Dutch diaspora
Emigration from the Netherlands has been occurring for at least four hundred years, and may be traced back to the international presence of the Dutch Empire and its monopoly on mercantile shipping in many parts of the world. Dutch people settled permanently in a number of former Dutch colonies or trading enclaves abroad, namely the Dutch Caribbean, the Dutch Cape Colony, the Dutch East Indies, Surinam, and New Netherland. Since the end of World War II, the largest proportion of Dutch emigrants have moved to Anglophone countries, namely Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, mainly seeking better employment opportunities. Postwar emigration from the Netherlands peaked between 1948-63, with occasional spikes in the 1980s and the mid-2000s. Cross-border migration to Belgium and Germany has become more common since 2001, driven by the rising cost of housing in major Dutch cities.
Dutch Burghers
The Dutch Burghers largely descend from the Dutch people, with mixtures of Portuguese Burghers and Sri Lankans (either a Dutch father and a Sri Lankan mother, or a Sri Lankan mother of Dutch descent and a Sri Lankan father). However direct Dutch ancestry is not always the case. Many Dutch Burghers can also claim lineage from other European protestants who moved to the Netherlands and joined the Dutch East India Company fleeing Catholicism. Hence, names from Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and so forth are common (e.g., Schockman, Slemmermann, Piachaud,and Sansoni). Some names however have since become extinct (or are on the verge of extinction) in Sri Lanka due to migration following independence and Sinhala-only nationalist movements forbidding Burghers, whose vernacular language was English from continuing the jobs they had maintained prior to independence in the civil service etc.(e.g., Blaze, Leembruggen).