This is stated in a study by a group of officials from different ministries for labor migration. In this so -called Interdepartmental Policy Research (IBO) they come to the conclusion that the inflow of labor migrants (at the bottom of the line 40,000 people per year) ensure a ‘moderate growth’ of the population. And asylum seekers and foreign students are added.
The government is focusing on a population growth of 40,000 to 68,000 people a year. That is the ‘moderate growth’ scenario that emerged from the report of the State Committee on Demography. A large part of the room has also embraced that variant. But this requires interventions on labor migration according to the researchers.
Price of labor must be up
They present five ‘building blocks’ for this. For example, the IBO can be read that the government must focus on measures to increase quality, and therefore the price, of work. This includes a higher minimum wage or pruning in flexible contracts. The government can also invest in innovations to have more human work done by machines. This can also be used to control more on ‘high -quality’ labor migration, instead of the low -paid jobs for which many people are now being achieved. In this way, labor migration also produces society more.
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The officials also propose an intervention for tax benefits or subsidies for sectors that lean heavily on labor migration. In addition, they think, for example, on the low VAT on flowers and plants, but remarkably enough also at work in housing. By making that less attractive for tax purposes, the number of labor migrants would also fall, it is expected.
Tackle employment agencies
Another ‘building block’ that is suggested to have employers and employment agencies pay more for the social costs of labor migration. For example, by tackling them harder, the cabinet is currently also taking steps there. But there is also a plan to arrange more housing and education for labor migrants to ensure that they do not get into trouble. Finally, the civil servants argue for measures to get labor migrants in a better view, for example through better registration.
Outgoing minister Eddy van Hijum (Social Affairs) shows himself pleased with the conclusions from the report in an initial response. “The Netherlands is addicted to low -paid work. Companies bring cheap labor migrants here on a large scale, who often have to work and live under terrible circumstances. That earnings model is not the future of the Netherlands,” he says.
“The costs for this are not only laid with these labor migrants, but also with society. That must be different. This report shows that the current size of labor migration is untenable and it gives politics concrete policy options. With our approach we are already well on the way and we will look at how we can further strengthen that approach on the basis of this advice.”