In addition to the migrants, according to Professor Van Dijk, the large group of around 115,000 inactive people in the Northern Netherlands is also an important source of new personnel. It is estimated that half of that group, around 60,000 people, do not work for various reasons, or do not work fully, while they could well do so. Van Dijk: “But then you have to pay serious attention to this. This applies to both employers and training courses.”
It is a big misunderstanding that people who have been ‘sitting on the couch’ for a long time do not want to work, says Liesbeth Wit of the training company Menso in Emmen. Menso helps people with a ‘distance to the labor market’ find work. In the Emmen region alone, this is a group of about 2,000 people, says Wit. They often have a participation benefit, which used to be called a social assistance benefit.