de-populated during the German Occupation in |
| of the city. The main ethnic minority groups are | | | | World War Two.Initially the quarter lay outside the |
| Creoles and Hindustanis from Surinam (72,000), | | | | city walls and was inhabited mainly by Jews |
| Moroccans (57,000), Turks (35,000) and immigrants | | | | originating from Spain and Portugal, including the |
| from the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba (12,000). | | | | family of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Rembrandt |
| Amsterdam also contains around 26,000 Chinese, and | | | | felt at home in the colourful Jewish environment, |
| has its own 'Chinatown', situated in the Nieuwmarkt | | | | encountered wonderful models there and had his |
| area. In 2000, the first Chinese Buddhist temple | | | | house built in Jodenbreestraat: Rembrandt's House. |
| opened on Zeedijk. There are also around 76,000 | | | | The 17th century also saw the start of an influx of |
| migrants from other non-industrialised countries, such | | | | Jews from Central and Eastern Europe to |
| as Ghana and Pakistan. The local Salto cable network | | | | Amsterdam. |
| transmits programmes made for and by immigrants | | | | |