06 Sep

Netherlands Wants to Cut Labour Migration of Foreigners to EU

The Tweede Kamer, representing the lower house of the Dutch parliament, has proposed to limit the number of migrants that come to work in the Netherlands via other EU countries.

This proposal aims to reduce the number of non-EU workers from other EU countries coming to the Netherlands, which, according to European rules, is allowed. 

To put it into perspective, non-EU migrant workers can be hired by a company in Greece but be deployed to Germany for certain projects, Schengen.News reports.

Several parties in the Netherlands, including PVV, VVD, D66, SP, SGP, and FVD, believe that these rules are putting the country in a position where it is being often used as a “backdoor”,

The Social Affairs Minister, Eddy van Hijum, was asked by the SGP, one the largest parties in the Netherlands, to address the issue to the EU and ask for their support to make rules more restrictive. 

On the other hand, the Minister is taking a milder approach.
Democrats 66 (D66) party propose to limit the categories of workers allowed to work in another country, for example, the Netherlands. According to D66, only people who earn 125 per cent of the minimum wage would be eligible to work elsewhere.

As the NL Times reports, these labour migrants often work directly to their preferred destination and skip the initial country where they got a job.

Thierry Aasrtsen, the Dutch member of the parliament of the VVD party, said that this behaviour is against European legislation.

According to MP Aasrtsen, this issue can be fixed by implementing more restrictive regulations, such as introducing a minimum period for migrant workers to work in the first country before moving to another.

The Netherlands Statistics reveals that in 2022, 46,700 foreign labour immigrants came from the EU/EFTA zone to the country. 

Another 31,630 immigrants arrived in the Netherlands for family-related purposes, while education was the reason for 18,680 EU/EFTA citizens. 
The motive for 31,855 EU/EFTA citizens who immigrated to the Netherlands is unknown.

Source : https://schengen.news/netherlands-wants-to-cut-labour-migration-of-foreigners-to-eu/