More non-EU workers recruited for low-skilled jobs in NL

The state jobs agency UWV issued over 20,000 work permits to workers and work-experience students from outside the EU in 2024, a rise of 12% on the year before, figures from state jobs agency UWV show.

More refugees were also working, with some 9,281 permits issued to asylum seekers without a residency permit – four times as many as in 2023.

The figures exclude people working via a highly-skilled migrant visa for at least three months. Those permits are issued by the IND.

Until the end of that year, asylum seekers awaiting a residency permit were only allowed to work up to 24 weeks a year, but the Council of State has ruled they can work all year round, provided they have a BSN number and their employer organises a work permit.

Most of the refugees work via jobs agencies and in the hospitality and cleaning sectors.

The rise in applications for work permits is a logical result of the tight Dutch labour market, Rabobank labour market specialist Leonie Treur told Nu.nl, which requested the figures.

“There are no signs that this will change in the coming years. That means the demand for foreign labour will remain high,” she said.

By contrast, figures from the IND show a steady decline in the number of applications for a highly-skilled migrant visa (kennismigrant) since the coronavirus pandemic. In 2022, the IND dealt with 33,000 applications, in 2023 nearly 26,000 and last year 21,700.

The downturn comes as the right-wing government works on plans to reduce the number of people moving to the Netherlands to work and study, despite company concerns about the shortage of skilled workers.

Local authority “expat centres”, set up to help foreign nationals sort out their paperwork, have also reported a downturn in new arrival numbers of up to 30%.