Its stated purpose is to cover "all aspects of 'Global Dutch', not only the Netherlands and the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium but also other places where Dutch historically had or continues to have an impact, including parts of the Americas, Southern Africa, and South-East Asia.

"[1] A special focus concerns exchanges between the Low Countries and the English-speaking world in all periods from the late Middle Ages to the present day.

Dutch Crossing is the official journal of the Association for Low Countries Studies.

The name 'Dutch Crossing' reflects the journal's focus on exchanges between the Low Countries and the Anglophone world,[8] although the term, like many similar English expressions with 'Dutch' from the 17th century when the two countries were frequently at war, was originally meant pejoratively.

[1] Dutch Crossing is abstracted in the ISI Web of Science databases and included in the initial lists for history and linguistics of the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH) by the European Science Foundation (ESF).