Stricter rules for highly-skilled migration on the table in the Netherlands

One of the coalition parties, Nieuw Sociaal Contract (NSC), and the largest opposition party GroenLinks-PvdA have come together to draw up a proposal that would see stricter regulations for labour migration in the Netherlands, especially for workers with highly-skilled migrant visas. 

Proposal to restrict labour migration in the Netherlands

With the proposal, the parties want to amend a bill that Minister for Asylum and Migration Marjolein Faber will defend in the House of Representatives in the coming days. According to the Nederlands Dagblad, the law Faber will defend would put new European regulations into place making it easier for knowledge migrants from outside the EU to live and work in the Netherlands. 

In the amendment, NSC and GroenLinks-PvdA propose that migrants should only be able to relocate to the Netherlands with a European Blue Card. There are other conditions on the table, such as only allowing workers in certain sectors with a labour shortage. "This is an important step to combat abuse of knowledge migration, limit labour migration and ensure that we only get the foreign workers here that we really need," said NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt.

The parties also want to make the European Blue Card available to only those applicants who are directly employed by a company, rather than intermediary agencies. "With a direct employment relationship, you can hold employers accountable for their responsibility," said Member of Parliament Mariëtte Patijn of GroenLinks-PvdA. "That offers employees certainty and support. Now they often don't know where they stand."

Concerns over proposed law for labour migration

Many parties in the House of Representatives were already critical of the proposed law before the amendment was drawn up, arguing that it was too lenient and that it would be easy to "abuse".

For example, instead of having work experience, credentials could be provided. However, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) does not have the capacity or ability to validate this.

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