Third of Polish workers still in Netherlands five years later

Nearly a third of Polish migrant workers that came to the Netherlands in 2011, were still in the country five years later. There are slightly more women than men, and the majority are not registered with a Dutch municipality, Statistics Netherlands reported on Friday.

In 2011 a total of 63 thousand Polish people came to work in the Netherlands. After a year, nearly 27 thousand of them had left. Almost 12 thousand returned to Poland in the second year. After that, the number that left the Netherlands decreased. About 2 thousand of those who left return every year, according to the stats office.

The Polish migrant workers that stayed in the Netherlands for five or more years, include slightly more women than men. A tenth of them had a permanent job at the end of 2015. Almost 60 percent had flexible work, and 31 percent did not have work. Nearly half of the latter group were entitled to an unemployment benefit.

Nearly 40 percent of the workers that stayed in the Netherlands were registered with a Dutch municipality in 2015. This group had a higher income and a more favorable position on the labor market than the Polish migrant workers not registered with a Dutch municipality, according to the stats office.

Statistics Netherlands followed Polish migrant workers in one specific year, in order to get a general view of their location and residence behavior.