Labour migration is an important theme in the Dutch general election to be held this month. Olaf van Vliet, Professor of Economics, spoke to public broadcaster NOS about policy options related to migrant workers.<\/p>\n
As was the case in the previous general election in the Netherlands, asylum migration is a popular theme again. This time, however, more attention is also being paid to the other, more comprehensive, form of migration: labour migration. For years now, the majority of immigrants coming to the Netherlands do so for work. In 2023<\/a>,\u00a0around 100,000 labour migrants came to the Netherlands compared to 36,000 asylum migrants. These figures include family members who could join the migrants within the framework of \u00a0family reunification.<\/p>\n Labour migration doesn\u2019t have to be a problem. Several reports<\/a>\u00a0(in Dutch) show that the Netherlands would do well to focus more on deploying migrant workers in the healthcare, tech and energy transition sectors. But at the moment, most migrant workers end up in low-paid sectors where more situations of abuse occur. The majority of these workers come from EU countries. According to Van Vliet, it is not possible to tackle that with direct policy because of the EU\u2019s principle of the free movement of workers. \u2018But it can be tackled with indirect policy.\u2019 The professor gives as an example the option of a higher CO2 levy in the greenhouse horticulture sector. \u2018That would push up the costs for companies so that there would be less money to hire new people.\u2019<\/p>\n The professor concludes by pointing out that problems such as the current housing crisis cannot be blamed merely on immigration: \u2018Yes, immigration does lead to more demand, but even without immigration we\u2019d still have a big problem in the housing market.\u2019<\/p>\n More information?<\/p>\n Read the full NOS article<\/a>\u00a0(in Dutch)<\/p>\n Share on Facebook<\/a>
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