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Newsletter Amsterdam Sorting Machine

Amsterdam, September 16, 2026

Dear all,

Summer has come to an end and a new season is starting. As well is the Amsterdam Sorting Machine research. To inform our immediate circle about what we are working on, we will be publishing a newsletter at least once a year starting now.

Relevance

Through this research, we aim to gain insight into the functioning of Amsterdam as a sorting machine: who enters the city and why, where they come from, their age, etc. Who can stay, for how long, and who cannot; who leaves, not only among the newcomers but also among those who grew up in Amsterdam. The starting point is the figures for settlement and departure; from there, we study the Amsterdam economy and housing market, as we believe these are the most important “push and pull factors” of the inflow and outflow. As a final step, we try to understand what all this means for “the quality of social life” in the city; from social contacts and networks to neighborhood cohesion and a sense of belonging. In this way, we paint a picture of this constantly changing city, its accessibility for different groups, and who (can/wants to) stay here. With the underlying goal of seeking ways to make the urban sorting machine more social and fair.

Start 2020 and documentaries

In 2020, the research commenced with the documentary ‘Amsterdam van Emancipatiemachine tot Sorteermachine’. Produced with financial support from the City of Amsterdam, it marked the beginning of an ongoing research project titled 'Amsterdam Sorting Machine'. Since 2021, this has been housed within the Research Group on Metropolitan Issues at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. In 2022, the research website www.amsterdamsorteermachine.nl was launched, where all research results can be found since then.

In 2024, we released the documentary ‘Zonder leraar, help de leraar vertrekt uit Amsterdam’, and the release of the documentary ‘Living in New-West; urban renewal – for whom?' is currently scheduled for December. Both documentaries received financial support from the Knowledge Centre for Inequality and the HvA Center of Expertise for the Just City.

Updates to components of the Amsterdam Sorting Machine

We continuously monitor a number of topics—components of Amsterdam as a Sorting Machine—including population trends (settlement from within and outside the country, departure to within and outside the country, birth and death rates), inflow and outflow by age and origin, the number of international students, and the construction of new residential complexes for students, young people, and status holders. We process this data into up-to-date research reports, which we publish on the website.

The demographic figures are derived from public data from CBS Statline and from Research and Statistics (O&S) of the Municipality of Amsterdam. In addition, O&S has collected specific data for us on several occasions. We are very grateful to O&S for this. Without hard figures, it is difficult to gain insight into what is really happening in the city.

To properly understand the sorting machine, a relationship is consistently established between demographic changes and the following three domains: economy (which we view as the engine of the sorting machine; the primary attraction of Amsterdam), housing (settlement opportunities), and social (way of living together, social cohesion).

2025-2026

Over the past year, we have worked on deepening the theoretical framework, among other things, with a focus on the concept of the sorting machine.

Regarding the economy of Amsterdam, two new research reports have been published: an overview of the largest companies located in the Zuidas and in the city center. It is particularly striking that the city center, as an international business environment for innovative and foreign companies, is at least as attractive as the Zuidas. In another study, we zoomed in on the lower end of the labor market for migrant workers in Amsterdam.

The most up-to-date figures regarding numbers and composition of the Amsterdam housing market in 2025 have been incorporated, and the latest regulations presented.

The social chapter has been enriched with an essay on migration, feeling at home, and alienation, and an insight gained through in-depth interviews into the social lives of young residents in temporary housing complexes such as Lieven and OurDomain was posted some time ago.

These research reports paint a picture of the continued development of Amsterdam as a Global City, characterized by growing inequality: bubbles of expats and an oat milk elite on the one hand, while on the other, young people are being driven out of the city due to unaffordability and low-paid migrant workers living in poor conditions. The burning question of what the influx (and dominance?) of higher-paid national and international groups means for the city—the economy, the housing market, and social life—will become part of the research in the coming period.

Current media events

In many ways, we contribute to the societal debate about who can (continue to) live in the city. For instance, we are still approached by medium-sized municipalities regarding the documentary ‘Zonder leraar, help de leraar vertrekt uit Amsterdam’ (Without a teacher, help, the teacher is leaving Amsterdam) with questions about priority schemes for teachers on the local housing market. For HvanA, the HvA magazine, we regularly address the position and opportunities of HvA students on the housing market. We provided commentary and analysis in Het Parool on the O&S study into feeling at home in Amsterdam (decreased by 15% over the last 16 years), and this newspaper devoted considerable attention to our research, which showed that more people under the age of 30 are leaving the city than people over 30. This broke the traditional image of the family with young children as the largest group leaving the city.

For the book 'De Stad' (The City) by Marcel van Engelen (May 2024), we provided input for chapter 11, Hotel Amsterdam, featuring the Sorting Machine. We wrote the essay ‘wonen in een onrechtvaardige stad’ for the digital magazine Bewogen Stad and the chapter 'A City of Coming and Going' and in the anthology Over Toerisme in Amsterdam (2026). And lectures, including for housing corporation De Key, tenants' umbrella organization Arcade, the PvdA, and the anti-tourism group 'Het is Genoeg'.

Following the publication of the first half-year figures for 2026 by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), we analyzed that the number of people moving into and leaving Amsterdam in 2026 would likely decrease significantly compared to 2025. Het Parool dedicated a major article to this: ‘Amsterdam groeit door, maar minder mensen verhuizen de stad in en uit’. However, and this is painful, the figures used by CBS for 2025 turn out not to reflect reality, and our conclusion was therefore incorrect. The number of people moving in and leaving in 2025 was more than 10,000 people lower than the CBS figures indicate. Between November 1, 2024, and June 1, 2025, Amsterdam registered 11,500 asylum seekers and status holders who have been residing in the country for longer than six months. This was an administrative measure to catch up on the backlog at other municipalities. Those registered were quickly deregistered and returned to the municipality where they actually resided. CBS included these figures under 'people moving in and leaving'. We want to reflect practical reality and not the administrative one; therefore, we deeply regret this error.

2026-2027 and future plans

We will continue the current studies and updates, with special attention to the following topics in addition:
Amsterdam – City for Youth;
War on Talent/War for Talent;
The concept of the Global City;
The influx of expats, skilled migrants, and other high-earning groups
The development of the private rental market

Towards a new form and position for this research?

It is clear that this is a very broad field of research. Actually, far too much for the undersigned plus a few UvA students. To properly continue the research, many more participants are needed. Alternatively, much more collaboration and connection with other researchers and initiatives must be established.

In short, if this is a useful study, a study with added value for Amsterdam, how will it take shape in the coming period? The embedding within the HvA Research Group on Metropolitan Issues is a very pleasant workplace and working environment. What is important now is the funding of this research, plus staff and students willing to contribute.

Can the research be made independent? Can a revenue model be developed for it? Can the embedding be done differently or elsewhere? A new partnership of researchers and initiatives with an economic basis? We hope – with your suggestions, proposals, ideas, and support – to be able to make progress in this regard in the coming year.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this research. And wishing you a very good 2026-2027 season.

“It can’t be the case that you can only be able to live in Amsterdam if your parents are millionaires”

(Exclamation by one of the young primary school teachers in our documentary: Without a Teacher: Help, the Teacher is Leaving Amsterdam; January 2024)

Kind regards,

Jaap Draaisma