Asylum seekers with a residence permit, so-called status holders, have found a job faster than before in recent years. This is evident from figures from Statistics Netherlands. Of those who received a residence permit in 2019, 20 percent had a job after 2.5 years. For asylum seekers who received a permit in 2014, this remained at 11 percent.
Statistics Netherlands examined five nationalities: Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Afghans and Eritreans. Of these, the latter group was the most likely to find a job. After 7.5 years, more than 60 percent of Eritreans have paid work. That percentage is lowest among status holders of Iraqi descent. One in three of them has been working for 7.5 years.
Those who have received a residence permit often start in a temporary job for a low hourly wage. For a majority, the benefit is the main source of income in the first few years.
Over time, the employment is often converted into a permanent contract with a higher wage and more hours. As a result, the number of status holders for whom their job is the main source of income is increasing. Of those who received their permit in 2014, this was about 30 percent after 7.5 years.
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215,000 new status holders in eight years
Between 2014 and the middle of last year, the Central Agency for Asylum Seekers (COA) received 285,000 asylum applications. Of these, 215,000 applications have been approved. More than half come from Syria, followed by Eritrea.
In the first half of last year, almost twenty thousand asylum seekers received a residence permit. That was a larger number than in the first half of the previous four years. It is even greater than the annual totals of 2018, 2019 and 2020.
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