According to political journalist Sophie van Leeuwen, employers’ organizations such as MKB-Nederland and VNO-NCW describe it as “a missed opportunity” that asylum seekers are allowed to work so little. “Only 24 weeks of the year to be exact, and not all year,” she says. “Only after six months of waiting – much longer in practice – are you allowed to participate in the job market.”
‘Only after six months of waiting – much longer in practice – can you enter the job market’
According to the employers, the success with the Ukrainian refugees can therefore be seen as a good dress rehearsal. Van Leeuwen: ‘They say they’ve seen it in the Ukrainians. Those people integrate right away, learn the language, are useful and therefore don’t get in anyone’s way».
Promising asylum seeker
Therefore, politicians are now wondering why the same opportunities are not available to “promising asylum seekers”, people entitled to a residence permit. “That group would like to see D66 at work,” continues Van Leeuwen. “They could play a role in construction or technology.”
But where coalition partner ChristenUnie is interested in the plan, other coalition parties VVD and CDA are not. “I also understand this from the employers’ point of view,” said VVD deputy Ruben Brekelmans. “But the proposal has two major drawbacks. It is of course possible for an asylum seeker to work, but in the end it turns out that he was not entitled to asylum after all. Then we can’t send them back.’
Abuse
Brekelmans says that if an asylum seeker has worked in the Netherlands for a certain period of time, after which it turns out that there was no right to asylum, that asylum seeker – in relation to the accrued rights – cannot simply be sent back. “This could lead people who come here to work to abuse the asylum system. We must avoid it at all times.’
Furthermore, according to Brekelmans, one should not think too lightly about how attractive the Netherlands will ultimately become compared to other European countries. “It could mean that we are not dealing with an influx of 67,000 people this year, but many thousands more than that,” she explains. “Then the reception problems will only get bigger, and you may have even more people who won’t have a roof over their heads again in the summer.”