Ethnic minority students performing better; Can't get access to job market
Children of non-Western immigrants are performing better in school and more often make it through college or university. But this progress is not yet reflected in an improvement in their position on the labor market, according to a report social and cultural planning office SCP published on Thursday.
According to the report, titled Integration in sight?, while non-Western immigrants are increasingly better educated, they are still three times as likely to be unemployed than their Dutch counterparts. The SCP finds this remarkable. "You would expect that when non-Western migrants are better equipped for the labor market, partly due to higher levels of education, this will also translate into a better labor market position", spokesperson Willem Huijnk said to RTL Nieuws.
According to Huijnk, their social network plays a role in this, but also discrimination. "In times when the economy is bad, the employer has a lot to choose from. And small differences between candidates can cause one to choose the ideal profile. The non-Western migrant then more often gets the short straw."
These fewer job opportunities are contributing to the increasing unease among non-Western migrants in the Netherlands, according to SCP. The report does note that Turkish- and Moroccan-Dutch woman are doing better in the workplace and that the middle class among migrants is growing.
