There is a good chance that the new cabinet – yet to be formed – will want to limit migration. Why is that actually necessary? And how can the government do this?
Last year, approximately 400,000 people came to the Netherlands. Because others left, the total number of inhabitants grew by almost 224,000. These people need to live somewhere, receive care and possibly be able to work or go to school. This is a challenge due to, among other things, the pressure on healthcare and the housing market.
More and more political parties believe that there is a limit to the number of people who can live here. They are therefore looking at whether the number of people coming to the Netherlands can be reduced. The new cabinet will probably have plans to limit three types of migration: labor, asylum and study migration.
Wie zijn die 400.000 migranten?
Onder hen zijn ongeveer 100.000 Oekraïense vluchtelingen. Daarnaast hebben ruim 46.000 mensen asiel aangevraagd. De cijfers van studie- en arbeidsmigratie zijn vanwege het vrije verkeer binnen de EU lastiger te brengen. Cijfers van studie- en arbeidsmigranten van buiten de EU zijn er wel: vorig jaar zijn 22.000 studenten en bijna evenveel arbeidsmigranten naar Nederland gekomen.
Asylum
First asylum migration. Politics and the media talk a lot about this group of people. Asylum migration only accounts for about 10 percent of the total number of migrants coming here. At the same time, these people generally stay in the Netherlands longer than labor or study migrants.
But the problems in our asylum system are major. For example, there are long waiting lists for assessing asylum applications and there are too few reception places. This is partly because status holders have to wait a long time for their own home.
One of the options is to set a maximum number of asylum seekers who are allowed to come to the Netherlands. Several parties want such an asylum quota, but then the Netherlands would have to withdraw from a number of agreements made with Europe, including the European Convention on Human Rights.
Another plan is the so-called dual status system, which the VVD and CDA discussed this year. This system distinguishes between people fleeing war and others fleeing because of their religion, sexual orientation or political status. The latter group is given more rights than war refugees and may, for example, allow family members to travel with them.
The new cabinet may also look at stricter rules for family members traveling afterward. Last year, the Rutte IV cabinet tried to completely halt subsequent travel for a while. But the judge put a stop to that.
Work
The second group of migrants is the group that comes here to work. These are labor migrants who work in distribution centers and slaughterhouses, for example, and the often highly educated knowledge migrants who work in IT or business services.
Migrant workers are mainly brought to the Netherlands by employment agencies. The agencies also arrange their accommodation. These migrants sometimes live with too many people in poorly maintained houses and work long hours. It is a matter of mopping with the tap open, as the Labor Inspectorate said about the many abuses in this sector. At the same time, companies do not want to lose their cheaper labor.
In some sectors, labor and knowledge migrants are really needed, but the question is where this is the case. The Netherlands could decide to only allow foreign workers there. This is possible for employees from outside the European Union, but it becomes more difficult for EU citizens. Free movement of goods and services has been agreed with other EU countries. A new cabinet could try to tinker with this in Brussels, together with other member states or otherwise.
Study
Then the last group of migrants that the new cabinet probably wants to look at: international students. About 123,000 foreign students studied in the Netherlands last year. That is about 15 percent of the total number of students.
Foreign students ensure more cultural diversity in schools, contribute to the Dutch economy and help ensure that education in the Netherlands has a good international reputation, advocates of internationalization argue.
However, the new cabinet probably wants to get more control over this group. Because of the many students, the workload is higher, the lecture halls are fuller and the number of available rooms is scarcer.
For example, the new cabinet can look at financing. It is currently attractive and sometimes even necessary for educational institutions to attract many foreign students. For example, students from outside the EU pay more tuition fees than their Dutch fellow students.
Other, more discussed options are a maximum number of students for English-taught courses or a restriction on English-taught education. After all, if you teach in Dutch, education becomes less attractive to foreign students. For example, outgoing Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf (Education) already proposed that students should earn two-thirds of their credits with Dutch-language subjects.
2023-11-25 04:07:20
#Control #migration #government #Domestic
