text: At the end of 1973, the labour recruitment was nearly brought to a halt, and the Turks were no longer admitted to the Netherlands as labour migrants. Turkish immigration, however, continued practically unabatedly through the process of family reunification. Even more Turkish men began to bring their families to the Netherlands in the 1970s. In the first half of the 1980s, the Turkish net immigration began to decrease, but, in 1985, it began to rise again. Most of them had a bride or bridegroom come over from their native land. Marriage immigration continued into the early twenty-first century, though net immigration again decreased in the 1990s. In 2004, stricter laws largely ended marriage immigration, causing in some years net emigration. After 2016, political persecution lead to an influx of Turkish asylum seekers.
  Turkish migration from the Balkans
  Bulgaria
  In 2009 The Sofia Echo reported that Turkish Bulgarians were now the fastest-growing group of immigrants in the Netherlands. At the time, they numbered between 10,000 and 30,000. Similarly, De Telegraaf and De Pers have also reported that the Turkish Bulgarians were the fast-growing group of migrants; furthermore, the Turkish Bulgarians formed 90% of Bulgarian citizens arriving in the Netherlands. The majority, of about 80%, have come from the south-eastern Bulgarian district of Kardzhali (Kırcaali) which has a Turkish majority population.
  Although Bulgaria joined the European Union during the 2007 enlargement, the rights of Bulgarian citizens to work freely as EU nationals in the Netherlands came into full effect on 1 January 2014. Consequently, there were strong indications that the migration of Turkish Bulgarians to the Netherlands (as well as other parts of Europe) would continue.
  Indeed, a 2015 study by Mérove Gijsberts and Marcel Lubbers found that Turkish Bulgarians were more likely to stay in the Netherlands than ethnic Bulgarians; it also found that Turkish Bulgarians were much more satisfied with their lives in the Netherlands than the ethnic Bulgarians.