Only a tenth of refugees find work within 2.5 years

Only 11 percent of the 20 thousand asylum seekers who got refugee status in the Netherlands in 2014, had paid work in the summer of last year. A year and a half after obtaining refugee status, on 4 percent had paid work, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Tuesday.

Half of the refugees that came to the Netherlands in 2014 are from Syria. 10 percent of this group had paid work last summer - Statistics Netherlands' latest reference date. 6 percent of the 4 thousand Eritrean refugees had work. Most of the refugees in these two groups are still on welfare.

Refugees from Afghanistan seem to have more luck in finding work - 29 percent of the relatively small group of Afghan refugees had work after 2.5 years.

Of the refugees who had work last summer, 36 percent worked in the hospitality industry and 24 percent in the temporary employment sector. Only 1 percent were self employed.

After obtaining a residency permit, migrants have three years to pass their integration examination. In October 2016, only 6 percent of refugees managed to do so.

A "comparable" picture applies to asylum seekers given refugee status in 2015, according tot he stats office.